Pittsburgh Public Schools in a sad state (Penn Hills, Bethel Park: appointed, 2014)

[fat lou]

Originally Posted by zman63

This is not good news. I have been calling for a county wide school district. Since it will never happen, maybe we should disband the city school district and ship the city kids to the suburban districts. [/url]

Anyone who would try to do that would be well advised to have someone else to start his car for him from here on out.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by zman63

As far as what?

Test scores (the driving force behind any school ranking list, whether directly or by proxy). So it's more like a 1:1 good to sucky ratio in the County of Allegheny. Chartiers Valley, which, IIRC, you cited as having good schools, happens to sit at about that cutoff.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Test scores (the driving force behind any school ranking list, whether directly or by proxy). So it's more like a 1:1 good to sucky ratio in the County of Allegheny.

More like 1:1.5. Another 1/3 would be considered decent or okay. The last third would be "sucky"

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by speagles84

More like 1:1.5. Another 1/3 would be considered decent or okay. The last third would be "sucky"

I'd rate the middle third "high acceptable" to "low mediocre" but everyone's going to come out slightly differently on these things.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

I'd rate the middle third "high acceptable" to "low mediocre" but everyone's going to come out slightly differently on these things.

Yeah you get my point though. Zman saying for every one good district equals four crap ones (80% bad vs 20% good) is ludicrous.

[zman63]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Test scores (the driving force behind any school ranking list, whether directly or by proxy). So it's more like a 1:1 good to sucky ratio in the County of Allegheny. Chartiers Valley, which, IIRC, you cited as having good schools, happens to sit at about that cutoff.

I think its decent and an affordable district for western pa. Char Valley has been one of the most stable of the middle class school districts. But how stable is it? Even North Allegheny, one of the best districts in the county, was debating on whether to close schools.

I just don't see Allegheny County being able to sustain 42 school districts in the very near future. Keystone Oaks, Penn Hills, North Hills, East Allegheny, Northgate, Gateway and Woodland Hills were pretty good school districts 10 -15 years ago. All of them have gone downhill in enrollment, tax revenue and overall education. How about Mt. Lebanon, is their school enrollment higher now than 10 years ago? They raised taxes to build a new high school. The same can be said for Bethel Park, Moon and Montour. All new high schools, but is their enrollment growing or declining?

Pittsburgh Public Schools had 40,000 students in 1997. Today, they are around 24,000 students. That is a huge drop off. You never hear about the enrollment for the rest of the Allegheny County school districts. As bad as the city drop off was I think the suburbs have dropped off greatly as well.

Do you truly believe Allegheny County is going to be able to sustain 42 school districts? It just seems like the end is near to keep this type of conglomerate.

[Copanut]

The sky is falling!

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by zman63

Do you truly believe Allegheny County is going to be able to sustain 42 school districts? It just seems like the end is near to keep this type of conglomerate.

I don't see why not.

Some of the school districts might not be able to economically sustain high schools, and may well seek to pay tuition in other school districts. But even under those circumstances, they will still exercising control over the education of the children in their districts.


Seems a lot more preferable for public involvement to keep this kind of activity done on a local level rather than force people to go to Oakland and deal with a bureaucracy to get things done and advance their opinions and ideas on education.

[Copanut]

I walked to school for 7 years, came home at lunch and my Mother had it waiting. Then we merged, now I had to ride a stinkin' bus. Say what you want, but I have no problem with that many school districts.

[Pghuser]

And now they want to raise school taxes in the city. How wonderful.