Megan Martin: Students trapped in violent schools need an escape

Violence terrorized students at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh. A student armed with a knife stabbed three other students — two of them critically. As a parent, I can only imagine the panic and fear that these children and their families experienced.

What happened at Carrick is one of many examples of a frightening pattern of violence running rampant in countless public schools across the commonwealth and the nation—and far too many students remain trapped in these violent institutions.

Federal and state laws require states to identify “persistently dangerous” public schools. Students attending these schools have a lawful right to transfer to a safer school—either in their own district, a neighboring district, or a charter school.

However, definitions of persistently dangerous vary among states. Often, as in Pennsylvania, states create such narrow criteria for identifying these schools that they underreport — or outright omit — the significant volume of violence affecting our children in public schools.

And that lie of omission matters.

In Pennsylvania, the definition of a dangerous school hinges on arrest counts, not violent incidents. As a result, districts can — and do — suppress or underreport incidents that don’t result in arrests. Meanwhile, students endure daily assaults, threats, fear, and anguish.

In fact, an alarming number of dangerous schools fly under the radar. When we look at all violent incidents (not just arrests), the results are staggering and appalling. A 24-year longitudinal study shows that two out of three Pennsylvania public schools qualify as persistently dangerous. Nearly half of Pennsylvania public school students attend one of these schools.

This problem is even worse in urban centers. More than 70 percent of Philadelphia schools and nearly 90 percent of Pittsburgh schools are persistently dangerous, respectively. This is unconscionable.

Yet, Pennsylvania policymakers have turned a blind eye. A recent Right-to-Know request, filed by the Commonwealth Foundation, revealed that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) currently lists no schools as persistently dangerous. This brazen claim by PDE ignores the violent reality that many Pennsylvania kids endure.

Students cannot learn in such traumatic and chaotic environments.  Academic decline, absenteeism, mental health struggles, and dropout risks soar in these frightening schools.

Since no schools meet the criteria, Pennsylvania isn’t obligated to help students transfer. This is an unthinkable and unconscionable dereliction of duty. Our kids deserve far better.

Pennsylvania lawmakers, education officials, and concerned citizens must act now.

First, we must pressure PDE to redefine “persistently dangerous” to count incidents, not just arrests. In May, the U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance, mandating states revise their criteria and better reflect the lived experiences students face.

Then, we must enforce the law requiring transfer rights for students. Pennsylvania’s inaction is not just a moral failure; it defies the rule of law. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states must provide an “Unsafe School Choice Option” for students in persistently dangerous schools. This includes finding a better, safer school for victims of school violence and those at risk.

However, we must address the root problem: a systemic lack of an escape valve for students. We can empower students and families by providing them with the freedom to find the best school to meet their academic needs.

Lawmakers can do this through several policy solutions. They can enact open enrollment, allowing students to transfer freely between school districts. They can also eliminate the arbitrary cap on the commonwealth’s tax-credit scholarship programs, which provided $470 million in scholarships to more than 85,000 students statewide. Lawmakers can also enact programs like Lifeline Scholarships or the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success, which target Pennsylvania’s chronically underperforming schools.

Educational choice empowers families to vote with their feet, pressuring underperforming and unsafe schools to change their ways — or lose students.

Tragically, what happened at Carrick is bound to happen again — and not just at Carrick. School violence will continue to disrupt and traumatize students unless we act now. When our children’s lives are at stake, we cannot leave them waiting for the government to act. Empowering these students with educational choice will protect, and in many cases, save them.

Megan Martin, a former state Senate parliamentarian, is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.