Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania:

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DESPITE ELECTION GAINS, CONGRESS AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY STILL A BOYS’ CLUB, Jan. 14

While the recent elections ushered enough women into office at both the state and federal levels to be able to declare a victory for progress - if not a full blown “year of the woman” - the work of achieving a reasonable balance of representation is far from done. In other words, let’s stop patting ourselves on the back for electing a few women to office, and remind ourselves of the reality:

Despite the strides made in 2018 when four women joined the Pennsylvania House delegation , the fact remains that of only about a quarter of the General Assembly are women. This is both an all-time high, and pathetic. The state ranks 49th among all the states for gender representation among its elective offices.

In Congress, the picture is just as bleak. As of 2013, when Allyson Schwartz left Congress to run for governor, zero women from Pennsylvania have served in Congress. That just changed when state voters sent four women to Congress.

At the end of the day, though, the numbers are just an accounting problem. The real change must come from those who are in office having the power to make a difference. One place that power gets played out are on committees, which are gatekeepers for lawmaking. Of the 23 House committees lead by majority Republican members, four are chaired by women. Democrats recently appointed minority chairs to the committees, and not one woman was included.

Real parity and representation goes beyond just getting elected. Committees are opportunities for leadership. Committee assignments and leadership positions are often based on longevity and experience, but that creates a trap for new female members who need time to amass that experience. Lack of experience, though, does not mean lack of new perspectives and ideas that could truly make a difference in challenging the status quo.

There is more than one path to change. Those committed to insuring that the state improves its gender representation - from the state house or the governor’s office - should consider finding money and forming a commission for serious study of how to fast track further change. Such a study might uncover obstacles to parity that could be addressed legislatively or structurally.

There is understandable cynicism around commissions. They often seem like a way to bury an issue. For example, the Joint State Government Commission took seven years to write a report about the death penalty - just to be ignored by the legislature. However, there are commissions that prove effective. The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, chaired by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, showed that when taken seriously, with proper funding, and with statutory approval, a commission can fulfill multiple tasks, and make a difference.

Voters made their wishes for change known during the last election. They sent new blood to Congress and the State House in order to challenge the same old way of doing things. But making change requires power. Those who have been holding onto it for so long will have to give some up in order to make way for new voices and ideas.

-The Philadelphia Inquirer

-Online: https://bit.ly/2RwyvSq

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NOT-SO-SUPER TICKET POLICY, Jan. 15

Gov. Tom Wolf waxed whimsical recently, envisioning a Super Bowl at Penn State’s massive Beaver Stadium between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles.

That truly would be something to behold, but it’s not going to happen - and not just because the Steelers did not live up to their end of the fantasy by uncharacteristically failing to make the playoffs.

The bigger problem is that the NFL long ago abandoned any pretense that the Super Bowl has anything to do with the fans.

Wolf isn’t alone in fantasizing. Imagine the New York Giants against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium, or the Los Angeles Chargers against the Los Angeles Rams at Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park.

Part of the problem, of course, is logistics. Super Bowls are awarded to cities years in advance to allow them to prepare.

But the New Jersey Supreme Court illuminated the other big problem this week. It dismissed a suit brought by a state resident who had sued because, when he bought a ticket for the 2014 Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium, he had to pay more than twice the $800 face price on the secondary market because the NFL had released just 1 percent of tickets for purchase by the general public - you know, fans.

Josh Finkelman claimed that the NFL’s policy violated a law, then in effect in New Jersey, that required 95 percent of tickets for major public events to be made available to the public.

The court found, however, that as a private organization the NFL is free to forsake rank-and-file fans and distribute the tickets through team owners, major league sponsors and assorted other fat cats.

So unless you are, say, a Pennsylvania state legislator who gets greased with tickets by the gas industry to see the Steelers or Eagles play in a Super Bowl, you can fugghedabout it.

The ruling applies only to New Jersey but it bodes ill for a federal class action suit against the policy that Finkelman has pursued.

Even though the NFL’s policy apparently is legal, it’s still lousy, further proof that actual fans are little more than props.

-Wilkes Barre Citizens’ Voice

-Online: https://bit.ly/2RwyLAS

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PA NEEDS TO RESOLVE CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAW FOR SMALL TOWNSHIPS, Jan. 13

To vote or not to vote? Faced with a conflict of interest, Williams Township Supervisor Chairman Mark Ernst took the high road, abstaining from a motion to promote his wife to assistant township manager and give her a $4,000 raise.

Ernst’s abstention resulted in a 1-1 tie vote, which effectively defeated the proposal.

Supervisor Michael Bryant voted in favor of placing Melody Ernst in the newly-created position and raising her salary from $57,181 to $61,117, in recognition of added responsibilities.

Supervisor Supervisor Ray Abert didn’t see it that way. He voted against it, even as he lauded her job performance as secretary-treasurer.

“I just think that’s too high of an increase,” Abert said. “I don’t think we need an assistant manager in a township of our size.”

The size of Williams Township - and the fact that it has a three-member supervisor board - has a lot to do with what happened next.

Having abstained and acknowledged his conflict of interest, Mark Ernst joined the board in a closed session. They emerged and took another vote, approving the promotion and raise, 2-1.

Mark Ernst didn’t do anything illegal or improper. The state Ethics Act recognizes that a trio of supervisors can find business hard to conduct when there’s a disagreement and one supervisor is disqualified. The act allows a tie vote to be broken by the member with a conflict, as long as he or she discloses the conflict and abstains on an initial vote. The exception applies only to three-member boards, not to five- or seven-member boards.

“This is what he was allowed to do,” Abert said. “It was his decision and I respect it.”

Still, it is a conflict - one that no branch of government should condone. No elected official should be put in the place of voting on a family member’s employment, pay or benefits. And taxpayers shouldn’t have to tolerate this kind of decision-making simply because they live in a small town.

Williams Township isn’t as small as it used to be. The 2000 census listed its population as 4,470. As of 2017, it had risen to 6,099.

Is it time for Williams to consider a five-person supervisor board? That’s a decision for the people who live there.

But as long as people opt for small government, these types of disagreements will trigger the opportunity to override. There is always the option to continue to hash it out or accept the decision, as larger boards do.

This isn’t a reflection on Melody Ernst’s worthiness for promotion. Simply stated, her job status shouldn’t depend on a family member.

That’s something the state Ethics Commission should consider. And perhaps reconsider.

Giving small municipalities an “out” when they are deadlocked on do-or-die decisions - passing a budget, say, or dealing with an emergency - is understandable. Giving a supervisor the tie-breaker on a relative’s employment isn’t good government. At any level.

-Easton Express-Times

-Online: https://bit.ly/2TPPprO

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EVERYONE COUNTS IN CENSUS, Jan. 15

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, 17 other attorneys general, six mayors including Pittsburgh’s Bill Peduto and the U.S. Conference of Mayors won a federal court battle Tuesday.

They argued against a Trump administration directive to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

The decision? The census means counting everybody, and asking about citizenship information would keep people from participating. The judge said it was “unlawful for a multitude of independent reasons and.must be set aside.”

Maybe you think that is great for hippy-dippy, liberal, bleeding heart reasons. Maybe you’re right.

Maybe as a conservative you think there’s no reason to not know if the people who are being counted could (or should) vote or not, like the U.S. Department of Justice. Maybe you’re not wrong about that on a national level.

But on a Pennsylvanian level, there’s a very good reason to keep the question off the form. Math.

The 18 attorneys general argued that citizenship questions in the census could lead to fewer people participating in the census, a constitutionally mandated every-ten-years count of “the whole number of persons in each state.” Not voters. Not citizens. Not Democrats or Republicans or Steelers fans. Just all of the people.

In a census set to happen at the end of Trump’s first term, the attorneys general and mayors believe asking about citizenship could make immigrant populations reluctant to participate, leading to fewer people being counted and skewed numbers.

That’s not good for Pennsylvania. The state has already lost a U.S. representative here and there in recent years because the commonwealth’s population is not growing at the same rate as some other states. It’s projected to lose another of the 18-member congressional delegation in 2020.

According to the American Immigration Council, in 2015, there were 837,159 foreign-born individuals living in Pennsylvania, about half of whom were naturalized citizens. In 2016, another 911,353 U.S.-born individuals had at least one immigrant parent. Together that’s more than 1.7 million people, or 14 percent of the population. In Pittsburgh, census data shows 8.6 percent of the population is foreign-born.

Now imagine they don’t get counted in the census.

That 1.7 million people is about two and a half Congressmen. That translates to electoral votes. It translates to money that comes into Pennsylvania for 132 federal programs that are apportioned through the census.

It comes down to Pennsylvania getting its due, whether in funding or representation or voice in the presidential election. No matter where these people come from, they live here and making them less likely to be counted hurts us all.

-Pittsburgh Tribune Review

-Online: https://bit.ly/2stbnFx

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TEACHER RETENTION SHOULD BECOME VERY REAL CONCERN, Jan. 13

If people of area counties want a respite from thinking about the partial federal government shutdown, they have the option of focusing on two growing trends in education - four-day weeks and bans on homework - that, who knows, might someday take hold here, for better or worse.

It’s safe to say even now that, whether or not they’re enacted statewide or in individual districts sometime in the future, they no doubt will have spawned much discussion, pro and con, by the time final decisions have been rendered about them. And, that is as it should be.

The important thing now is that Pennsylvania not bury its proverbial head in the sand regarding what’s happening elsewhere. There are reasonable arguments backing up the two changes for which some school systems across America already have gotten aboard.

The day seems destined to come when Pennsylvania education officials, as well as administrators and boards of education in many local school districts, will be evaluating the shifts in thinking to determine how they might work for Pennsylvania in general, its 500 individual school systems and, most importantly, its students.

Meanwhile, as the Wall Street Journal reported in its Dec. 29-30 edition, based on federal government data, teachers are leaving their jobs at record rates. In the first 10 months of 2018, public educators quit at an average rate of 83 per 10,000 a month.

The federal Department of Labor reported that the rate in question was the highest for public educators since such data began being collected in 2001.

Besides limits on homework and the issue of four-day weeks, Pennsylvania needs to keep a serious watch of what’s happening in the Keystone State on the teacher-retention front. The national exodus rate cannot be pooh-poohed as something that is guaranteed to be temporary.

But about four-day weeks:

According to a Journal report on Oct. 10, about 600 school districts in at least 22 states are using a four-day schedule this school year. The Journal said that’s up from about 120 districts in 17 states a decade ago.

Two motivations for the shorter weeks were reported to be saving money and attracting teachers, but they also are seen as providing a better quality of life for students and teachers - although some parents objected, due to extra child-care needs and costs.

Still, the shorter weeks are regarded as a morale builder.

Regarding homework, the Journal, in a Dec. 13 article, said that change implemented in some schools has been in response to parents’ complaints about overload, as well as some education experts’ belief that too much homework can be detrimental.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average number of hours high school students spent a week on homework increased to 7.5 in 2016 from 6.8 in 2007.

The average hours for students in kindergarten through Grade 8 during those years remained unchanged at 4.7.

The Journal noted the opinion of a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, who found that homework has little impact on elementary students, but that junior high students showed higher achievement when doing homework up to 60 to 90 minutes a night and high school students, up to two hours.

For most people, devoting serious thought to such ideas and issues can be more productive in the long run than becoming overly consumed by Washington’s stubborn, temporary inability to do its job.

-The Altoona Mirror

-Online: https://bit.ly/2TPQ7Fu

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