In ninth grade, I started high school at the Pittsburgh Barack Obama Academy of International Studies. I wanted to experience the diverse community that the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) magnet program offers.
At Obama, I have been exposed to new experiences: participating in sports with limited funding, opportunities to lead school groups and events, and taking international baccalaureate (IB) classes. I take pride in my school and the opportunities that it has presented me, but I also recognize that my school and my classmates are working with limited resources. One of those important resources is disappearing.
During my junior year, I find myself surrounded with conversations of college and next steps. Among these tentatively hopeful and aspirational discussions, the Pittsburgh Promise is a recurring topic. When discussion arose about scholarships following complications with the 2024 FAFSA timeline, I distinctly remember students saying, “but we have the Promise.”
The Pittsburgh Promise has been burned into the minds of PPS students who see it as a road to higher education. For years, the Promise has encouraged students to be visionaries. It has a commitment of a $20,000 scholarship (originally a $40,000 scholarship) if students can reach the 2.5 GPA and 90% attendance requirement. Since its founding in 2008, the Promise has awarded $180 million in scholarships as of Dec. 9. This money has sent 12,478 Pittsburgh students to 152 schools around Pennsylvania, and, according to the Promise website, played a substantial role in furthering the education of Pittsburgh’s youth.
These numbers are impressive, and the program’s immense positive impact should be celebrated. And as the Pittsburgh Promise comes to an end, we as a city must also ask, was it a success? And perhaps more importantly, what comes next?
Origins of the Pittsburgh Promise
When founded, the Pittsburgh Promise had three laudable goals: reverse enrollment declines in PPS, reverse population declines in the city and create opportunities for Pittsburgh students to pursue postsecondary credentials. The Promise was clearly not successful in reaching the first two goals.
Originally proposed by PPS to keep students in the district, charter schools quickly latched onto the program, eliminating its exclusivity. In the last decade, PPS has lost 26% of its population. The city population follows a similar story; the idea was to promise free education so families with children would move to Pittsburgh. However, the $20,000 scholarship did not impact where people lived. Since 2000, the city of Pittsburgh’s population has decreased by 9.09% following statewide population declines.
As for the third goal, has the Promise’s economic approach to increasing postsecondary opportunity for Pittsburgh students worked? In 2008, the scholarships to each qualifying student amounted to an impressive $40,000 over four years. However, according to Saleem Ghubril, executive director, this amount was quickly halved to improve the sustainability and longevity of the program.
Although the scholarship amount was cut, the Promise did not change its narrative around secondary education funding, and students continued to believe that a significant portion of their tuition would be covered by the Promise. What many students do not know is that the cost of college in Pennsylvania is around $10,000 more than the national average. While a scholarship of $5,000 a year to attend school in Pennsylvania is great, it does not fully mitigate Pennsylvania’s higher cost of education. The Promise scholarship has been cut in half, yet the cost of a public four-year university has increased 141.0% in the last 20 years. And now, after the class of 2028, that is going away as
well.
College persistence numbers
When I spoke to Ghubril, he emphasized that the Pittsburgh Promise focuses on persistence rather than retention. Persistence is the measure of how many students continue furthering their education, while retention is how many students stay at the same institution.
According to the Promise’s 2024 report, the average persistence rate for PPS students from year one to year two of college from 2009 to 2021 is 75%. In contrast, national rates rcompiled by National Student Clearinghouse show a rate of 76.5%. The difference is not meaningful, nor is it the full story.
The Promise’s 2024 annual report states that 63% of Promise recipients who began their postsecondary education at a four-year college earned a degree or are still enrolled. This is the same as the national average. It is important to remember that the national average includes every demographic from every school across the country.
Distinctively, the Promise has increased the persistence of Black Pittsburgh college students compared to the national average. While keeping this huge positive impact in mind, it is still clear that the Promise is not carrying Pittsburgh students above the national average of persistence.
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Next steps
Although the Promise did not achieve its numerical goals, and in most cases will not make the difference between attending and not attending college, it continues to have a prominent influence on PPS culture around college. The presence of a scholarship encourages Pittsburgh students to explore new horizons. It is lowering the cost of education for Pittsburgh students, and its goal of encouraging every student, regardless of need or income, to succeed is inspiring. It has played a major role in channeling resources and support from the private sector toward PPS students.
As a public school student, I am elated that Pittsburgh’s core companies, foundations and communities have committed to furthering the education of my peers and myself. This commitment and voice of support is essential to lifting up the underserved and under-resourced urban youth that PPS serves.
So what should come next? As the Pittsburgh Promise finishes its journey, it is imperative that the city of Pittsburgh carries on its legacy. As a scholarship program, the Promise proved unsustainable and insufficient to reach its lofty goals. Having goals, however, is important, and we must turn to other college readiness initiatives to assist Pittsburgh students.
The Promise has taught Pittsburgh a valuable lesson, that young people want to achieve greatness, and the community wants to support these students. This is a promise worth keeping. It is Pittsburgh’s responsibility to implement and experiment with different ways of connecting the adults of Pittsburgh with its youth, keeping the successes and failures of the Pittsburgh Promise in mind.
Orli Trumbull is a junior at Obama Academy.