Defending the Pittsburgh area taxpayers and businesses against the burdensome taxation and regulation of Big Government

A recent, Policy Brief  reviewed the decline in scores on the state’s Keystone exams (given to 11^th graders) in Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and several area school districts.  Even statewide, along with PPS, the average had substantial declines in test scores between 2015 and 2025 as measured by the percentages of test takers scoring proficient or advanced. Much of that drop is attributed to the education losses during COVID.

However, as was noted, PPS’ combined percent proficient or advanced scores on math and literature had already fallen by just over 9 percent between 2015 and 2019. Statewide scores on math and literature were not significantly different in the two test years (2015 and 2025). However, both suffered major drops (about 30 percent each) in math scores between 2019 and 2025.

Downtown Pittsburgh’s office vacancy rate, for all classes of office space, remained stubbornly high through 2025’s third quarter at 24.2 percent.  Keep in mind one year ago, the rate was 19.5 percent and pre-pandemic it was just 16.9 percent at the close of 2019.  This is despite the ongoing process of converting office space to residential space, with much of it, like the Gulf Tower conversion, being subsidized by taxpayers.  Will this plan be a worthwhile investment for taxpayers? Or will it just be a trade of office vacancy with residential vacancies?