Letters to the Editor | Dec. 25, 2022

Cheers for the editorial supporting family choice in housing. Similar choices should be available in education. Current School District of Philadelphia policies are designed to steer low-income students into segregated schools. According to 2018-19 district data, 77% of K-8 students attend schools to which they are assigned based on their address. Two results stand out: 1) Two-thirds of those students attend schools that are 90% or more nonwhite; and 2) Less than 5% of students living in the city’s high-poverty regions (including Kensington, Fairhill, Olney, Overbrook, and Southwest) attend high-achieving schools. Notably, in these latter regions, the only students attending high-achieving schools are those who have managed to enroll in a school other than their assigned neighborhood school. In a city that determines enrollment this way, housing and education policy are closely connected. To accelerate the undoing of decades of discrimination, housing voucher holders should be able to access both abundant rental housing and schools “in all of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.”

Mark Gleason, Philadelphia, mark@greaterphila.org

More than 200 people under the age of 18, mostly children of color, were shot in Philadelphia in 2022. That’s about 10 Sandy Hooks in just one year. After the Sandy Hook massacre, Connecticut legislators passed wide-ranging gun control legislation, signed into law by Gov. Dannel Malloy in April 2013. The legislation proved that gun violence is preventable because Connecticut’s gun deaths are consistently the lowest in the nation. By contrast, Pennsylvania Republicans have repeatedly blocked commonsense gun safety measures and Philadelphia is unable to enact those laws on its own. The fact that the Republican-led legislature declines to take up gun control means we will continue to see this epidemic of gun violence. How a civilized society tolerates this abhorrent dereliction of duty by elected officials confounds and terrifies me. I fear to confront the magnitude of racism at the core of the disparity between how Connecticut dealt with the tragic deaths of 20 white children and the inaction on the part of politicians to deal with violence against children of color.

Sara Wenger, Ambler

In editorializing against the Chester Water Authority sale, The Inquirer endorses a status quo that includes secret water rate hikes and no assistance for low-income families. With no notice, consumer participation or third-party review, CWA approved two rate increases in 2022. Unlike the CWA, Pennsylvania’s water companies’ rates are set by independent Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission experts based on a lengthy and thorough analysis of system needs. As a former state and federal regulator, I know this model focuses on long-term consumer and infrastructure needs, not politics. While extolling water affordability, the editorial failed to consider affordability programs offered by private water systems, which offer reduced rates for low-income customers — something many government-run systems, such as CWA, do not offer.

As a Chester County resident and head of the National Association of Water Companies, it’s my sincere hope residents recognize the importance of water quality and infrastructure investment. Unlike The Inquirer, I believe it should be done in public, not behind closed doors, and include help for low-income customers, not done at their expense.

Robert Powelson, president and CEO, National Association of Water Companies

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