Letters: Misperceptions about campaign; Slate for State will meet district’s challenges

Editor’s note: The CDT welcomes letters endorsing candidates in the May 16 primary election and will accept letters that are received by May 11. Letters are subject to editing, must be based on facts and should avoid attacks on other candidates.

Misperceptions about campaign

A CDT letter published April 23 was the second letter criticizing me and written by somebody pretending to be a registered voter, while not actually on the voting rolls. Several other letters have created misperceptions about my campaign. I write to give voters accurate information.

First, judges are not supposed to be political. If you must appear before a judge, you should have confidence that the judge is fair and impartial, and that political beliefs will not impact the judge’s decision.

Second, judicial candidates run in both parties simultaneously, precisely because judges are not supposed to be political. Both candidates in this race are Democrats running also on the Republican ticket. I am being criticized for spending four minutes at a Republican petition signing event and for attending the Lincoln Day dinner. I went because I am asking both parties for their nomination. Attending both parties’ events has not been controversial in the past. The better question is: Why did my opponent not attend Republican events if he wants their votes?

Are these criticisms meant to deflect attention from the fact that my opponent has never represented a client in a Centre County courtroom? Does he realize that judges in our county are assigned cases in rotating turns, not according to specialty? With having little, if any, experience in any type of law other than criminal, how does he propose to handle his share of family and civil law cases? They account for 72% of the work load.

For more information about me, please see JuliaforJudge.com

Slate for State will meet district’s challenges

A recent CDT letter to the editor cites “declining academic performance among SCASD students” as a reason to support particular candidates for the State College Area school board. But is there evidence to support the claim of academic decline? In fact, there is very little.

Like all school districts, SCASD has experienced impacts on learning as a result of COVID. However, evidence presented at a school board committee meeting on Sept. 22, 2021 showed that, overall, SCASD students scored above the national norms during the pandemic, and there was no indication of significant learning loss. When equivalent testing data was subsequently evaluated in November of 2022, there was some evidence of delayed pandemic-related effects. However, in general, students continued to score in the upper percentiles nationally. This more recent study demonstrates the importance of addressing the needs of subgroups of students from different demographic cohorts, some of whom are struggling.

Which candidates support what these students need? The Slate for State candidates: Bader, Brandt, Demo, Kolbe and Miller. They make up the slate that supports SCASD’s Educational Strategic Plan, which is designed to foster equity and to address the needs of every student in a proactive way. It is vital that the needs of all students — no matter their demographic fit — be addressed.

Painting SCASD as a poorly performing district is just plain wrong. Can SCASD do better for struggling students? Absolutely. The Slate for State candidates are the ones who will meet the challenge of making all students a priority.