On today’s episode of The Confluence: We learn about the plan from the Wolf administration to recruit and retain more teachers in the commonwealth; we ask a county councilor about why she’s supporting a ban on fracking in and under county parks; and Pittsburgh is hosting its first Disability Pride event this Saturday.
Today’s guests include: Eric Hagarty, acting secretary of education for Pennsylvania; Liv Bennett, Allegheny County councilor; and Vicki Landers, founder and executive director of Disability Pride PA.
The state has a new plan to address the teacher shortage
(0:00 - 8:30)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the profession in the last two years. And a survey conducted earlier this year by the National Education Association found 55% of educators planned to leave the field sooner than they had originally planned because of the pandemic.
On Monday, the state Department of Education released a plan to recruit and retain teachers in the commonwealth.
“One of the things we need to do is work with each school district to establish what the appropriate staffing level should be,” says Eric Hagarty, Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Education. “If you just anecdotally were to look at vacancy rates at any given school district, we're probably well over 10,000 vacancies across the state.”
Hagarty says the teacher shortage has been building for some time, with compounding issues such as a shortage of substitutes, professional development programming, and education support staff.
County Council overturned the County Executive’s veto, banning fracking in parks
(8:35 - 15:13)
Last night, Allegheny County Council overrode a veto to ban new fracking in county parks.
It doesn’t apply to the existing gas lease at Deer Lakes Park, but it prevents expansion. However, as this legislation reads, it’s not just natural gas extraction. It also bans other heavy industrial activities.
Twelve of the 15 members voted in favor of overriding County Executive Rich Fitzgerald's veto of this legislation, which he called, “political theater.”
“I don't think that anybody wants to go to a park and have fracking equipment or wells there for their recreational enjoyment,” says Councilperson Olivia Bennett, who represents District 13 and is a sponsor of the bill. “I think that that is one place that we can keep, you know, for our families, for our residents.”
Pittsburgh’s first Disability Pride event is this weekend
(15:19 - 22:30)
This weekend, a new kind of Pride event is coming to Pittsburgh. The city’s first Disability Pride will celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Vicki Landers, executive director of Disability Pride PA, says part of the event is sharing resources and encouraging people in the community to have pride in themselves.
“For me, my disability is one piece of who I am as a whole person, so I should be proud of myself,” says Landers. “But for the broader community, I think it's just letting everybody know that we're here, that we are proud of ourselves, and that we just want to be a part of society.”
Landers says since the passage of ADA, much has been done to create accommodations for people with disabilities, but they acknowledge “there’s still a fight” to do more.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
