Speshul Edookation

The Post-Gazette is reporting today that the Pittsburgh Public Schools is considering dropping the work "Public" from the name. From the article:

Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's staff unveiled the policy at a school board Education Committee meeting last night.

Under the policy, the district simply will call itself the "Pittsburgh Schools." The district's logo -- a pattern of circles, triangles and squares -- will still be used...

School board members offered little reaction to the policy, which does not require board approval.

By dropping "public" from its name, Randall Taylor said, the district might be able to avoid the negative attitude often associated with public schools.

Ms. Fischetti noted that suburban districts don't have "public" in their names, and a marketing consultant who helped develop the policy...

Personally, I think this is a far better plan the original proposal which would have just dropped the "L".

Still, it doesn't really go far enough. With the recent Act 47 unpleasantness, the mayoral gaffes, and the Pirates not being able to cobble together a friggin' season above .500, it may behoove the Pittsburgh Public Schools to drop the "Pittsburgh" part as well.

Moreover, with the No Child Left Behind debacle, school shootings, and physical collapsing at Schenley High, the word "Schools" ain't looking too positive either.

Might I suggest that the Pittsburgh Public School system just change its name to an unpronounceable symbol: ə.

Still, if they're going to start eliminating words with negative connotations, they should have started with "Board of Education"... reducing the name of that venerable body to "Of".

And there's your "ə".