The Tragic Situation in Duquesne

If anyone out there has any doubt that Pennsylvania needs an overhaul covering everything from property taxes to the fractured and inefficient nature of its municipal subdivisions, look no further than the current plight of the students from Duquesne High School. Just a few quick editorial/article links below, but by all means please inform yourself further...Google will do you fine.

http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_150081231.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07164/793496-109.stm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_414649.html


Last year, Duquesne High had 14 staff members. No foreign languages. No AP courses. The only extracurricular activities were basketball and football. Certainly the state has recognized that this situation cannot continue, but the choices of what to do are so crappy that this saga will likely drag out all summer; currently the kids from this school have no clue where they will go in the fall.

The only sure bet is that even if they go to different school districts, it will be other districts bordering on distressed, and that will have had little time to prepare for the sudden influx of students. Meanwhile, we have other areas building multi-million dollar football stadiums with press boxes and giant scoreboards. Equality in education my ass.

New Blog! Woo!

Hello, all who may have stumbled on over here. Allow myself to introduce.....myself. My name is Cheri, Cheryl, C, Hey You, whatever. I'm a big ol' queer here in the 'Burgh by way of Ohio and New Jersey, but have spent my first 8 years in Pittsburgh hiding behind relationships and being pretty much completely disengaged from the community here. Any community here. Gay, straight, queer, political, neutral, whatever. Oh, except for women's hockey. I'm all up in Pittsburgh women's hockey business.

But I digress. I woke up this past month and realized I actually have opinions about stuff. So I thought, hey, I should stop being such a recluse. So here I am.

For a blog of a less political/activist and more personal nature, you can also stop by Ruffian706.