The School District of Philadelphia is so big and modern, it has a web page dedicated to its opening day. Such communication channels must be necessary in a metropolitan district with 212 schools and 136,000 students. Parents hop onto the information highway, find the district’s home page and follow a link to the opening day site — where they’ll find a notice from their superintendent, Dr. William Hite, telling them school probably won’t open Sept. 9 as planned.

The district has a huge budget shortfall — $304 million. There are outstanding state and city commitments of $151 million which leaves, in theory, a net shortfall of $153 million.

Resolution of this shortfall is important to all Pennsylvanians, since a portion of our state and federal income tax subsidizes public education.

The threat to Philadelphia schools isn’t new and it isn’t idle; two months ago, Hite announced the layoffs of nearly 4,000 employees to cut into that $153 million negative balance. The layoffs hit all assistant principals and many teachers and counselors as well as recess and lunch aides, secretaries and assistants.

A Good first step, but not nearly enough.

Hite’s now going after the city of Philadelphia for $50 million, which it pledged last spring but hasn’t yet paid. Hite is giving the city until Friday to honor its pledge with cash or a written guarantee, or he’ll be forced to close some schools, delay the Sept. 9 opening or cut the length of the school day.

The $50 million, which represents “bare bones” operating expenses, matters right now, Hite says: “$50 million allows us to tell parents that when their child is walking through the hallways, eating lunch or at recess, an adult will be supervising them.”

What Hite doesn’t say is that the city is his most likely target for immediate harvest. For one thing, the city should acknowledge the value of keeping 136,000 school-aged children occupied with studies and out of mischief. The city also should desire to avoid a financial embarrassment of Detroit proportions. And from a pragmatic standpoint, with the state Legislature in summer recess it would be useless demanding anything now from Harrisburg.

And the city appears to be working on a response. City Council President Darrell Clarke reportedly is working on a real estate juggle — the city could buy all of the district’s real estate liens and surplus properties, valued at almost $200 million, and then sell or convert them for reuse. The city then could advance $50 million.

Also in the works is the extension of a 1-percent Philadelphia sales tax, projected to raise $140 million a year to be split equally by the city and school district.

The final step — two-step, actually — involves state taxpayers, along with the school-related labor unions.

The state is willing to forgive $45 million in federal debts, but Gov. Tom Corbett has said Philadelphia won’t get the cash unless the district commits to $133 million in teacher union concessions and other reforms.

The Philadelphia teacher’s unions appear inflexible, however. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan dismissed concessions, saying, “The district’s current contract proposals ... will cause a mass exodus of high quality educators and a deterioration of teaching and learning conditions in our schools for years to come.”

For the sake of state taxpayers, Corbett needs to remain firm on this condition since, in reality, we are the ones covering the $45 million federal debt.