Pittsburgh Public Schools in a sad state (Indiana, California: 2013, house)

[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.

Preliminary Pittsburgh Public Schools budget would need tax increase to reduce deficit - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[gg]

This will never end, so get used to it. The legacy costs in all districts in our region due to the wildly high pay is going to crush not only the people that live here, but the cuts will smash the children's education as well. People are all for paying teachers over $80K, 90K and even over $100K a year, but what they don't understand is the retirement of these super high paid teachers. Sure we can believe in a good wage, but there is a big tipping point. This is just the beginning. It will get much worse each year. Best to be prepared for wildly higher taxes. Buy homes that are WAY below what you can afford. If you are house poor at all, you are sunk and best to sell out now. Values will go down each time they raise taxes because no one will want to pay a grand plus a month or whatever it is going to be. Good luck to all in our region, but the writing is on the wall. We all know it. I don't think anything can bail us out at this point. There was no plan for the future and we are going to pay and pay dearly.

[zman63]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

This will never end, so get used to it. The legacy costs in all districts in our region due to the wildly high pay is going to crush not only the people that live here, but the cuts will smash the children's education as well. People are all for paying teachers over $80K, 90K and even over $100K a year, but what they don't understand is the retirement of these super high paid teachers. Sure we can believe in a good wage, but there is a big tipping point. This is just the beginning. It will get much worse each year. Best to be prepared for wildly higher taxes. Buy homes that are WAY below what you can afford. If you are house poor at all, you are sunk and best to sell out now. Values will go down each time they raise taxes because no one will want to pay a grand plus a month or whatever it is going to be. Good luck to all in our region, but the writing is on the wall. We all know it. I don't think anything can bail us out at this point. There was no plan for the future and we are going to pay and pay dearly.

Then how are we most livable city? What is the attraction for people to come here, stay and have a family? If the school system remains the same, I agree it is destined for failure. A lot of the suburban districts are in money crunches as well. Could the costs of all the school districts eventually sink the region?

[zman63]

I thought this was an excellent article on the amount of public schools in PA.

Does Pennsylvania really need 500 school districts? | PennLive.com

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by zman63

Then how are we most livable city? What is the attraction for people to come here, stay and have a family? If the school system remains the same, I agree it is destined for failure. A lot of the suburban districts are in money crunches as well. Could the costs of all the school districts eventually sink the region?

Probably. I bet we'll all be living in caves by 2030, and I call Laurel Caverns, just saying.

[I_Like_Spam]

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.

I don't see where a county wide district would be so fantastic. Such a conglomeration might alienate the parents from the school administration.

It could possibly work if they went back to the way it was through the 60's and 70's where the court of common pleas elected the city school board.

As far as sending children outside the district, that's been done before. My mum lived in Indiana Township and she was sent to Etna High School and her brothers went to Connelly in the city.

[awm8]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

I don't see where a county wide district would be so fantastic. Such a conglomeration might alienate the parents from the school administration.

LA has a county-wide unified school district, which my wife attended when she was a kid. As I understand it, the unified district works pretty well. It makes it a lot easier to set up things like magnet schools to create more diversity and opportunity. To me, this is a much better than the more popular approach of throwing all of the disadvantaged kids into slum schools, labeling them as failing, firing all the teachers, etc..

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by awm8

LA has a county-wide unified school district, which my wife attended when she was a kid. As I understand it, the unified district works pretty well. It makes it a lot easier to set up things like magnet schools to create more diversity and opportunity. To me, this is a much better than the more popular approach of throwing all of the disadvantaged kids into slum schools, labeling them as failing, firing all the teachers, etc..

This approach also has a very negative effect on the property values in these districts.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by awm8

LA has a county-wide unified school district, which my wife attended when she was a kid. As I understand it, the unified district works pretty well. It makes it a lot easier to set up things like magnet schools to create more diversity and opportunity. To me, this is a much better than the more popular approach of throwing all of the disadvantaged kids into slum schools, labeling them as failing, firing all the teachers, etc..

At least some educational experts think that Pennsylvania has much finer public schools than does California. Report Card on American Education - State Education Rankings


Here in Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area, we do have a lot of school districts that have economic diversity in their schools, including some pretty highly rated ones.

[awm8]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

At least some educational experts think that Pennsylvania has much finer public schools than does California. Report Card on American Education - State Education Rankings


Here in Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area, we do have a lot of school districts that have economic diversity in their schools, including some pretty highly rated ones.

I don't see how I can learn anything about policy by seeing a list with a letter grade for each state.

There are a couple of school districts with some economic diversity, but ideally this should be true for all schools. Overall, Allegheny County school districts are extremely segregated, both by race and class.