As a Black mom raising a daughter with a disability, I’ve seen first hand how the inequities in our public school system are a matter of life or death.
I’m a big supporter of public schools, but Pittsburgh Public Schools was not a choice — it was our only option.
In Pittsburgh Public Schools, fewer than four out of ten Black third graders were proficient in reading, compared to seven out of ten white third graders.
Consistent with national trends, Black students this school year had suspension rates four times higher than their white peers.
While the school-to-prison pipeline is a national problem, Pittsburgh is particularly bad: Black girls like my daughter are referred to police more often than 99% of similar cities, according to last year’s report on Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race.
