Letters to the Editor | Feb. 4, 2024

How can the majority of students in the Philadelphia public schools be failing state proficiency tests and it is not considered a crisis?

According to Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., 66% of students are failing reading, 84% of students are failing math, and 77% are failing biology. How is this not considered a crisis?

While these scores are being revealed now by Watlington — who’s been on the job for 22 months — academic performance has been in a downward spiral for decades. And seemingly, Philadelphians are OK with this sad fact as long as there are a half dozen public schools where students are thriving academically.

Do we as a city not care about the majority of our young people’s education?

While I sincerely believe Watlington wants to turn these horrific test scores around, we didn’t just arrive at this point. For decades now, we have been satisfied with the revolving door of school chiefs and school board members without seeing substantive academic improvement.

We are in the midst of an educational crisis that has significant implications for all Philadelphians regardless of zip code. Poor academic outcomes are directly tied to increased poverty, crime, homelessness, and incarceration. We cannot continue to shrug our shoulders and be indifferent to what is “our” educational crisis.

Karen Warrington, Philadelphia

When congressional Republicans rebuffed President Joe Biden’s effort to compromise by offering to bolster border security in exchange for continued aid to Ukraine, it revealed (once more) the only real agenda of most of the GOP. Their sole motivation is to defeat Biden and Democrats in the next election by any means possible.

Time and time again, they’ve shown no interest in actually doing the job they were elected for: govern. There’s nothing wrong in representing the views of their constituents on the extreme right, but governing requires recognizing all views and compromising when necessary for the best interest of the country.

This latest refusal on the Republicans’ part to even consider, discuss, or further negotiate the details of this proposal makes clear their actual intentions. They’ve claimed they wanted some action on further protecting our southern border, but are unwilling to accept an effort to do just that — in exchange for aid to allies, which is also something in our (and Europe’s) national security interests. Their hypocrisy and unwillingness to do anything that might make Biden look good in any way — no matter what positive effect it has on the United States — is quite obvious.

Joseph Goldberg, Philadelphia

Thank you for the articles “Forever Young” and “Hundreds grieve for U.S. teen killed by Israeli fire” (Jan. 21). Both raise the question: Why does this keep happening?

One answer: U.S. politicians’ support for arms manufacturing. Production and distribution of guns is a major corporate revenue stream and, sad to say, the tax base for municipalities and states, especially Pennsylvania. The sale of arms to Israel for use against its own populations is a major source of income for the federal government. No wonder gun control is politically impossible. Politicians need money to keep their seats, and so protect the source of campaign donations (arms manufacturers) from regulation.

“Forever Young” notes the poverty in which these Philadelphians lived their brief lives, showing that money that should rightfully go to provide for human needs went instead to support the military-industrial complex.

Marta Guttenberg, Philadelphia

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