Letters: Mental health care in schools is critical; Democrat-led inflation hurts all

Mental health care in schools is critical

I think we can all agree — the last few years have provided unexpected challenges. Like many others, our family has experienced stress, anxiety and loss.

And yet, a lack of access to mental health care is one of the most consistent concerns I’ve heard when talking with folks in our district. I’ve spoken with a number of parents that have shared their concern about the growing mental health issues our children are facing — like an increase in depression, suicide and social-emotional learning issues — and how difficult it is to find accessible mental health care. In many towns, schools are our community hubs, and teachers are often the last line of defense for their students. But this is not a burden we can place on our educators.

The stigma around mental health care is finally being eroded, and the need is clearly critical. It’s time for us to empower our young ones and our communities by increasing mental health services in schools. We’ll need to look at this holistically, and be creative with our solutions. We can create incentives for current and future mental health care providers to commit to staying in the area, through loan forgiveness and grant awards. We can remove barriers from care, like implementing telehealth in applicable cases. And we can ensure that our health care workers are always in safe work environments, regardless of location of employment, by passing the Patient Safety Act.

I hope you’ll join me in advocating for our children and our communities.

Democrat-led inflation hurts all

This paper continues to publish news items and opinions that defend the economics of the Democratic party. I laugh at them for spouting that inflation had been tamed as gas prices are lower.

What folly! All one has to do is go to grocery stores, hair stylists, restaurants, order pizza, pay rent, visit the doctor’s office, or watch mortgage rates. Ordinary people know this rhetoric is a big, fat lie. Inflation can be seen everywhere, and the average Joe or Jill feels the pinch in the pocketbook. This is especially hard as most people’s incomes are not rising.

Recently the government reported persistent inflation as the consumer price index increased 8.3%. The stock market validated this bad news by losing 4-5% of value.

The Fed is practically forced to increase interest rates further to curb inflation. The recession will worsen — and we are in a recession as we have had two quarters of GDP decline already. The only questions are how long and how severe this recession is going to be.

When voting this year, voters need to ask whether the Democratic policies are so valuable to them that they are willing to endure inflation and recession. What is happening to the economy is a direct result of government giveaways, so-called green policies, and other bills with enormous pork. When a party demonstrates little fiscal responsibility, you always have to suffer with inflation and recession.

America, are you happy with Democratic-led inflation, higher interest rates, and deepening recession? Vote accordingly.

Cowardly candidates

One month ago I sent a letter to the editor laughing at the fact that a Republican ad against gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro was too cowardly to even mention their own candidate by name. Today, statecollege.com reports that none of the four Republican candidates who supposedly want to represent Pennsylvanians, not even one of them, Stephen Yetsko (77th State House District), Justin Behrens (82nd State House District), Kerry Benninghoff (171st State House District), and Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (U.S. House of Representatives PA 15th District) are willing to show up for a televised Candidates Forum before the November election. This forum has been hosted by the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Centre County for over 50 years. Not this year though because these sorry excuses for human beings are too afraid to show up and tell the people what they stand for. Maybe they just don’t know, since as far as I can tell, Republicans stand for nothing except funneling money to those who already have more than enough and taking as many rights as possible away from the people. What a bunch of strong manly men! Who could possibly think that anyone of them deserve to serve in government?