Letters to the Editor | July 28, 2024

As a Collingswood resident, I appreciate The Inquirer’s reporting on discipline disparities in South Jersey public schools. Collingswood tops the list, having suspended nearly 20% of Black students last year. Unfortunately, our school district has a long history of discipline disparities, and students of color have increasingly spoken out about the racism they experience. This reporting underscores the urgent need for change.

Suspension hurts students academically and emotionally and makes them less likely to graduate or go to college. Although staff bias is primarily responsible for discipline disparities, a working paper from Rutgers analyzing data from New Jersey public schools has also linked it to school segregation.

Collingswood has five elementary schools, and these schools are as segregated as our neighborhoods. Students of color are clustered in our oldest elementary school building, while our newest elementary school building is nearly 80% white.

In September, Collingswood should vote yes for a school bond referendum that will establish full integration of our students in a new Collingswood Upper Elementary School. This vote will be a big step toward addressing our discipline disparities and will represent our community finally acknowledging our problems and stepping up to fix them.

Rebecca H. Finkel, Collingswood

The current rash of auto vandalism in city neighborhoods is despicable. I understand Philly police can’t be everywhere all the time, so why can’t the city of Philadelphia and/or private security contractors initiate a “drone deterrent force” in those neighborhoods that are being targeted? I’m not an expert on drones, but I’ve seen some amazing uses of these small aircraft. I envision fleets of drones ready and able to deploy within minutes to targeted neighborhoods, with the capability of floodlights, speaker systems, and video cameras to scare, capture images, and warn vandals that the police are on the way to arrest them.

Rick Goldberg, Warminster

As another aging industrial site puts another community at risk of possible contamination — this time risking not only Bartram’s Garden’s neighbors but visitors from across the city — we are warned again: Toxic facilities built today will affect the health of communities for generations. Our region is seeing petrochemical expansion with proposed liquefied natural gas, hydrogen, and other fossil fuel projects that threaten Black and brown communities in areas like Grays Ferry, Nicetown, and Chester.

These communities have paid the price, while chemical, energy, and other industrial corporations profited. These same communities are now more likely to face leaks and other problems as climate change (caused by emissions from this infrastructure) increases flooding in the region. Pennsylvanians have a constitutionally guaranteed right to clean air and water, but recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings and a long history of industry cover-ups mean that communities are unsafe regardless of the “regulations” on the books.

We need our elected officials to take a stand against petrochemical buildout and proposed hydrogen projects in our region. While climate change and toxic accidents affect us all, Black and brown communities have already borne the brunt of our chemical and fossil fuel dependence for far too long.

Linnea Bond, health and environmental education director, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Donald Trump’s demand for compensation for funds spent campaigning against Joe Biden is laughable. Trump could have spent those funds wisely by promoting himself as a candidate and explaining how he would govern if elected. Instead, he employed his usual strategy of spreading lies and misinformation and conducting ad hominem attacks on Biden. Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race is no more fraudulent than the claims made by Trump and his campaign. Trump’s loss in the New York fraud case, his Trump University scam, and serial stiffing of contractors render him uniquely unsuitable to carp about fraud. Moderate or thoughtful voters, even Republicans, would like to see policy discussions more than the usual bombast offered by Trump. How does he plan to end inflation, secure the border, and reduce taxes? What programs or departments will be cut to build more miles of “the wall” or to accommodate reduced taxes? Exactly whose taxes will be cut and at what expense to low- or middle-income families? Trump has always been a triumph of form over substance. Policies require actual vision, attention to detail, and real work, none of which are Trump traits, unlike fraud.

Stewart Speck, Ardmore, speckstewart@gmail.com

In the last six months of his presidency, President Joe Biden should adopt peacemaking as his legacy. He should not burden the anticipated administration of Kamala Harris with being the arms supplier for two unwinnable wars. Israel/Palestine and Ukraine deserve, and cry out for, peace.

Andrew Mills, Lower Gwynedd

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