PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/education/page/2/)
At Pittsburgh’s universities, students and instructors responded with activism to call for justice and create a safe space to heal. Their work is both community-oriented and deeply personal.
Since Bridges to Health launched last fall, the program has been working with residents in Hazelwood and Clairton to offer more accessible health programs, especially as COVID-19 exacerbates health disparities.
America’s student loan burden totals $1.7 trillion, impacting 44.7 million people nationwide. In Pennsylvania, more than 1.7 million residents have unpaid student loans, totaling $61.5 billion. For many former students, carrying tens of thousands of dollars in debt — or more — seems inevitable.
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These days, Christina Russell and her daughter, Mareica Anderson, are busy unpacking their new home. It’s a brighter time for the duo, who faced housing insecurity living in Pittsburgh during the fall months of 2020 amid the COVID pandemic. “We had to go from a house to a shelter to a shelter to another shelter, you know what I mean, until we found our place where she was comfortable,” said Russell, 41. When school began in the fall, Russell did everything she could to keep her daughter engaged and feeling a sense of normalcy despite changing living environments. “Well, I didn't really let it affect her,” Russell said.
PublicSource community correspondent Jourdan Hicks reached out to each of the winners to talk about their creative process and what angelic troublemakers can do to protect human rights.
When the pandemic took these spaces away, the school’s response was guided by its democratic principles. Through a highly participatory process, the school has kept kids learning, reopened in-person schooling for four months of this school year so far, and kept their community COVID-free.
PublicSource’s TyLisa C. Johnson spoke with Ortega in March on topics ranging from the road ahead for Pennsylvania schools and how the department will address learning loss to district funding needs and lessons learned this year to move the department forward in an unpredictable future.
Unions for workers in the steel and coal industries fought for healthcare benefits and better job conditions for those workers.
Those struggles have informed the tactics of teachers unions to this day — particularly notable during the COVID-19 pandemic amid a vaccine rollout and clamoring for a return to in-person teaching. I
One year after teachers and students across Allegheny County left their brick-and-mortar school buildings, PublicSource spoke with more than a dozen students, parents and teachers.
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Wanika Steele has clocked into the same job for 14 years. But in September, she put in her two-week notice. She feared her 10-year-old son, Ty’Kir, would have no one to facilitate his new full-time virtual learning experience. “I was ready to actually quit my job so I could be home,” said Steele, 45. But four days before her notice took effect, as if her very own deus ex machina, the Thelma Lovette YMCA learning hub in the Hill District announced it would open for students in kindergarten through middle school.
