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Real cost of student loan forgiveness

Each spring, as tassels are turned and degrees are conferred, college graduates across the country celebrate the culmination of years of study, sacrifice and — inevitably for many — debt. Against this backdrop, the idea of student loan forgiveness is touted by many as a compassionate and progressive policy, a generous gift to the newest members of the workforce. But such a policy, while emotionally appealing, is fraught with economic, moral and social consequences that far outweigh its supposed benefits. Let us begin with a simple question: If student loan forgiveness is ...

May 20 primary demands your attention

Tuesday, May 20, 2025, arrives with a civic duty: the municipal primary election. Polls will open across Mifflin and Juniata counties, offering every registered voter a direct hand in shaping local governance. Local primary elections are where democracy begins. This is not a distant debate; these are choices about the people who will oversee our schools, ensure our safety, manage our finances, and make decisions impacting our daily lives. Participation in these local contests forms the foundation of how our communities function and evolve. In Mifflin County, voters from Armagh to ...

Energy development still needed

Jason Fink, president and CEO for the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, is right to sound the alarm. Fink detailed in his monthly column in Chamber Connection, provided with last Wednesday’s edition of the Sun-Gazette, the risks of an energy crisis in our state and region. “We are seeing greater demand and are getting to the point where the demand is going to outpace supply,” he wrote. “Our electric bills over the past several years have been a telling sign for this increased demand. Prices continue to go up, and no new plants are coming online to meet the ...

Lawmaker’s leadership on Second Amendment appreciated

We are happy to learn from the office of state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, that the legislator recently attended our region’s National Rifle Association banquet in Hughesville. The state representative discussed his efforts in the legislature to secure concealed-carry rights in Pennsylvania and to prevent municipalities from overstepping their authority and attempting unconstitutional limits on the Second Amendment. “I will always strongly support our right to own firearms,” Hamm said in an email newsletter detailing his attendance at the banquet. His efforts on ...

Climate for electric vehicles changing

The times they are a changin’, especially on progressive climate dogma. On Thursday the House voted in strong bipartisan fashion to overturn the EV mandate the Biden Administration let California impose on the rest of America. The vote was 246-164 for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to repeal the waiver that the Environmental Protection Agency granted California for its EV mandate. The waiver provision was written to let California address smog. But Sacramento Democrats lobbied the Biden EPA to let it apply to carbon emissions. The mandate is ludicrously impossible to ...

Students need sleep

Hoping to improve academic success and reduce chronic absences, a high school in Mansfield, Ohio, is piloting a new curriculum to teach teens how to get a good night’s sleep. “It might sound odd to say that kids in high school have to learn the skills to sleep,” Mansfield health teacher Tony Davis told the Associated Press. “But you’d be shocked how many just don’t know how to sleep.” The class, “Sleep to Be a Better You,” appears to be having an impact, as the absence rate has dropped from 44% in 2021 to a current 32% – still high, but a start. Studies have ...