Sounding off: No more money for public schools

Here we go again with Gov. Tom Wolf’s rhetoric on more funding for public schools. Test scores prove that throwing more money at schools does nothing to improve our children’s education.

Teachers unions are the problem. They strike often and mostly for the same two reasons: more money and more benefits. They say they care about the kids. Right. Then advocate for the return to in-school learning for all districts, and stop striking. Outlaw teachers strikes in Pennsylvania. I don’t think kids are learning at home — they’re in Walmart with their grandparents.

Make teachers in Pennsylvania state employees with a tiered structured pay scale. Assign them to a school district to work. In Pennsylvania, the wealthier the district, the higher the salary. The playing field would be leveled. Raise the state’s sales tax to make it happen.

School districts at this time should be freezing tax rates or giving tax rebates. The last thing districts should be doing is raising taxes. For what? Many schools still aren’t open, hence less capital expenditures. Lower the thermostat, turn off lights not needed. Less water; no toilets flushing. Less cleaning; reduce custodial staff. No kids to feed; lower costs in the cafeteria department.

There is no funding problem when it comes to Pennsylvania public schools. The districts just take what they need from the taxpayer.

Paul A. Hornbake, Bolivar

Trump the only one to act on immigration reform

President Biden has gone against what recent presidents (and some congressmen) talked about on the subject of immigration reform. President Trump was the only one who did something about it.

If you search “Where does Trump get his dumb ideas?” on YouTube, you will see Trump watching Sen. Dianne Feinstein talk about immigration reform, and you will see former Sen. Harry Reid, President Bill Clinton, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton and President Obama talking about it, too. They did nothing about it except talk.

Trump was the only one who acted, and Biden seems to want to stop the wishes and concerns of past politicians and the American people. He and the Democratic Party are a bunch of hypocrites.

Jim Meyer, Jefferson Township, Butler County

Legitimize marijuana the right way

Regarding the article “Gov. Wolf seeks income tax hike to pay for big increase in school funding” (Feb. 2, TribLIVE): Anyone with a modicum of common sense can envision Gov. Tom Wolf’s MO in his proposal for a massive tax increase. There is no funding crisis simply because Tom Wolf proclaims it to be so.

I believe Wolf is using his expertise in political theater to manufacture a crisis. Then the legalization of marijuana becomes more appealing to the masses. Wolf is setting up Fetterman to ride in on his white horse to win your vote.

If Wolf wants bipartisan support to legalize marijuana, he should stop using grow licenses as political favor payouts. Wolf was heavily criticized when he awarded a grow license to his former policy adviser. And it’s not just Democrats, either. Just last year, two major Republican donors were also granted licenses valued at $25 million.

Most are not opposed to the legalization of marijuana. We are, however, in opposition to the way Republicans and Democrats are treating it as a personal cash cow. If you want the industry to be respected and accepted, you need to stop delegitimizing it by treating it like a rigged raffle to pay off your friends.

Cindy Waeltermann, McCandless

In defense of Sen. Pat Toomey

When I heard this on the news, I was stunned and had to see it in print: “We did not send him there to vote his conscience,” David Ball, chair of the Washington County Republican Party, told KDKA political editor Jon Delano. “We did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us, and we feel very strongly that he did not represent us.”

Ball is speaking, of course, of Sen. Pat Toomey and his guilty vote of President Trump in the recent impeachment trial. No senator should be vilified by doing what he or she thinks is right. Ball is thinking only about his party and how all should conform to the party’s ways to keep its strength.

I know about conformity. I was a schoolteacher. Schools need conformity to instruct masses of students effectively and efficiently. But independent thinking is good, too. Consider what country has the most Nobel Prize winners: America has 388 Nobel Prize winners, and Great Britain is second with 134, just over a third the number.

Congratulations, Mr. Toomey, for being a nonconformist independent-thinking Republican senator.

Richard Patton, Franklin Township, Beaver County

Impeachment and the First Amendment

One reads with interest Jonah Goldberg’s essay “Impeachment trials aren’t about proving criminal behavior” decrying how lawyer pundits discuss impeachment, a political process, in terms of criminal proceedings. But one need not be a President Trump supporter to recognize the danger in asserting that, during impeachment, Congress merely plays a political role, similar to a corporate board of directors disciplining a company executive, and so can act without regard to the implications of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held, even in cases pertaining to civil election laws, that the major purpose of the First Amendment is protecting free discussion of government affairs and that the most urgent application of that protection is campaign speech. The House managers’ impeachment presentation cited statements made by Trump both during the 2020 campaign and in the post-election period up through Jan. 6. Given the basis the House chose to rely on in passing the article of impeachment, reasonable people might expect evidence and/or an explanation how the acts complained of are not protected speech.

Stated more simply, when a corporate board of directors disciplines a company executive, such action must still comply with the corporation’s bylaws. So, too, even though impeachment is a political remedy and not a criminal action, it remains government action by both houses of Congress and, like other government actions, it should remain subject to the limits imposed by the First Amendment.

David Thomas, Bradford Woods

Democrats no longer for working class

I feel that today’s Democratic Party is no longer the party of the working class like it used to be. Now it seems to be the party of the rich, which includes big tech, Wall Street and celebrities. It also includes government employees, mainstream media and certain “identity” groups.

I am very dismayed that the Democrats seem to be becoming the party that punishes working people. On his very first day in office, President Biden revoked the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which resulted in the elimination of 11,000 jobs, the majority being good-paying union tradesman jobs. I wonder if the party no longer supports private sector union jobs, just public employee unions.

Biden also halted construction of the Mexico border wall, which also resulted in the loss of many jobs. More importantly, I fear the Democrats’ agenda includes the encouragement of illegal immigration and amnesty for the undocumented, which will lead to higher unemployment and lower wages for the American citizens who can least afford it. Rich members of the Democratic Party are in favor of lower wages so that their businesses earn higher profits. Indeed, rich tech companies would rather import lower-paid tech workers from India than hire Americans.

It’s becoming clear to me that Democrats no longer support the working class.

Ken Kretschman, Crafton

Thanks to GOP senators who did right thing

To the Republican senators,

We all watched and listened during the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. I believe the evidence was quite clear that Trump incited the riot that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6. You Republican senators who voted to acquit have failed to live up to your constitutional duty, having placed party and power above your oath. You are cowards. You have now placed Trump above the law and have saddled the Republican Party and the American people with Trump and his family for years to come. The voters will remember this at the ballot box.

Thank you to those senators who made the right and moral decision; you stood up for your constitutional oath. We are grateful.

Carolyn McConnell, Buffalo Township