Letters to the Editor | June 28, 2023

Just when you thought education matters couldn’t get any worse, a recent report reveals that compared with the previous school year, Pennsylvania lost a record number of teachers. Nearly 10,000 teachers left the ranks while only 5,000 new ones were certified. Teacher turnover has a negative impact on student outcomes and affects districts financially. This comes at a time when the legislature is under a court order to fix funding for public education, and we must assume that any fix would include making teaching a more attractive profession.

What will not make teaching more attractive is Gov. Josh Shapiro’s revelation that he supports using state money to provide vouchers to students attending private schools. Shapiro, who attended a private religious school, seems to have joined the ranks of various Christian groups that don’t believe in the separation of church and state. Using public money for private education weakens public education at a critical time when it needs our full-blown support. We all need to make sure the governor gets that message.

R. Thomas Berner, Bellefonte, penbrookwriter@comcast.net

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The League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County joins education and good governance organizations across the state in loudly opposing Senate Bill 795, a bill to create a new private school voucher program — called Lifeline Scholarships — that would drain millions of dollars away from state taxpayers and public schools. The state already funds two private school voucher programs, currently totaling $340 million a year, that provide tax credits to parents for private school tuition. The commonwealth has never directly given families money to pay for private school, as SB 795 proposes.

Under SB 795, money would go directly to the private schools, and parents would not be taxed or required to meet any income-eligibility test. Please go to www.legis.state.pa.us, find your local legislators, and urge them to vote against this bill. All children deserve access to high-quality public education. It is the legislature’s constitutional duty to fix the current school funding system by enacting a new funding formula. We believe it is irresponsible to appropriate state funds for tuition vouchers that benefit private and religious schools when the commonwealth hasn’t met its most basic duty to students who attend our public schools.

Anne Mosakowski, president, League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County

Columnist Jonathan Zimmerman is right: We can’t stop a group that wants to rent the Museum of the American Revolution for its cocktail party. However, we can be sure that the museum does not change anything in its exhibits when this group uses the venue for its event. It would be great if the Moms for Liberty members had to go through the current exhibits to get to their hors d’oeuvres. Maybe it would force them to confront their bigotry and narrow-minded opinions about history and see our country for what it truly is — with its faults as well as its achievements. We stumble and make mistakes, but we should never hide from what we have done or what we can achieve. Our battle for the soul of our nation and democracy will be fought for years to come and should never be abandoned. We as a people must continue to be open-minded, inclusive, and always strive to be better, not hateful and narrow-minded.

Vince McGinley, Haddon Heights

The Inquirer recently published an op-ed where the writer claimed to be “pro-life,” yet within the piece, he was rather loose in labeling both Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Bill 428 as “pro-abortion,” perhaps knowing that terminology would be more inflammatory. Last time I checked, many people, including myself, are “pro-choice.” That means we support a woman’s right to make her own health-care choices (including to have or not have an abortion), but that certainly does not mean we are pro-abortion. As the writer focused on the abortion issue alone (not on the totality of both the mother’s and child’s lives), perhaps he should have called himself and his organization “antiabortion,” “anti-choice,” or “pro-forced birth,” rather than “pro-life.”

Kent Kingan, Malvern

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Michael J. McMonagle’s op-ed on abortion is morally wrong and incoherent. He states that “abortion is the direct and intentional killing of a child in the womb,” but, in truth, an embryo or fetus is no more a child than an acorn is an oak. He holds that the “rape exception” that would allow abortion “removes all of the love and justice from the pro-life position” and “punishes the child for the crime of his or her biological father.” As such, he gives the fetus and the rapist more personhood than he does the woman who has been so brutally assaulted, placing her value in third place (if that). Finally, while he may extol “our Philadelphia-area pro-life movement,” no movement that falsely equates a fetus as a person, rationalizes away sexual violence, and diminishes women in so many ways should be called “pro-life.” It is more accurately described as pro-criminal and anti-women.

Bill Dingfelder, Philadelphia

In her June 26 column on the recent coup attempt by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary Wagner Group military company, Trudy Rubin demonstrated remarkable understanding of the events leading up to and following the situation. Her unique attention to detail is illustrated by noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin — in a recorded video slamming the mutiny — did not color his hair as he usually does for public appearances. She also included a range of unanswered questions. Among them: Why did the Wagner Group retreat, and why would Putin say that Belarus mediated the truce? Finally, she noted that this was an opportunity for President Joe Biden and NATO allies to take advantage of the chaos and give Ukrainians the weapons that could end the war. I agree — they should strike while the iron is hot.

Joel Chinitz, Philadelphia, jjchin@comcast.net

Former President Donald Trump famously said, “I’m really rich.” Yet his supporters persist in giving him money — $12 million within days after his first indictment, $4 million within one day after the second. That’s a waste. A man worth around $2.5 billion doesn’t need money. A man with a $100 million, three-story penthouse apartment decorated in gold and marble, who lives in his own posh resort with chandeliers in the bathrooms, and who spends a lot of time leisurely playing golf, often on courses he owns, shouldn’t need their money.

Trump can fund his own court and campaign costs with ease. The $5 million award in the E. Jean Carroll case is chump change. What this billionaire needs now is not money from his supporters — many of whom are described as godly and evangelical — but prayer. Loyal Trump supporters should save their hard-earned money and, instead, pledge novenas, most likely to St. Jude, patron saint of the unlikely and desperate, or perhaps to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.

Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem

I don’t imagine anyone reading the news about the doomed passengers and crew of the Titan submersible has anything to say other than the usual platitudes, and yes, this is tragic news. However, the seemingly infinite and ongoing coverage of the aftermath will sadly clog up the news cycle for God knows how long. The sensationalism and obsession with such tragic stories never cease in feeding our ever-shorter attention spans.

Compare that to the recent story about the high school senior who was shot 10 times, yet fought to complete his senior year studies to graduate on time. He was then prohibited by the principal from attending his prom and walking in his graduation ceremony. That is a narrative that news consumers should invest in and care deeply about. I understand the adage, “If it bleeds, it leads,” but just because this worked for the last 100-plus years in mainstream journalism does not mean we have to continue to be bogged down by the same sensationalism at the cost of local human interest stories that mean something here and now.

Michael Dalbey, Cherry Hill

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