CMU Capitalizing on India's Youth

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is expanding its educational programs in Chennai, India. The university's forays with Chennai date back to 2007 when they partnered with a small private college to offer a graduate degree in Engineering. Back then, it was estimated that 160,000 Indians were studying abroad spending $4 Billion annually. Fast forward to 2010 and that estimate has jumped to $7.5 Billion per year spent on foreign institutions abroad. Not a bad 3 year return. Not only are Indians spending their money abroad, but they are also donating it abroad. Just last month, Harvard received a $50 Million donation from the Indian business group, Tata - their largest foreign donation in history.

India's Minister of Education's goal is to increase the rate of higher education enrollment from its current 12.4% to 30% in 2020. With 400,000,000 people in India under the age of 18, that will create a huge need for more institutions. Currently, foreign universities are not allowed to operate independently in India, but legislation which has been in the process to change that for years seems to be gaining ground. That's what universities like CMU, Ohio State University, and Virginia Tech are betting on.

For Pittsburgh, a city that has reformed itself on the basis of "Eds & Meds," a new opportunity to rapidly expand and monetize the education market can only mean good things for the local economy. I'm happy to see CMU at the forefront on this opportunity. Will CMU become the UPMC of education? Will the University of Pittsburgh or our other local universities join the bandwagon? It's hard to think of a better potential investment.

Let's Say No More to the Abuse

Obviously, I'm upset about the alleged beating of a high school student (Jordan Miles) by 3 undercover cops in Homewood. I'm upset that the Fraternal Order of Police doesn't see anything wrong with the "aggressive" arrest of a boy with a bottle of pop. It's especially trying to believe that the boy deserved this treatment when he's a senior at one of the best city schools, CAPA (Pittsburgh's Creative And Performing Arts High School).

The Fraternal Order of Police on Tuesday praised the officers for their efforts at removing guns from the streets and said their actions in arresting Mr. Miles were "correct and law-abiding."

But what's surprising to me is that my dental hygienist is also upset. She talked my ear off during my appointment yesterday about how awful the pictures were of the boy's pummeled face on KDKA the night before. This is an issue that has touched the city. This must be handled well and respectfully. I'm personally sick of hearing about all the abuses of city police (which I'm sure are caused by a few bad eggs) that never get properly resolved. This time, the FBI is stepping in. Let's say "No More" to the domestic abuse, drunken attacks, and violent beatings performed by certain officers. They shame their upstanding brethren and all of Pittsburgh. Unless the city takes strong and firm action this behavior will continue unchecked.

Google and Pittsburgh

Multiple choice question:

What's the #1 reason Pittsburghers move away?

a) They want to live in a sunny climate.
b) Not enough bands and music acts have Pittsburgh on their tour list.
c) They want to pay more for housing.
d) They can't find a job.

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And the answer is?

d) Jobs

Anecdotally, every person that I've talked to that left the city, did so because they couldn't find a job in the city.

Google, our potential savior, is tapping into that lack of jobs. They have expanded their operations from 2 employees to 100 in the past few years. From a software engineering perspective, Google is Mecca. When I told friends I was moving to Pittsburgh, they started gushing to me that Google had an office in Pittsburgh. But I was turned off because Google was on Carnegie Mellon's campus. Being a graduate of a different technology school, I felt I would be shunned from that club. Now, Google is taking a big step in Pittsburgh. Google is moving to the new Bakery Square development in East Liberty. Google and Pittsburgh's relationship has moved beyond the college campus boundaries and only good things can come of it. Congratulations to the folks at Google for realizing that there's more to Pittsburgh than CMU. And to those software engineering Pittsburgh ex-pats, there's never been a better time to come home.

4 Tuition Tax Myths and 1 Suggestion

I feel the need to dispel some myths regarding the "fair share" tax.

1. Income tax, property tax, and sales tax are not sin taxes. Don't we still tax text books?

'Councilman William Peduto took the same tack, saying that taxes are often placed on "sin" products, like alcohol or tobacco -- but not on self-improvement. "Why would we ever tax education, where somebody is trying to better themselves?" he asked.'

2. College students are not the only ones who pay the drink tax. Many, many non-college students visit the many bars and restaurants throughout the county and share this burden. It is also important to mention here that the aforementioned drink tax is a county tax.

"Let's face it, we [college students] are the ones that pay the drink tax"- graduate student, Mackenzie Farone

3. Non-profits are not totally exempt from all taxes everywhere. Just like when I donate to a non-profit, and I can deduct that donation at the Federal level but not at the city level, cities and states (within their own laws) can decide how to tax institutions. Non-profit is simply a Federal status granted after an application to the IRS. I don't know exactly how the city of Pittsburgh's laws are worded or the state of Pennsylvania, but as far as I can see, there is nothing at the Federal level stopping Pennsylvania or Pittsburgh from enacting their own tax laws regarding non-profits.

4. College students do cost the city money. From the extra police for couch-burning Super Bowl bonanzas to the general paving of roads on which they drive and sidewalks on which they walk. Yes, college students also contribute to the city through the property tax paid on their rented abodes. But no one should claim that those benefits outweigh the city's expenses without an extensive study to the contrary. Considering that the universities would benefit from such a study if it were in their favor, and the universities are the source of every major local study, I'm going to jump to the conclusion that it would not be beneficial for them to perform this study.

For more myth debunking, check out PGH Comet. For the words of the college students, watch this video.

Suggestion:

If you owe income tax to the city of Pittsburgh, you can deduct the amount you paid on your tuition tax against your income tax. This would serve city residents in two ways. First, it would prevent any ridiculous double-taxing and calm fears of anyone working their way through college while living in the city that they will be taken advantage of. Second, it might encourage city dwellers to take a class at a local university with the inherent 1% discount. Not much of a discount, you say? Not much of a tax, I say, but every little bit helps.

Summary:

No one wants to pay taxes, but the city is desperately running out of money and is running out of methods they can use to tax because of antiquated state laws. The city would love to tax non-residents who work in the city, like New York City and many other cities, but the state of Pennsylvania won't allow it. The city would love to slap a property tax on non-profit buildings, but once again the state won't allow it. Heck. The state will probably crack down on this tax as well, but the city has to keep trying to come up with innovative solutions in a hostile environment.

What can I say? I love this city, and I don't want it to run out of money. I want to keep all of our libraries open. I want our roads to be paved and our trash to be collected, and most importantly I want all the police officers and other city workers who have put their time in over the years, to continue to have their pensions paid. So if we need to come up with creative taxes that don't further stress our residents, I'm for it. Because when it comes down to it, if it's a choice between me paying 4% on my income tax or the college students coughing up another 1% on their $50,000 per year education, you're not going to find too many residents (who also manage to pay property taxes and income taxes and county taxes and state taxes) shedding a tear for the college students.

Request:

Can someone actually figure out if this tax is legal or not, so we don't have to waste any more time debating it?

Happy Cyber Monday

In the blog world, Cyber Monday is more of a celebration day than Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day recorded the least number of hits to my blog pretty much ever, but today everybody is back and surfing the web in a miserable fit of back-to-work blues.

Ways to make the working person feel better while wasting some time today yet avoiding saving money on deals?

• Laugh at the up-in-arms college students, fighting being taxed 1% of their tuition.
• If it's raining in Pittsburgh and you forgot your umbrella, maybe someone will give you one.
• Look through the #ravenstahlrumors hashtag on twitter.
• If you must shop, get some Penguins gear on sale. After all, they've been playing a lot better than the Steelers as of late.

Go surf and celebrate.

It's All About the Schools

The theme of the week is definitely schools.

Taxing schools? Is it legal to tax college tuitions in the city? Is it legal for college tuitions to have a meteoric rise over the past 2 decades? From 1982 to 2007, college tuition rates rose 439% compared to a 147% rise in family income. What's an extra 1% city tax when tuition rates will inevitably rise faster than inflation for the next 25 years as well? My advice to students? Don't waste your breath whining about that measly 1%. Complain about this year's 6% increase in your tuition. Similarly, health insurance costs have risen by 131% over the last 10 years while the median family income has remained flat. Fairness is in the eye of the beholder.

Low GPAs? Pittsburgh has lowered the bar for kids go to CCAC on the Pittsburgh Promise with as little as a 2.0 GPA (C-average). Previously, they required a 2.25 GPA. Let's be honest, if you have significantly higher than a C-average (and you can afford it and have the family support), you're not choosing to go to a community college. Let's see these kids go to community college for a year or two and give them the chance to turn themselves around.

School dropouts? Pittsburgh has a serious problem. In a 2006 study, Rand Corp. estimated that 35 percent of all Pittsburgh students drop out of high school, with the rate nearly 50 percent for black males. Any effort sent addressing this is a good thing. It's easy to point fingers at Pittsburgh's poor city schools on this one, but to put it into perspective, city schools are failing our students across the country. Cleveland and Baltimore are some of the worst with high school graduation rates of 38% and 41% respectively, but even New York City has an abysmal graduation rate of 54%. These numbers make the our 5-year 64% graduation rate almost acceptable.

Lesson learned? You can still mock Cleveland.

On School Population

Everyone talks about the story of Pittsburgh's population. It's halved since 1950. It's in a continual state of decline. This year marked the lowest population drop in a while and may be signs that the city's population is turning around (as Chris Briem reminds us). Similarly, Pittsburgh City Schools just reported the lowest decline in school students in the past 9 years. This parallels the city's smallest population loss in the decade. There was an increase in Kindergarten enrollment for the first time in 4 years. Pittsburgh schools are crediting programs like the Pittsburgh Promise for this slow in decline. It's easy to try to make a parallel between the city's population and the city's school enrollment. However, you'd be far off. While the city has lost barely 7.5% of its population over the past 9 years, the school district has lost a resounding 30% of its population.

Just last year, the Post-Gazette headline was:

City school enrollment falling fast

Contrast that with this week's Post-Gazette headline:

Pittsburgh schools like enrollment trend

Too early to tell? Yes. Have there been flukes in previous years followed by drastic drops? Yes. Can I have a little optimism? Yes.

I will stay if...

There's a party in Pittsburgh this week, and it aims to find out what people actually want out of Pittsburgh (and why they're here in the first place.) This is a refreshing take over the we-need-to-attract-lots-of-young-people college-brain-drain nonsense.

In honor of the party:
I will stay if...
Pittsburgh continues to have great random parties.
Pittsburgh gets a hostel.
Pittsburgh schools keep improving.
Pittsburgh becomes a bike-friendly city.

Ultimately, I think Pittsburgh is on a positive course. Lots of mistakes could derail it, including not fixing the pension crisis and giving up on any of the great progress started from biking to schools to green building.

For more details, see here, here, and here.

So why do you stay in Pittsburgh? (Or what could make you move to the city?)

News Briefs Besides the G20

Hard to see through all the "news" about the G20 to what's actually going on around here.

So, what is going on around here?

• 2 Violent robberies in the South Side on Sunday. Does this have anything to do with moving the police station up the hill? I sure hope not. But while I don't want to get robbed on the South Side walking back from the bar, in some ways, I'd rather there were robberies down on the South Side or over in Squirrel Hill instead of Garfield and Allentown. Maybe then the people that donate to political campaigns will insist on making all public safety a priority in this city.
  
  
• "Still no state budget, Rendell talks taxes" [and pension takeovers]. Unlike the Mayor, I'm very torn on this issue. I think that Pittsburgh has clearly gotten itself in a pickle with pensions, but I don't trust the state to do any better. After all, we've been in Act 47 for over 5 years and we're worse than when we started in terms of pensions. As I see it, that's akin to putting someone in jail, telling them when to eat, sleep, and shit, then complaining about the results. How about the state takes off the handcuffs and gives Pittsburgh a chance to start again?
  
  
• Faith trumps bureaucracy. Yet again, faith-based groups are showing that through hard work and determination, they can clean up neighborhoods and keep folks out of jail. Just imagine if they could strengthen their numbers by involving all the protesters from Planned Parenthood.
  
  
• Pittsburgh Public Schools are solidly in the running for a big chunk of change from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Throwing more money at a problem never hurt, right? And they went through some pretty intensive hoops to get this money, so maybe it'll produce better teachers and improve college-readiness of Pittsburgh students as intended. If not, at least we'll all feel better knowing our latest Windows upgrade went to a good cause.
  

Fitting Tribute

In his will, George Sodini bequeathed $225,000 to University of Pittsburgh. They said "no" to the money.

It's unfortunate because this would have been a great opportunity for the University of Pittsburgh to counteract the negativity wrecked on this region by this pathetic shell of a man. How about using the money to help fund women's programs at the university? Perhaps self-defense classes? Rape counseling? Hiring a new professor of Women's studies? More funding for women's athletics? Of course, I am not recommending that anything be named in his honor. But maybe he would roll over in his grave knowing that his money will be benefiting generations of young women that he attempted to undermine.

However, I do respect the University of Pittsburgh for this stance. It is not easy to turn down hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if the money can end up in the hands of the victim's families, that will also be a worthwhile place for it.

Tread Lightly

Does Michael Lamb want to put the Pittsburgh Promise up for sale? He wants to ask the state assembly to tax non-profits in the city of Pittsburgh. (Why hasn't anyone done this before?) However, this is clearly a fine line to walk. UPMC is to Pittsburgh is like China is to the USA. We're indebted to them and vice-versa, but ultimately at this point, they hold a lot of the cards.

Over the next 10 years, UPMC, the region's uber-employer, has promised to donate a ton of money to the Pittsburgh Promise, but from the beginning they have been threatening to withhold their generous contributions if Pittsburgh pursues taxing non-profits. However, UPMC theoretically has the ability to pull its money out for any reason - the bad economy, sinking profits, a bad night's sleep. US Steel's recent pausing of work on the Clairton coke plant is as harsh a reminder as any that corporations often break promises. Taxes are a lot more reliable. And theoretically, there's nothing stopping the city redirecting tax money towards the Pittsburgh Promise. Of course, as long as Ravenstahl is in office, I expect any extra money to be diverted towards trash cans.

Pittsburgh After Dark

There's been lots of chatter lately about the Pittsburgh's college corridor and connecting Oakland and Downtown via mass transit. The new chief executive of the Allegheny Conference (the new Wizard of Oz as it were) lists the connection as one of the conferences highest priorities.
"In addition to linking the two business centers, a transit link also would provide students access to Downtown, which would make the area more vibrant after dark." But will it?

Temporarily living in Arequipa, Peru, a city known for its urban crime, has given me a new perspective on downtown Pittsburgh. Last night, I ate dinner in a crowded hopping restaurant with purse "leashes" on every seat. The idea is you hook your purse to your seat so that random bag-snatchers have a harder time filching your valuables while you're relaxing over a meal. You'd think that this threat would deter the nightlife. However, central Arequipa is a very bustling shopping and socializing destination. Just this week they installed walk signals on the intersections where their ridiculously long walk-street crosses traffic streets - really an innovative compromise to traffic concerns. Alongside these throngs of people are also lots of police officers. Arequipa appears to be sparing no expense on security.

Reasons crime-ridden central Arequipa is more popular than downtown Pittsburgh?
Lots of events, attractions, and shopping. People need a reason to come downtown.
Lots of cops (without billy clubs). People need to feel safe (but not threatened.)
Lots of public transportation. Peru doesn't have mass transit, but it does have a gazillion taxis and mini-buses.

If a magic subway showed up between Downtown and Oakland tomorrow, do you really think that Downtown would become a great destination? No. Downtown needs a coordinated effort between the theaters, the universities, the restaurants, the bars, the police and public transportation. I head to downtown Pittsburgh regularly for movies at the Harris and plays. But on a weeknight or weekend, almost all the stores and restaurants are closed. Downtown feels like a ghost-town because of all the shuttered storefronts not because of the lack of people. The first time I visited downtown on a weekday afternoon (courtesy of jury duty), I was utterly amazed at how alive and happening the city was and how difficult it was to find parking.

Of course, Pittsburgh does have sure-fire ways to get people Downtown after work. The crowds flock to the city for special downtown events - from Gallery Crawls to First Night to Light Up Night to St Patrick's Day to the Thanksgiving Day Parade. But the saddest thing I noticed? Macy's didn't open up their store on the day of the Thanksgiving Day Parade until after the parade started and the crowds had been milling around for an hour. The day after the busiest shopping day of the year, and my family was waiting for Macy's to open in order to go shopping. They certainly don't stay open late for the quarterly gallery crawls. Where did my family eat the day of the parade? Sammy's Famous Corned Beef. Why? They're good and they're always open.

How about this simple idea? The next time the URA helps fund some new retail development downtown, they can add in a caveat, you must be open on the weekends and on weeknights. That's how to get people staying and coming Downtown.

So, in summation, do I want mass transit between Oakland and Downtown? YES! Do I think it will solve all our problems? NO! Do I think there are steps we can take in the meantime to help solve our problems? YES! What do you think?

Big Brother Is Watching

The school board is a scary beast. With little to no experience, you can be elected to the school board because voters are under the impression that these folks aren't very important.

Yet time and again, school board members exercise more power than we give them credit for. The highlight of questionable school board decision making in history is clearly Brown vs The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. However, from religion to evolution to banning of books, school boards often control the future of our children (and therefore our society) more than we expect.

Here in Pittsburgh, our school board members have a history of hacking and slashing at schools without asking for input while parents yell. Then when the school board plans a study regarding future hacking of schools:

The study already has drawn criticism from school board member Randall Taylor, who said the work should have been done before the district closed 22 schools in June 2006.

I say: Better late than never.

Tonight, the school district is holding a "city-wide community dialogue" on the future of Pittsburgh schools. Attendees will receive an overview of the district plans and pass out questionnaires. Additionally, the district is offering free transportation from the area high schools to the location. I think it's a great idea to try to get all these parents in one place and ask for their input.

To the parents of children in Pittsburgh schools, try to attend this show.

To the school board, send these questionnaires home with the report cards. Pass them out at parent-teacher meetings. Get these surveys into the hands of as many parents as possible. Not just to the parents who have the time and energy to show up at your meeting. Also, it's not a "dialogue" if attendees aren't allowed to talk.

To the Post-Gazette, try to publish this information more than a day in advance next time.

To the Tribune-Review, try to publish this information.

As a note: Kudos to the Pittsburgh Public Schools for trying out twitter. In the past month, they have made 72 updates. It's a new and innovative way to attempt to reach parents. Between twitter and tonight's meeting, it seems like the school board is attempting to address their recent lackluster C+ grade from a community watchdog group. Let's make sure they keep it up.

The Sweet Smell of Compromise in the Morning

I've previously discussed the Pittsburgh School's policy on 50% being the "minimal" grade. I was pleased to see some different attitudes being used towards a failing school system, but I was concerned that the administration appeared to be largely just pissing off teachers. I'm happy to report back a few months later, that the administration did take teacher feedback into account and has adjusted their hard line. If students refuse to even do the work, they will get a zero. However, as long as they put in a "good faith effort", they will earn a baseline of a 50%.

If the school district continues to respond to teacher complaints with action, perhaps there is hope for Pittsburgh schools after all. That's something that the Mayor's office can learn, too.

UPDATE: The above-mentioned changes are effective immediately. However, next year, the school district is making a bold change and moving to a five-point scale, where students receive grades of 1 through 5. And as a result, they're doing away with F altogether?

Under the new scale, work scored from 4 to 5 will be an A, 3 to 3.99 a B, 2 to 2.99 a C, 1 to 1.99 a D, and zero to .99 an E.

Let's all cross our fingers and hope that this change was done with teacher input.

Foundation of the Month

Love it or hate it, the Pittsburgh Promise now has the support of almost every major charitable foundation in Pittsburgh. The latest donation is $9 Million over 3 years from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

In recent months, Promise gifts also have been pledged by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation ($2.5 million over five years); the Grable Foundation ($5 million over five years); The Heinz Endowments ($6 million over three years); Buhl Foundation ($3 million over 10 years); Pittsburgh Foundation ($10 million over about 10 years); and Massey Charitable Trust ($1 million).

Now that's an honor roll.

On top of that, Pittsburgh and other urban school districts nation-wide are slowly improving their "student achievement" (a nebulous term at best) relative to their suburban counterparts.

Heads In The Sand

I expect that the small-town folks in West Virginia have their heads in the sand and can pretend that their sweet little hometown teenagers haven't heard about S-E-X yet. If they really feel the need to envision that their precious darlings would never do that, don't watch TV, and that all parents will tell their kids "when the time is right," let them. They can also move school districts when their baby gets pregnant or get an abortion under the table.

But in Pittsburgh??? Where 14% of births are by women under the age of 20??? What do they think? Every one of those girls had sex just once with her long-term boyfriend and was really unlucky???

It's criminal to be teaching these kids abstinence-only education.

The biggest reason? STDs.

If a teenage girl gets pregnant, it's unfortunate and it's a burden on the system and it's another girl who will never go to college and be working 3 jobs to support her single-mom kids. That's unfortunate.

But if she gets a disease because her boyfriend said: "It's just a blowjob you don't need a condom." Or: "I'll pull out, baby." Or: "I promise I've never been with anyone." That's just willful neglect. That's criminal in my mind.

Of course, if it was me, I'd take it a step further. I'd give out the birth control pill in high school and packs of condoms. I'd introduce baby-prevention classes - teaching those girls that babies are a huge responsibility and that they can do a lot more in life than just have kids. And those kids will have a better life if they can hold off a few years. Most importantly, I'd offer free STD testing just like over at Club Pittsburgh. I'd have STD-awareness fairs. I'd make sure these kids know the dangers and the responsibility.

But luckily for you, there are moderates and conservatives amongst you that will prevent all that from happening. Instead, they're fighting for "abstinence-plus." Don't you worry, there will be no icky condoms involved. But it's a start.

On Property Tax

For those of you who may have missed it, Onorato attempted to address my property tax question during his cyber town hall meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to see my question addressed and not tossed aside. I was also pleased to hear him attempt to tackle other tough questions, and I was pleased to see him reaching out to the community, especially involving high school students, in such a down-to-earth accessible manner.

However, I have to say I wasn't completely satisfied with his answer.

He made many points (which I've paraphrased below.)
1) The 2001 and 2002 assessments were performed very poorly.

I have no idea why there were back-to-back re-assessments in this county. That was before my time. Clearly, there is absolutely no need to waste tax-payers money re-assessing every single year. I'd be perfectly happy with a planned 3-4 year cycle of re-assessments.

2) The city spent a lot of money and time on appeals relating to the 2001-2 re-assessments.

If those re-assessments were performed so poorly, then the team should be fired, and a new re-assessment team should be hired. If 180,000 people filed appeals, that's a broken re-assessment system.

3) He canceled the 2006 re-assessment (which he is proud of.)

Let me share a story. While I was living in Connecticut, the state found that the emissions testers were corrupt. They temporarily canceled all emissions testing in the state while they attempted to create a new clean system. Then a few years later, they re-started emissions testing with the new system in place.

If Dan Onorato were in charge of emissions testing in Connecticut, his analogous response would have been to cancel emissions testing forever because the particular system wasn't working. He would defend this stance for the rest of his term by pointing to how corrupt the old system was.

4) He said that 85% of property values increased when properties were re-assessed.

Let's get something straight. Housing prices (in a normal society) increase. It's perfectly natural and expected that prices will increase. In fact, if housing prices didn't increase we'd be in trouble. HOWEVER, the increased value of an assessed house SHOULD NOT mean increased property tax. When values go up, the county or the city or whomever, SHOULD adjust the mill rate DOWN so that the net result for them is about the same. Is there a law against that in Harrisburg???

He said: "County school districts and the municipalities all base their property taxes off the assessed values". If these school districts and municipalities refuse to lower their mill rate, then they are ripping off their citizens. That is where the offense should be - not the ridiculous stance of pretending property values haven't changed in 40 years.

5) Other counties around us follow the base-year assessment strategy.

In summation, Dan says all the other counties are refusing to fix the system, so why should he?
If all the other counties can break the law and propagate inequity, why can't he?

Dan, stop whining and do something about this unfair setup. That's how you'll prove you're capable of being governor.

Fire Bill Steigerwald

Dear Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

Please fire Bill Steigerwald.

I haven't read such vitriol since reading about Nazi Germany in high school.

Oh, wait but that's fitting. He compares talking positively about Pittsburgh to talking positively about Nazis.

He goes on to spout ridiculous fallacies:

Nor did the Times note that Pittsburgh’s ever-dwindling, ever-aging, relatively poor and under-educated population (down in the city to 310,000 from 650,000 about 50 years) is subjected to crippling high taxes and deprived of basic city services like reliable snow-plowing.

Does he live in Pittsburgh? I do. My street gets plowed. I'm not "crippled" by high taxes. And nullspace has many many things to say on our young people NOT fleeing. Under-educated population??? Is he a moron?

Yes, we're in debt. But we're hardly alone in that. NYC was in ridiculous debt in the 70s yet somehow managed to become the poster-child for our country. They still haven't paid it off.

Yes, there are school problems, but as far as I can tell, Pittsburgh has some programs in place that are trying to address these issues. And please give me a city that doesn't have problems with schools. Maybe Philadelphia? How about LA?

You see, cities that have pioneered deindustrialization, shed huge chunks of population and shifted to service economies that run on curing sick people, college kids and government bureaucrats, as the former Steel City basically does, are now recession-proof, the rationalizing goes, because they’ve essentially been in low-grade recessions for decades.

Bill seems to be the only one in the country who thinks that an economy based on health care and education is a bad economic plan. Have you seen the number of Rite-Aids and CVSs that litter the landscape? And if a 3.9% unemployment rate is low-grade recession, he must think the whole country's been in a recession for decades.

This is a man who clearly hates his hometown, the city of Pittsburgh. Please, don't continue to pay him to write about it. He's pretty old. If you feel bad about kicking him to the curb, you can couch it in terms of your recent buy-out.

Sincerely,

pghisacity

50% Is Good Enough For Me

Regarding the new Pittsburgh school policy that no student can earn less than a 50% on a test, it is NOT "mathematically sound". However, that does not mean that the program is bad. I'm excited to see administrators trying out new policies instead of just sticking to the same old policies that weren't working. Administrators have their hearts in the right place here, it just remains to be seen whether it will work. The true test will be if the nameless administrators find out it doesn't work, will they back it out? Will they adjust it? Or will they insist on following through with a bad idea?

I see 3 main scenarios in students:
1) The "good student". This student doesn't want to get an F period. They have a caring family and if a bad week happens and their grandpa and dog die in the same week and they skip a test - they get a get-out-of-jail free card. Still, if you have an A or B average and you get a 50 on a test, it will knock you down a grade. Period.

2) The "slacker". This person just wants to get out of school as quickly as possible. Maybe they have other responsibilities. Maybe they just want to loaf at the mall. Well, they still have to pass. If they do as little as possible, and skip a few tests, they could still pass. They could cheat the system. But there are all sorts of ways to cheat the system. If you want to be a "slacker", I don't think this is going to make a difference.

3) The kid who's trying and deserves a chance but their best friend got shot last week and it's thrown them for a loop and they screw up for a month straight. Now they have a chance to make up for some lost time, learn the material they missed and pass for the year.

I think this process working is dependent on a few things though.

First, tests have to be cumulative and get increasingly more difficult during the year. The kid actually has to learn something. For instance, if it's math, and the kid fails the test on long-division and never learns it because the other tests don't cover it, that kid shouldn't pass. Otherwise, you're just pushing problems along.

Second, teachers can't be scaling the grades. A 50 has to remain failing. Students must realize that a 50 is failing.

How is it being implemented? I don't know. I'm sure it varies by teacher, by school and even by student.

What do I know? This isn't "mathematically sound". It's giving a second chance to kids. It's helping kids out. It's a potentially good idea. And the administrators need to work with the teachers to come up with a compromise if it's not working. And if the majority of teachers are upset about it, it's not working as is.

But speaking of good ideas for our city school system, I just wanted to throw out a shout-out to the Pittsburgh Promise. I'm looking forward to seeing your report card in 2009.

Let's Keep This Promise

Lately, it's been hard to wade through the overwhelming national news to grasp at the important local news. Today, this gem appeared hiding beneath all the fancy pictures and big text:

"From Pittsburgh Public Schools, CCAC received 258 graduates, compared with 199 the previous year when the Pittsburgh Promise wasn't available."

Simply put, Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has higher enrollment this year and a good percentage of that is from Pittsburgh Promise kids. Sounds promising. What's an extra bonus here is that the Pittsburgh Promise could easily cover the entire $1500/ semester tuition at CCAC and not put those kids at risk of losing a chance at education because of the current credit crunch.

Some information that would have rounded out the story would be general numbers from Pittsburgh schools. Did the overall number of students enrolling at colleges increase this year? Or did just more students choose CCAC instead of other options? I think it's to be expected that every year, high schools send more students to college. I'm sure there are many factors that have led to increased attendance at CCAC like its appeal of affordability in precarious economic times and its city wide bus advertisements. Also, time will tell if these new students succeed at their new school or fall behind and drop out. However, I do not look at increases like 30% lightly. That's a pretty impressive number for the first year of the Pittsburgh Promise and if even a small percentage of the increase is directly attributed to the Promise, it's a great accomplishment.

(reference: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08277/917055-298.stm)