Bucks
Potpourri
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Do you ever get those “I wonder” moments? I do…often. Here are a number of them on my list…some are local, some national. Let’s start with the local scene.
The Quakertown School District is ready to abandon the Haycock (Township) Elementary School. The reasons given are that the building needs major repairs and the number of children served is smaller than the other five elementary schools in the district.
Every year, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) shows that Haycock Elementary gives one of the best performances of the six elementary schools in the Quakertown district. The district is willing to close the Haycock school but not let Haycock taxpayers leave for the Palisades School District. Many of the "Haycockers" would gladly leave the Quakertown school district behind. Some day, some court will decide whether residents can move their children to a different school district because of academic performance.
Here’s another example. For years, Riegelsville taxpayers have been trying to leave the Easton School District for Palisades. Haycock and the Quakertown School District have been burrs under each of their saddles. Should Quakertown let Haycock secede?
And speaking about public schools, I wonder when the Pennsylvania legislature will finally conclude that the property tax should not be the major revenue source for education? I’ve said for years that it should be based on a broader tax like income or sales. That way, every child would receive the same economic support instead of the unequal property tax method. As you know, the value of public education varies by zip code.
For those who argue that local control must be maintained, no matter the cost, consider this. Actually, there is no local control at all. The Pennsylvania Department of Education and teachers’ unions determine the curriculum and the annual school tax, respectively. Only once in a great while, school board directors get to choose their school superintendent…but take the blame for the cost of education.
While I’m at it, I wonder when the
state legislature will decide to increase the teaching days from 180 to 240
[days] so
Items:
It obviously pays to be a high school football coach. Quakertown High School coach John Donnelly is moving to Central Bucks East High School to run its football program and teach history. Central Bucks East reportedly will pay him $109,284 for his service as a coach and teacher. I wonder why Central Bucks East didn’t hire a starting history teacher for $44,000 and pay $7,000 for a part time coach?
Turning to the nation, did you
notice that the New York State Catholic Conference is lobbying against a bill,
which would open the window of
“If the New York Catholic Conference stops this reform,” Lawrence Lessig wrote in the New York Times (April 27), “it will achieve three things. First, it will protect its own wealth. Second, it will assure that potentially thousands of victims who have been abused by priests will have no opportunity for compensation. And third, it will help preserve a system of irresponsibility that makes it too easy to ignore child sexual abuse.”
I wonder when the
I wonder when we Americans will figure out that bad habits reduce our life expectancy? Did you see the Associated Press story which stated that four common bad habits combined- smoking, drinking too much, inactivity, and poor diet- can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests?
Did you read Bethany McLean’s op-ed column in the New York Times (April 27)? She claims that the real villain of the financial crisis, which resulted in the Great Recession, was not Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s now notorious investment banker, but the United States Congress?
“Yet, in the end, it comes down to this,” McLean wrote. “Goldman Sachs and even the rating agencies never had any duty to protect us from their greed. There was one entity that did- our government.
“It was Congress that sat idly as consumer advocates warned that people were getting loans they’d never be able to pay back. It was Congress that refused to regulate derivatives, despite ample evidence dating back to 1994 of the dangers they posed. It was Congress that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banking, yet failed to update the fraying regulatory system.
“It was Congress that spread the politically convenient gospel of home ownership, despite data and testimony showing that much of what was going on had little to do with putting people in homes. And it’s Congress that has been either unwilling or unable to put in place rules that have a shot at making things better.”
As my friend, the QNB banker Philip Miller always says, “It’s enough to make you weak!”
And do you wonder why
“The conservatives goal is to overturn the last 70 years of judicial understandings and bring us back to a time when courts voided minimum-wage laws and all manner of other economic regulations,” E. J. Dionne wrote for the Washington Post (April 27). “Liberals must counter conservative judges who are rolling back progressive policies.”
Finally, I wonder about the national Republican Party’s agenda. As a registered Republican, I am puzzled by the GOP’s strategy to overturn the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. It’s obvious that the Republican leadership in Congress has convinced its caucus to “just say no” to any proposal which President Obama’s administration suggests. Will that strategy work?
I wonder whether the Republicans are paying too much attention to the far right, driven by angry, older, and mostly white males.
I wonder?
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith