Letters to the Editor | May 31, 2024

As I read about the numerous incidents over the weekend involving teens at the Jersey Shore, it reaffirmed my belief that the real crisis among young people today is parents. I’ve been an educator for over a decade and can anecdotally say there is a disturbing trend among too many of today’s parents: They want absolutely no accountability for their children. In school, they argue at the slightest consequence and often bully administrators or teachers into reversing any consequence. On the sports field, parents get upset when a sports call goes against their child, or a coach benches their child, either due to athletic performance or behavior.

This attitude instills a belief that it’s always someone else’s fault and that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, with no fear of repercussions. It’s no surprise to me that teens are acting this way, en masse, in public on the boardwalk. We can pour more money into schools and school programming, raise teacher salaries, and even have year-round school, but none of it will make a difference if parents don’t start doing their job and teach basic respect, accountability, and decency. It starts at home.

Nick D’Orazio, Conshohocken, nickdorazio01@gmail.com

It is with deep dismay that I again read rosy descriptions of Lifeline Scholarships. This time from David Hardy, a fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation (funded by conservative donors). The other day, it was a letter by Janine Yass. The only thing accurate about these scenarios is that Pennsylvania school kids need a lifeline, but this bill won’t provide it.

The problem is not “Democrats pushing past partisanship.” Republicans controlled both chambers until 2023. Despite a 2016 lawsuit, the legislature ignored school funding for years. In February 2023, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer ruled the legislature had failed to provide the thorough and efficient education mandated by the state constitution. We need to fix our schools for all children. The Lifeline bill would help 16,000 of the 210,000 students attending Pennsylvania’s worst schools, leaving 90% on the sinking Titanic. Not nearly good enough. Furthermore, it diverts attention from the large investment we need to make to properly fund all our public schools. Let’s do it for all kids, not just a few.

Rachel Sorokin Goff, Elkins Park

David Hardy’s op-ed in support of Lifeline Scholarships amounts to nothing more than education choice for the hell of it. Pennsylvania’s “choice” experiment is a national embarrassment. Publications as diverse as the New Republic and Forbes magazine have documented the utter waste of more than $1.5 billion a year in subsidies for “choices” that are wholly unaccountable to taxpayers, that deprive public schools of resources needed to improve, and that fail to educate children better than community schools. Gov. Josh Shapiro inherited this mess. But instead of making “choice” accountable and giving parents informed choices, he compounds the mess, walking away from his constitutional duty to put public schools first. He allows a cyber school to purchase a parking lot while 118 Philadelphia schools close because it’s too hot for children to learn. Businesses must scratch their heads about a state that wastes so much financial and human capital.

Tim Potts, Carlisle

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