Pittsburgh's Promise

Enhancing Our Children’s Educational Opportunities:

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl collaborated with Superintendent Mark Roosevelt to bring a fresh, innovative idea to Pittsburgh that invests in our children’s futures and is a total game-changer when it comes to growing our City’s population. Now, families and children are moving into the City for its school system with the promise of education that encourages youths to plan and prepare for college and in turn removes the financial obligation. “Plan, prepare, and dream big” is the slogan for the scholarship program that will transform the City and children’s futures.

The Pittsburgh Promise. The Pittsburgh Promise is a scholarship program that is turning around our city schools; it is creating a brilliant future for hundreds of students; it is bringing innovation and vision to our entire region.  This program provides scholarships of up to $5000 per year to graduates of Pittsburgh Public Schools who are attending accredited post-secondary schools in Pennsylvania.  More than 95% of the graduates who met the criteria signed up for the Promise in 2008.  Over 650 students in the class of 2008 were awarded scholarships.

And, as the Mayor planned, since the inception of the Pittsburgh Promise, applications to the Pittsburgh Magnet schools have doubled.

Behind the Promise. From kindergarten to grade 12, every child in the public schools is being targeted for higher-education.  Higher education is now an expectation for our City’s youths and teachers, principals, and parents are making sure planning and preparation takes place. When youths receive the Promise, counselors track their progress to ensure that when they go on to higher education – they finish.

Collaborative Leadership.  Mayor Ravenstahl has embraced and modeled his collaborative style in many aspects of his governance.  The Pittsburgh Promise represents this collaboration at its finest.  To create the Pittsburgh Promise, Mayor Ravenstahl combined his thoughtful approach with the resources and the perspectives of Superintendent Roosevelt, the Pittsburgh School Board and UPMC. Through careful dialogue and respectful discourse, the Mayor helped these entities to find an intersection of their common goals.  The Pittsburgh Promise is a dynamic and innovative program that emerged from amplifying voices, listening deeply and thinking creatively.  It is through his collaborative process that Mayor Ravenstahl has been able to deliver a winning solution to an extremely complex problem.

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