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School funding a state-created problem

Education is built on the basics. ABCs become words, then sentences, then books. Counting becomes adding, then long division, then algebra. If you don’t get a good grounding at the primary level, everything gets harder until the learning process falls apart with the advanced material. That might be the issue with school districts and cyber charter schools. They are facing off over money as well as accountability and test scores. But this isn’t a fight they started. It’s a battleground the state controls. The latest example is a lawsuit from four regional schools: Leechburg ...

Thankfulness can be an abstract concept

In 2006, a few days before Christmas, doctors announced my wife had six months to live. She had, they said, a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs. There was really nothing that could be done. We had a one-year-old and I had been told my job was coming to an end the same day of the diagnosis. Thankfully, it was a misdiagnosis. Not only did I keep my job, but I kept my wife. Ten years later, doctors informed my wife they suspected she had a genetic form of lung cancer. Had my wife not been misdiagnosed in 2006, they would not have known about her lung cancer in 2016. My wife ...

Put that smile to work, Mr. Mayor

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s smile carried him a long way toward being elected. And he used his affability again on Friday, turning the meeting he had requested with President Donald Trump into an Oval Office lovefest. Now it’s time for the mayor-elect to employ the power of smiling to make day-to-day life better for New Yorkers when they are compelled to interact with city employees. Mamdani needs to call on the 300,000 city employees to show warmth, respect and courtesy to the public. The spirit of a smile. Walk into a city agency or court building seeking help, ...

How to stay safe on Central Pennsylvania’s winter roads

Snow fell again across the area this week. The season’s first coating of white has a way of reminding us how quickly a routine drive can turn risky. And most of us will still head out to work, to school, etc., because staying home isn’t always an option. That might be a mistake. Last winter, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) logged 8,329 crashes on snowy, icy or slushy roads. That stretch of misfortune included 29 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries for people statewide. We know what winter driving looks like around here. We’ve seen cars fishtailing or unable ...

Holiday shopping season arrives

This past weekend brought Small Business Saturday and the start of 2025’s holiday shopping season. We understand the impulse to decry the consumerism of the season — to search for something more authentic or more meaningful. And we believe there certainly should be days and moments ahead of the holidays for reflection on the season’s meaning. But we also must defend consumerism. Our economy — and our society supported by that economy — is built on certain precepts — our towns, our neighborhoods, our families are able to grow, to chase their dreams and to enjoy their ...

Uncommon sense from United Nations

Maybe the United Nations isn’t as useless as it so often shows. A little over a week ago the Security Council endorsed President Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, ratifying for the first time the requirements that Hamas disarm and Gaza be demilitarized. The resolution passed 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining. It’s a setback for the terrorists. Many had worried that the U.S. jaunt to the Security Council would come at the price of bending the peace plan’s terms for Hamas or adding anti-Israel terms. Would France’s Emmanuel Macron elbow his way into the deal’s ...