Letters: Keep calendar conversation going; Nursing home workers’ sacrifices continue

Keep calendar conversation going

I sure read with great interest David Hutchinson’s proposal in the Dec. 17 CDT. A longtime respected school board member, Mr. Hutchinson suggested that the community have a good “conversation” about possible changes to the local school calendar. I like that idea.

And when such a conversation begins, I’d have a suggestion of my own that the community might consider: How about extending the school year from 180 class days to 210 days? The educational benefits would seem to favor such a move: I’m hardly original in noting that more schooling equals substantially more learning. And there would be other side benefits as well, such as the additional six weeks of child care relief offered to families, especially two-parent families in which both parents work outside the home as well as single-parent households in which the parent works outside the home. Of course I’m aware that teachers and staff would have to extend their number of working days substantially, but I would propose that substantial additional compensation of, say, 25% to them might make the proposal worth consideration — not least since so many of SCASD employees now have to take on second jobs in the summer. My own belief is that our teachers and schools already deserve higher wages, and maybe the whole community would be willing to trade much higher compensation in return for a longer school year. Just a suggestion for the conversation that Mr. Hutchinson is encouraging.

Nursing home workers’ sacrifices continue

While many of us are celebrating the holidays with our families, please take a moment to thank the many dedicated and brave workers at Pennsylvania’s senior care facilities, including nursing homes. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, nursing homes have been ground zero for the virus. What may surprise some is that the pandemic remains a very real risk to nursing home residents and workers.

Yet, day after day, workers show true professionalism by caring for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens, even when many of us are home enjoying the company of our loved ones. Let’s take a moment to think of them and all of their sacrifices since the pandemic began because those sacrifices continue.

New PA maps restore balance

House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff is objecting that the new legislative districts are “gerrymandered.” Kerry’s evidence of the gerrymander consisted of the fact that Republican incumbents have to run against each other in some districts.

First let me say, I count Kerry as a friend and I have a great deal of respect for him. However, the maps are just the correction of the gerrymandering done by his predecessors over two decades. I was there when Kerry’s predecessor, John Perzel, said he could draw maps where only Republicans could win. Another of Kerry’s predecessors, Mike Turzai, did exactly that. Turzai then told his counterpart that we either had to accept the maps or he would make them even worse.

Republicans need to accept competitive maps are not gerrymandered but are just a reflection of a very politically balanced swing state like Pennsylvania. The unusually large House Republican majority of the last decade was not reflective of a state where there are over a half million more Democrats than Republicans. The Republican majority was a reflection of an extreme gerrymander. These new maps simply correct that.

The author of the maps, Mark Nordenberg, is above reproach. I knew Mark as a law professor and dean at the University of Pittsburgh law school. His integrity and grasp of the law is unmatched.

The balance that these maps restore should lead to a decade of less extreme politics in Pennsylvania.