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Future of school funding needs to drive budget process

Editorials

As we noted in Sunday’s editorial — and a year ago and before — the state and its budget have to contend with court rulings that funding public schools by district has led to unconstitutional imbalances. For decades, the primary source of funding for public schools in Pennsylvania has been property taxes, assessed by local school districts. One affect of this has been that schools in communities with higher property values are able to provide greater resources to their students. Another aspect is that officials would be in better fiscal positions to address property taxes — ...

Readers' opinions

Letters to the Editor

Support small businesses this Valentine’s Day To the Editor: As Valentine’s Day approaches, many of us are thinking about small gestures that show appreciation—flowers, chocolates, a thoughtful card. This season of love is also a perfect reminder to show some appreciation to the small businesses that give so much to our communities every day. Small businesses are truly the backbone of our local economies. They create jobs, spark innovation, and help shape the unique character of our towns and neighborhoods. More importantly, they show up for their communities ...

Sunshine Act’s notice problem needs to be fixed

Editorials

Since 1957, Pennsylvania has codified a responsibility to make public meetings accessible to the people. The state law also evolved, eventually becoming what is now known as the Sunshine Act. The earlier Open Meetings Law required only the most basic transparency. If a vote was taken, the meeting had to be open. That was all. That changed in 1987 with the sterilizing light of the Sunshine Act. The new law created a framework that established open meetings as the default. Instead of limiting access only to the most action-oriented gatherings, government entities were given a ...

Juniata County Dairy Promotion pointers

Local Columns

Did I hear someone say love is in the air? With Valentine’s day right around the corner, what’s a better time to celebrate our love for our favorite agriculture commodity: dairy. This is dairy princess Kera Bentz, here to remind you of a couple of reasons why you should love dairy as ...

Budget proposal once again starts process with fantasy

Editorials

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2026-27 budget would spend about $53.2 billion. The proposed 2026-27 budget, like his initial proposal for the 2025-26 budget, relies on pulling deeply from reserve funding, set aside in past years by lawmakers to ensure the state was ready for future crises and on revenue from activities for which the legislature is still considerable distance from agreeing on regulatory frameworks — recreational marijuana and skills games. The 2025-26 budget, of course, was ultimately more than four months late to passage. State lawmakers already are echoing many of the ...

Dementia news is call to action for our future

Editorials

The latest report on CTE is both enlightening and alarming. A groundbreaking study from Boston University researchers found that those with CTE have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia. The largest study of its kind from the Boston University CTE Center reveals that the progressive brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy should be recognized as a new cause of dementia. Those with advanced CTE — who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts — had four times higher odds of having dementia. This is sobering news for current CTE sufferers, those who ...