Dr. Paul Carson: Pittsburgh Public Schools leaders failing our kids

As a parent of two remotely schooled Pittsburgh Public Schools students, I am extremely concerned about my children’s education and mental health during the pandemic. For almost a year now, I’ve watched my children stare at screens for eight hours a day and complain that they think they are learning very little. Their words, not mine.

I am pleased that Mayor Bill Peduto has finally reached out to the governor in an appeal to accelerate the vaccination of teachers. But please explain to me: Why is this necessary for teachers under age 65 and without preexisting conditions? Why is it that healthy teachers need a vaccination before returning to work when all other front-line and essential workers, including myself, have been doing their jobs in person safely without a vaccine? Why are union leaders (Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, PFT) and PPS school board leaders taking this stance? Why are teachers special?

As a physician, I have been working in a fully staffed urban hospital since March, wearing mostly cloth masks when not inside the room of a patient who has active covid (for those I wear an N-100). We have not seen major outbreaks among employees. We were just recently offered a vaccine as front-line health care workers. I got mine as not to make waves, but I thought, I probably shouldn’t get this before the elderly and those at risk. It’s not scientific. I’m healthy and under 65.

It’s unbelievable that the leaders at the union are demanding a special exception that is not consistent with what happened for all other front-line and essential workers. Taking this stance is clearly not following the science, and it is evident this is most likely not able to get done before the end of the school year.

I blame the leaders of the PFT. Not the teachers. Most teachers want to teach, but are afraid to speak up against the union. I know this because they live among me. They are my friends. PFT is not protecting the teachers; it is failing them, and the students are just collateral damage.

While I have the resources to take my kids out of PPS, many do not. My kids have loved their schools. My kids both went to Allegheny Traditional Elementary Academy on the North Side and loved it. The teachers and leadership there were fantastic. My daughter loves Pittsburgh CAPA (the performing arts school Downtown), and would be devastated to leave now for a private school offering in-person classes. My son is eagerly awaiting in-person schooling at Pittsburgh Obama that he chose largely because he loves sports. The school has had no sports since March 2020.

In my household, my wife works now from home because she can. I go to work. For many families in PPS, their situation is less ideal. Both parents or a single parent may need to work at an in-person job as a front-line or essential worker. They cannot be home with their kids and supervise their schooling. It’s destroying these families.

Sixty-seven percent of PPS students are non-white, and I can’t speak for their parents, but it has terrible optics, not to mention real consequences. Many PPS families have few support systems in place and for some, school may be the safest place in any given 24 hours. Mental health problems, according to the CDC, account for a growing proportion of children’s visits to hospital emergency rooms. The CDC says from March to October, it was up 31% for ages 12-17 and 24% for ages 5-11, compared with the same period in 2019.

I personally have observed the quality of the virtual education that is happening, and it’s not even close to in-person. I watch the teachers and I see many simply mailing it in, some not even online for more than 10 minutes for an hour class. Wellness Wednesdays? Asynchronous days? I don’t blame the teachers for this. They did not sign up for remote schooling either and are ill-equipped. I blame the leaders of the PFT and the PPS school board.

Here is how to open schools. Keep teachers at risk at home. In old buildings, put a fan in the doorway of each class. Crack the windows. Wear masks. Contact trace. Rinse, repeat. Close in the unlikely event you have an outbreak. Reopen in seven days. This has been working in many public, private and Catholic schools since September. You are just not allowed to ignore that.

Transportation issues? Figure it out. There is a reason that kindergarten enrollment is down 21%. Why would anyone with choices enroll in PPS with leadership’s demonstrated lack of ability to execute an educational plan? The constant false call to start school just to cancel it is cruel to the children. The decline in enrollment won’t impact Pittsburgh Public Schools’ state funding for a few years. Allocations are calculated based on three years of enrollment data, so the PPS Board and PTF leadership should rest assured that everything is OK. Federally mandated school choice, here we come.

Do the right thing. These leaders have overplayed their hand and are damaging PPS students for generations. This will be the legacy of the PFT and the school board unless they come to a compromise that includes in-person schooling before waiting for vaccines.

This new vaccination mandate sure sounds like a distraction or cover-up of previous lack of planning on the school board level. I call on all PPS teachers, parents and students to speak out.

In reality, I think we all know that the school board and the PFT plan looks like it is to run out the clock till the summer. Shame on the PFT, school board and leadership of both entities if this happens. While I hold all nine members of the school board accountable, Sylvia Wilson is the president. Anthony Hamlet is the school superintendent. On the union side, the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president is Nina Esposito-Visgitis.

Theses are the people who should bring about change. I have personally reached out to all three leaders and heard nothing back.

If this is actually the plan, then please have the decency to tell us, so those of us with the means can move on and get our kids to other educational institutions and at least get a partial year in a school that listens to the experts.

Follow the science. Come back to work. Don’t politicize our children’s education.

Paul A. Carson, M.D., is a Pittsburgh physician living in the North Side.