Letters to the Editor | Sept. 21, 2022

It’s no secret that Philadelphia is experiencing a gun violence epidemic. We must stop tying the hands of police and letting dangerous criminals go, sending the message that if you commit a crime in Philadelphia, you will not be punished. It emboldens people to commit crimes and removes morale from our police officers.

I am and will always be a supporter of criminal justice reform. At the same time, it is important that we hold violent criminals accountable for their actions. We should not be letting a small percentage of individuals dictate how the majority live, work, and play. You can promote reform, address systemic barriers, and hold criminals accountable as well — these things can happen simultaneously.

Just this year, out of 7,000 violent offenses, roughly 4,500 of them were dismissed. I recognize that many of the individuals who have been in and out of the criminal legal system may continue to act out in a society where they do not perceive hope or opportunity. This despair starts in places like schools, which continue to fail our children consistently.

The Philadelphia School District’s scorecard showed that, in 2019, only one-third of third graders could read at grade level. This failure of the public education system has made us all coconspirators in the decline of our communities. We need to invest in our children and their futures now, as their lives depend on it at this point.

We need action and accountability at every level of government; from Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and state lawmakers such as myself. We need to find solutions not only to the gun violence crisis but to its systemic causes, and the lack of accountability that allows it to continue.

Amen Brown, state representative, Philadelphia

Energy shortages, spotty reliability, and spiking prices are increasingly common across the country. While the story is complicated, the underlying reasons aren’t. They’re mostly about infrastructure.

Regulatory obstacles or shutdowns of power plants and pipelines have reduced existing and planned infrastructure to serve energy consumers in Pennsylvania and especially in New Jersey. Policymakers hope wind and solar will replace fossil fuels, yet scaled-up renewables are still a long way off and may never come to fruition. And they’re not cheap.

Inevitably, there’s a mismatch between consumers’ energy needs and the ability of our infrastructure to meet them. That means limited or interrupted supplies and much higher costs for everyone, a scenario that’s already playing out in California and elsewhere. We shouldn’t repeat it here.

When consumers understand that energy policy is pointing to limited supply, spotty reliability, and spiking costs, they might want that infrastructure back.

Christopher S. Mohler, Pottstown

Whether a prospective teacher is required to pass college math, reading, and writing courses, or standardized tests in those subjects, the fact remains that no one has to pass a course or test based on what good teachers know and can do. Until states, which certify teachers, develop and administer such assessments, we will continue to certify people who lack essential real-world skills, and we will exclude talented people from the profession who could do the job well. With all the talented educational researchers here, the Pennsylvania Department of Education should be able to develop such an assessment quickly and avoid its practice of lowering the bar to recruit new teachers.

But effectively assessing prospective teachers’ skills will not alone solve the problem of a teacher shortage. For as my semiliterate grandfather knew, you do not fix a leaky barrel by pouring more water into it.

Debra Weiner, Quakertown

In Monday’s edition, Attorney General Larry Krasner is berated for not complying with a legally authorized subpoena. Based on stall tactics, it takes years until the courts resolve the issues. In that process, those subpoenaed have the scope of the allegations whittled down to a toothpick, minimizing the chance of successful prosecution. If one man or some men are above the law, then all men are above the law.

Joel H. Beldner, Glenmoore

A recent editorial (“It’s time to repeal the Pa. law that allows the sale of municipal water systems,” Sept. 18) got it right: Privatizations like those proposed in Bucks and Delaware Counties are bad deals for consumers and taxpayers, but great deals for the for-profit companies trying to buy them.

That’s why Delaware County Council filed a lawsuit to stop the sale of DELCORA to Aqua Pennsylvania. The sale of this public asset was done as a no-bid deal with minimal public discussion.

That sort of backroom negotiation is no doubt how it ended up that Aqua would dramatically underpay for DELCORA. Aqua Pennsylvania offered $1.1 billion to purchase the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, but only $276 million for DELOCRA, even though DELCORA serves more customers than the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority. Moreover, Aqua wants to force the county to use the sale proceeds to offset its rate increases over the next decade. In essence, Aqua would get DELCORA and taxpayers would get little to nothing.

All of these facts are why the administrative law judge of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission found that the DELCORA deal would provide no benefit to ratepayers. I agree.

Given the amount of money Aqua stands to make from the DELCORA sale, it’s unsurprising the company has begun a public relations push full of misleading political campaign-style attacks. Aqua can send out more mailers as it has threatened to do, but it won’t change the facts: The sale of DELCORA is a bad deal for Delaware County ratepayers and shouldn’t go forward.

William F. Martin, solicitor, Delaware County, Media

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