PublicSource (https://www.publicsource.org/author/mary-niederberger/)
Mary Niederberger is a longtime Pittsburgh-area journalist who started her career with a decade at The Pittsburgh Press. After freelancing and teaching at local universities for several years, she joined the staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she spent 18 years covering community news, general assignment and education. Her work has taken her to nearly every community in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, and her stories in recent years have focused on education issues, specifically under-resourced schools and the students they serve. She received the Golden Quill Award for education coverage from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania in 2014, 2015 and 2016. She is also the recipient of the Robert L. Vann Award of Excellence for investigative/enterprise reporting from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation in 2011 and 2015. Also in 2015, Mary and a colleague from the Post-Gazette received first place in the Pennsylvania Society of of Professional Journalist Spotlight Awards for their coverage of the ghost job held by the state's special adviser on higher education. Mary holds a bachelor's degree from Duquesne University and is a lifelong Pittsburgh-area resident.
A singular message rang from the voices of two dozen speakers at the monthly public hearing of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board on Monday:
Don’t let the few objections over questions posed about volunteers’ sexual orientation, religion or other personal matters halt the district’s relationship with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh.
Should volunteer mentors for public school students be required to disclose their sexual orientation?
In communities where neither district nor family budgets allow for the purchase of school supplies, some teachers go to great lengths to fill the gaps.
This chart shows how the disparity in property values from district to district affects the ability to raise local revenue that can be applied to school budgets.
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In July, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera sat down with PublicSource reporter Mary Niederberger for a wide-ranging interview on school funding issues, the current Commonwealth Court lawsuit that seeks a more equitable education funding formula and possible solutions to narrow disparities between districts across the state.
Disparities between school districts are at the heart of a Commonwealth Court lawsuit, claiming that the state’s system of funding schools creates significant inequities among districts because it relies so heavily on local tax revenue.
In this series, we explore deepening inequities across school districts in Pennsylvania.
The tension-filled dynamic between the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Propel Schools network took on a new twist when the Pittsburgh board denied Propel's application to merge its 13 schools into one unit.
