Letters: Charter schools are valuable addition to community; 3/20 Coalition takes wrong path

Charter schools are valuable addition to community

I’m writing to defend Centre County’s brick-and-mortar charter schools in the wake of the “Joint Resolution Regarding Charter School Legislation” recently signed and published by several regional school districts.

I don’t doubt that there are specific funding concerns around charter schools, many of which were rightfully addressed in the recent Joint Resolution. But I caution SCASD and other local school districts not to paint too broad a picture of charter schools as somehow a “burden” to local taxpayers, when they instead should be regarded as a valuable, affordable and progressive addition to our communities’ educational opportunities. School choice is one important public service that makes people want to live in the Centre Region.

I specifically disagree with the Joint Resolution’s call to “require school district board representation on charter school boards.” This would clearly compromise charter schools’ ability to remain educationally independent of local school districts, significantly undermining the purpose of charter schools in the first place – to provide educational alternatives for families.

As the Centre Daily Times’ article noted, charter schools already “must follow the Sunshine Law and State Ethics Commission’s rules and regulations, participate in charter renewals every five years, maintain annual financial audits and undergo the same auditing processes districts do.”

I urge you to support charter schools as you would any other publicly funded community school, critically evaluate any proposed funding reforms through the lens of the benefits these schools provide, and appreciate the value charter schools represent to our region.

3/20 Coalition takes wrong path

A foolish or gullible person is defined as a simpleton. This describes the childish antics of the 3/20 Coalition. Once again, they are on the front page of the newspaper. Unfortunately, the paper failed to mention that one of the larger scribblings with chalk on the sidewalk was a profane statement proclaiming “F--- the Police Osaze’s Life Matters.” Someone once told me that if you have to resort to profanity in a discussion then you lost the argument. Read the 70-plus page report that the Centre County Mental Health Task Force wrote. Now contrast that to a group that has taken a highly complex issue and boiled it down to unfounded allegations, calling our police murderers, and demanding justice. If they were truly seeking justice, they would be working with the task force to root out how Mr. Osagie reached this crisis point where he decided to leverage the police to end his life. These people are the true butchers of justice. Any person who is seeking office in Ferguson Township or State College Borough who is associated with this profane group must be clearly identified. Fortunately, the paper did a good job on those who advocate this nonsense. Additionally, the 3/20 group made this easier to identify for responsible citizens when they stomped around the borough building holding signs — no, not promoting a positive campaign of who they support, but a negative campaign by holding up signs stating, “Do not sign Cantorna, Filippelli, or Dauler’s petitions!” complete with pictures.