Letters to the Editor | March 8, 2026
Inquirer readers on the Iran War and plans to close some Philadelphia public schools.

Amateur night
It’s hard to figure out how you can be negotiating with someone one day and at war with them the next. How much time, consideration, and preparation does that timetable allow for? Maybe three days into the conflict, you would not be asking your citizens to flee for their lives from 14 countries in the Middle East, to the point that the Israelis are busing our people to Egypt, one of the countries on the “get out of town” list. Maybe closer communication with the Kuwaitis would have prevented three of our fighter jets from being shot down. Aren’t they expensive? Are we in such a rush to act alongside the Israelis, who really have no need of our help in carrying out a long-distance assassination? We are going to war with a nation of 93 million people who have a million men under arms to put down any uprising if it were to arise (no sign yet). What is the plan? The whole operation seems like a poorly thought-out, shoot-from-the-hip misadventure from an incurious, lazy chief executive and his officious sycophants. Sadly, we have three more years with this guy. Given that length of time, you can use your own imagination to conjure what other tragic mischief he will get us into.
Pasquale Procacci, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Small classes, big results
Well, of course, the parents and students in many of the schools slated for closing in Philadelphia want them to remain open. They have smaller classes and are not crowded, which should be the case for all our students in all our schools. Harrisburg needs to fund the schools so all students have smaller classes and are not crowded. I know what crowding means. It means there are over 32 students in a class, which is not appropriate for a bunch of young students. It can mean a teacher “floats” among classrooms so they do not have a room or a desk to work from, but, in fact, rush from one classroom to another to try to be ready for the next batch of students coming in. All resources get stretched thin. Our students deserve better.
Penny Cutler, Lafayette Hill
Donations also a choice
I had to shake my head reading the op-ed by Janine Yass, the wife of a man who has a net worth of $65 billion and is the richest person in Pennsylvania. If he and his wife were genuinely interested in providing “school choice” for students to attend private school, they would not be asking taxpayers to foot the bill. Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Yass would be funding public schools to make them better, or fund scholarships for students to attend elsewhere. How many students could be served by donating simply 10% of their assets?
Michael J. Ciavola, Newtown Square
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