Cyber charters cripple public schools

June 15, 2020

Due to the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania’s public school districts face declining local revenue collection that is projected to range from $850 million to more than $1 billion for 2020-21. At the same time, Pennsylvania cyber charter schools are entitled to over $70 million in federal education stimulus funds this fiscal year to help them weather the financial crisis when they have not experienced any revenue cuts. Pennsylvania’s flawed charter school funding formula already results in overpayments to charter schools and in a time when school ...

‘Both sides put down their weapons’

June 12, 2020

Sorting out events of the last week, I flash back four decades ago. The first time I saw a rubber bullet was 40 years ago, when I lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I arrived there as a volunteer with a Nobel Peace Prize-winning group called the Peace People. They sent a hip young social worker to meet me outside the old and bomb-battered Great Victoria train station. The real welcoming party for every arriving passenger was a British soldier (younger than my 21), an armalite rifle slung across his shoulder, right at my shoulder as I stepped off the train. After being ...

Dairy farmers are ‘stronger together’

June 10, 2020

We are your dairy farmers, families just like you facing unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19. Like everyone, Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers have been tested in ways we could not have imagined months ago. We were positioned for a strong year at the start of 2020. But that drastically changed in March with epic supply-chain disruptions, customer-order cancellations and the closing of our schools, colleges, restaurants, government, businesses, and retail outlets. Yet, we have persevered and continued to care for our animals while every day producing, nutritious milk and ...

Mitigation of COVID-19 risks important

May 29, 2020

OK. I’m taking the bait to, “We challenge anyone to explain how allowing customers to go to these businesses poses any more of a danger than allowing those same people to go to a big-box retailer,” as presented in the May 20 editorial “It’s time to treat us like adults.” The answer is as clear as mud to people who are imitating the president of the United States who called the pandemic a hoax, did not use the powers of the presidency to mandate the production of protective equipment, etc., for workers on the front lines exposed to and or caring for the sick, and who, until ...

Rural broadband investment is a must

May 21, 2020

The size of the investment necessary to bridge the urban/rural divide in Pennsylvania is in the billions of dollars, telecommunications experts and government officials tell us. The trouble is that some of those potential investment dollars are currently locked up into costs that landline telcos incur complying with outdated state regulations. Regulatory reform legislation, SB 1112, recently introduced in the state Senate by long-time broadband champion Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York), would reduce costs for the landline telcos, without sacrificing long-held consumer ...

Lesson from connoisseur of economics

May 14, 2020

John Maynard Keynes, celebrated economist of the 1930s, was a fierce debater. In one, he abruptly changed his position on a certain important issue. Understandably, his opponent immediately questioned his “flip flop” on the issue. Keynes caustically responded: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” The debate was over — and Keynes prevailed. In my view, we are at a similar juncture with the COVID-19 crisis. To review, COVID-19 started infecting humans in China in early December 2019, but the Chinese Communist Party delayed notifying ...