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Low-income students deserve a PASS

Governor Shapiro recently reneged on his support for the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) program, leaving students set to benefit from this lifeline desperately trapped in schools that are failing them. To understand how dire the situation is for these students, let’s talk about how low-achieving those low-achieving schools are. Only 20% of students in low-achieving high schools are proficient in math, and 28% in English. That means 80% are not proficient at math for their grade level and 72% are not proficient at English for their grade level. If that is not ...

They bear witness to panic, neglect

Given recently slashed public health funding, Katelyn Jetelina, Ph.D., remarked that “public health is a cycle of panic and neglect.” It doesn’t take someone from out of town to tell us that. Indeed, several people who have shared their stories in this space since 2021 want others to know how they have been managing the aftermath of COVID-19 disease in their lives. We should heed their concerns about how to protect all our communities and follow soon-to-be-announced recommendations for fall immunizations. “It has been just over two years since I contracted the SARS-CoV-2 ...

Shapiro can still rescue himself — and the kids depending on him

Sealing a deal with an old-fashioned handshake may seem like a throwback to a bygone era. After all, does anybody still rely on a handshake promise in an age of lawyers, contracts, and endless documentation? Well—yes. Under Pennsylvania’s capitol dome, it happens every year. A complex negotiation between the governor and legislative leaders over how to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars all boils down to a handshake. Arguably, that’s how most lawmaking happens. I saw it myself during my eight years as a Pennsylvania state representative. Trust is the coin of the realm, ...

Is it time for a long, hard look?

Looking back in history to help guide the present into the future is something less than wanted in American society and government. Sadly, America has a poor track record of not learning from history, save maybe learning not to go to Vietnam or Afghanistan. The collapse of the Roman Empire is a case in point. There is much to be learned from the collapse that rings familiar in America today. The collapse centered, in part, on numerous economic problems associated with serving the needs of Roman armies in a number of foreign countries. That seems familiar in that America has over 700 ...

The Sunshine Act is being mistreated

Citizens should know what issues their school boards, borough councils and other government agencies plan to deliberate and/or vote on at public meetings. Call this commonsense requirement what it is: the law in Pennsylvania. Since 2021 the Sunshine Act, or state open-meetings law, requires that a government agency make its meeting agenda available at least 24 hours in advance of a public meeting. The agency must post the agenda on its publicly accessible internet website, if it has one, as well as at the agency office and at the location of the meeting. In addition, copies of the ...

Young people need more opportunities, not student loan forgiveness

As many know, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposal on June 30. While this ruling is a win for taxpayers, there are still millions of Americans with trillions of dollars in outstanding student loans who now need to pay back that debt. I applaud the high court’s ruling, but we can’t ignore the student loan debt crisis either. There are steps that we can and should take to help borrowers, protect taxpayers, and strengthen Pennsylvania’s economy. While it’s true that some of these borrowers have not budgeted well and will ...