Letters: Department of Education’s unique functions; Fenchak should still be a choice for trustee

Department of Education’s unique functions

With the proposal to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, (DoED) we should review the importance of the agency. It has unique functions that would be difficult for individual states to replicate.

The DoED does not have power over school curriculum, staffing or academic standards. These are decided by the individual states.

There are three main functions of the DoED: research, civil rights and funding for specific individuals. Examples are:

Research — oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s report card mandated by congress in 1969. Collects and tracks data on college admissions, graduation rates and need-based aid among other functions.

Funding — Provides funding for public schools via: Title 1 for districts that serve lower income areas and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for districts that serve students with disabilities. DoED is the only agency directly responsible for ensuring local compliance with the IDEA.

Manages college financial aid and federal student loans via FAFSA and FSA that includes grants (Pell Grants), loans and work study funds for undergraduate students.

Civil rights — Investigated complaints nationwide regarding discrimination in schools (more than 22,000 last year). These include Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education including men, women, girls, boys and staff in educational programs that receives federal funds.

Pennsylvania receives $2.8 billion in grants from the DoED including $736 billion for Title 1 and $554 million for IDEA. Loss of some or all of this money would mean increased property taxes.

Fenchak should still be a choice for trustee

Penn State alumni including myself signed a petition to nominate Barry J. Fenchak ‘84 for another term as alumni trustee. The board’s nominating committee, with the exception of Jay Paterno, voted however to exclude Fenchak from the ballot. In doing so, the committee may have exceeded the scope of its authority by considering a controversy that was already covered in an injunction issued against the board, as opposed to Mr. Fenchak’s qualifications. Judge Brian Marshall wrote in part, “Denying the injunction and allowing Plaintiff’s removal would re-cast a shadow over the financial operations of Defendants, to the detriment of every Penn State stakeholder except those at the very top of the Penn State hierarchy.” (In 2014, State Senator John Yudichak opined that personal agendas rather than a Penn State agenda were driving board decisions.) Marshall’s ruling also cited alleged retaliation against Fenchak.

I can understand why the board’s leaders want Fenchak out. If I was the subject of multiple adverse rulings from a court of law because of my behavior toward this individual, I would certainly want him gone as well. In any event, the alumni who nominated Fenchak did not ask the nominating committee for its opinion so I recommend accordingly that alumni write in Barry J. Fenchak ‘84 (the full name and year of graduation are important) in the upcoming election for alumni trustee.

Not normal times

The current federal administration is neo-fascist — as the Nazis demonized the Jews and homosexuals, so Donald Trump demonizes migrants and transgender people. These are not normal times politically. In just a few months the president has been cruel and hateful to them, to the federal workforce and to all the poor abroad who have lost our foreign aid.

In State College, we must all stand up in moral witness. We must find ways to nonviolently fight back.

Shutting down a tool for democracy

Mr. Trump has succeed where generations of dictators failed. He shut down the Voice of America.

Hitler tried. So did Tojo. And Stalin, Castro, Mao, Putin, Xi, Kim Jong-Il, and a few others in history’s rogues’ gallery.

But only Trump succeeded in silencing the VOA which, for more than 80 years, delivered accurate news to people who weren’t going to hear it from their own governments. It was a powerful tool for democracy.

But democracy is so 20th century. At least the Trumpsters think so.

How many know that former Penn State University President Milton S. Eisenhower was closely involved with the early days of the Voice of America when he was associate director of War Information in World War II? He is buried in Centre County Memorial Park and I’ll bet he is turning in his grave.

Support for Canada

We speak only from our own experience, but we have enjoyed some delightful times and delicious food; we have met some warm, cordial and helpful people; and we have caught some magnificent northern pike in Canada, which has shared with all of us down here some greatly talented actors, writers, singers, and athletes, along with its maple syrup and Labatt’s beer.

When obdurate Americans gather to disparage, insult, embarrass, threaten, or harm Canadians, however we can, we plan to resist.