Letters to the Editor | June 2, 2026

In their recent op-ed, Walter Tsou and Jose DeMarco urged us to contact our elected officials to address the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In Pennsylvania, one way to advocate for these two programs is to ask our state senators to support the $1.36 billion increase for the Department of Human Services that Gov. Josh Shapiro requested in February, and that the Pennsylvania House approved in April. A significant part of this increase will cover the escalation in medical and prescription costs for the three million low-income residents in the state.

Additional money would also be used to cover administrative costs for the SNAP program that have now shifted onto the state. This increase will help lower the state’s error rates in SNAP, which could lead to reduced federal payments to the program. Advocating for these increases in the state budget allows us to be proactive in protecting current SNAP and Medicaid recipients. You can find your state senators and their contact information by going to palegis.us/find-my-legislator.

Coleman Poses, Philadelphia

Cassandra St. Vil, CEO of Philadelphia Charters for Excellence, wrote a letter to the editor to undercut the fact that a public school system with charter schools does, in fact, remove students and funding from the existing public school system. She cites an unrelated study of racial discrimination while asserting the Philadelphia School District should not be the judge of “whether public charter schools — who are treated as direct competitors for enrollment and funding — should continue to exist.”

That is exactly what charter schools are, and why they exist. They are competitors and are supposed to bring innovation and excellence. They frequently do not. They always take students one by one out of public school classrooms across the city. This slow deflation — as parents search for teaching excellence at charters that they are often unable to find — eventually leads exactly here: to an enrollment drop in public schools that requires much-lamented school closures because there is no longer the headcount to keep public schools open. The fight to save all city public schools was over when public charter schools were allowed in to supposedly bring excellence.

Ann Burruss, Newark, Del.

So, instead of implementing a tax that charges hotels and short-term rentals like Airbnb at the same rate, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has proposed an even lower rate for hotels and a much higher rate for short-term rentals. No surprise; Mayor Parker always sides with the well-connected and monied. She sided with wealthy sports team owners when they claimed they wanted to build a stadium in Center City, even though polls indicated that a majority of Philadelphians were against it. She wants to tax the little guy who takes an Uber while doing nothing about the fat cats who get reduced parking rates for daily adding congestion to Center City. And to top it off, when City Council would not bow to her desire to include higher-level earners in its low-income housing plan, she did not hold back on showing her displeasure. When is Mayor Parker going to start working for the interests of the people who voted for her, the little guy?

Steven B. Erisoty, Philadelphia

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.