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Wednesday, December 08, 1999 By Sally Kalson
As long as we're on the verge of so many momentous developments -- a four-digit roll-over on the calendar year, a new form of county government, new sports stadiums and highways, new shopping and theater developments for Downtown -- how about trying something really revolutionary?
How about officials from the City of Pittsburgh starting to work with the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education on behalf of the district's students instead of only showing up with their hands out when the next prospective business wants a tax break?
OK, that's not completely fair. The school board has been so fractious in recent years it's barely been able to work with itself, let alone others. It wouldn't have been the easiest group to approach in the spirit of cooperation, even if anyone was so inclined.
Well, the board is a new body now, with two new members and a new president who is at least saying the right things about unity and common goals. So this would seem the perfect time for city officials to start considering the district's 38,000-plus public school kids -- not to mention thousands of others in private and parochial schools -- as full partners in their grand plans.
Exhibit A is the city's proposed $40 million franchise agreement with AT&T Corp. to wire Pittsburgh with high-speed fiber-optic cable over the next 10 years.
The first plan called for AT&T to wire all city government buildings at no cost, while wiring schools only to the nearest utility poles. (With this kind of hard bargaining, it's no wonder AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong made $11.6 million in salary, bonuses and stock options last year.)
When the school district complained that the costs of completing the job would be prohibitive, another agreement was brokered. This time, school officials, AT&T, City Councilman Dan Cohen and Mayor Murphy's executive secretary, Tom Cox, were at the table.
The current version calls for AT&T to run cable into the schools -- but the schools have to contract with AT&T to manage the network. Even that plan has left the district wondering if it could do better negotiating with AT&T on its own. In fact, when the new board met on Monday, members directed staff to study that question.
Maybe this will all work out in the end. But board members were rightfully upset that the city once again had failed to make school children a top priority from the get-go.
Why is that, do you suppose? True, children are only flesh and bone as opposed to bricks and mortar, and being neither voters nor taxpayers they don't demand much attention in the halls of power.
Still, they are kind of important to the region's future. Who's going to fill all those stadium and theater seats, shop in all those stores and travel all those new highways if today's kids aren't equipped to function in tomorrow's high-speed global economy?
Now's the time to turn this boat around. If the Israelis and Palestinians can sit at the same table, and Sinn Fein and the Protestant Party can share power in Northern Ireland, then the city's government and its schools ought to be able to forge a closer, more cooperative relationship.
World peace may not be riding on it, but the future of Pittsburgh most surely is.
Sally Kalson's e-mail is: skalson@post-gazette.com
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