A provision in the state budget could explore consolidating the Duquesne School District with another school district.
Act 47 of 2025 states “if sufficient funds are available, the Secretary of Education shall establish a project team which shall conduct an assessment of the educational, financial, administrative and community impacts of consolidation of the school district.” The requirements include considering at least three school districts with borders no more than seven miles from Duquesne.
The law amends the Public School Code (24 P.S.) regarding high schools and attendance in other districts. Duquesne closed its high school in 2007. Since then East Allegheny and West Mifflin school districts have accepted high school students. The tuition rate for this year is $18,031.
It has been 25 years since the state declared Duquesne a “distressed school district” and 13 years as a district in “financial recovery status” under Act 141 of 2012. Duquesne’s current recovery plan is from March 2025.
Duquesne’s 2025-26 market value/personal income aid ratio, which “represents the relative wealth (market value and income), in relation to the state average, for each pupil in a school district” is .9025. That is 500th out of 500 school districts—a higher ratio indicates lower district wealth, and most of Duquesne’s revenue comes from the state.
On the 2025 PSSA, 253 students in grades three through eight took the English Language Arts and Math exams—the percent scoring proficient or above was 8.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.
In 2006 the Institute wrote “[t]roubles at the Duquesne School District represent an abject failure of the current public educational system. The District, one of the worst academically performing districts in the state, has been under state oversight for five years. Their efforts at marginal and education establishment approved reforms have not improved the situation. It is now time to think boldly and try a market-based approach.”
Instead, two decades later the next step is a study—maybe. There is no dollar amount or time frame, if it happens at all. Opposition from residents and school district employees to voluntary consolidations is already significant. Would the state mandate a consolidation if the report justified it?
