Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Haverford Township voters need to hear candidates' views

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2015 Voters need to hear candidates' views When one political party's slate of candidates refuses to participate in public debates, it feels like a threat to democracy.

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2015

Voters need to hear candidates' views

When one political party's slate of candidates refuses to participate in public debates, it feels like a threat to democracy.

Nearly 100 years ago, the League of Women Voters sought to provide accurate, unbiased, nonpartisan information for voters in local, state, and national elections. This year, the League of Women Voters of Haverford Township is unable to offer a forum for township candidates running for commissioner in five of our nine wards. The reason is that members of the Republican Party decided for the first time not to participate in the usual forum for all candidates.

The league cannot sponsor a forum for just one political party's candidates, so there will be no forum, no questions from the audience, no video to be shown on the community cable channel.

Who will lose out? The residents of Haverford Township. Our citizens seeking education on the issues and the candidates deserve better.

|Kate deRiel, Rosemary Kesling, and Cathy Yungmann, copresidents,

League of Women Voters

of Haverford Township

ISSUE | PORN EMAILS

Occupational hazard

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin speciously apologized with the admission that his offensive emails "do not reflect my character or beliefs" ("Justice apologizes for emails," Thursday).

Really? I ask the justice: If those comments "do not reflect [your] character or beliefs," what do they reflect? Poor judgment at best?

That, in and of itself, should disqualify Eakin from his sensitive position on the bench. Judges with poor judgment don't make good judges.

|Albert Whitehead, Philadelphia, philapa312@aol.com

ISSUE | COMMENTARY

What's the point?

After 20 years of living and working in the Philadelphia region, I'm looking forward to retirement in three years, when I'll be able to say "farewell" to this area. Nonetheless, I am puzzled not only by the decision to print the commentary on leaving Philadelphia ("Farewell, Philly," Sunday), but even more so that it was featured so prominently in The Inquirer's Currents section.

While the article may have worked as literature, it did very little to explain the writer's decision to move - so little that I'm left wondering what in the world the editors were thinking.

|Ron Zigler, Lansdale

ISSUE | PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS

We need to pull together for the kids

On Oct. 7, the Philadelphia School District, the School Reform Commission, and City Council signed a historic agreement to increse the sharing of information between the district and City Council. On Thursday, City Council will approve the final piece of a $1.28 billion package that will increase funding for schools for the fourth straight year.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to talk out the principled differences of opinion that people have about public education. But to achieve our common goal - a quality, accessible education for every child - we must move forward in an open, respectful, and inclusive way.

We will continue to fight for a student-weighted funding formula for all Pennsylvania public schools. Long-term, sustainable funding must be in place as Philadelphia reclaims ownership of its schools.

But we cannot do this work alone. Buy-in from residents, businesses, and organizations is as important as funding. To get there, we must increase opportunities for Philadelphians to become part of the schools community - regardless of whether they have school-age children or children at all.

We must ensure that all students have a chance to succeed, and that means fighting for them on every city block as well as in the state Capitol.

|Darrell L. Clarke, president, Philadelphia City Council, darrell.clarke@phila.gov; and Marjorie G. Neff, chair, School Reform Commission, src@philasd.org

Qualified teachers, please apply

Tuesday's article about teacher vacancies in the School District highlighted a challenge facing many urban districts: It is difficult to find enough highly qualified teachers to fill all openings during a school year ("For Phila. students, it's teacher roulette").

We are taking urgent actions to solve this problem. We have hired 600 teachers already - up from 400 last year - and plan to place an additional 80 available teachers in vacancies this week. We have contacted thousands of potential candidates. And we are asking employees and the public to refer others.

These actions are yielding results. Next week, we expect to substantially cut the number of vacancies through new hires. We are also meeting the challenge of substitute-teacher staffing by raising the substitute pay rate and contacting 1,600 retired educators and former substitutes and requesting their continued service to schools and students.

Pointing fingers does nothing to ensure that every child has a permanent teacher.

I am grateful to those who are stepping forward to help solve this problem. And I welcome the public's assistance in helping us find more great teachers for our students.

|William R. Hite Jr., superintendent, Philadelphia School District

Clearing the Record

A Sept. 25 commentary incorrectly identified the religious affiliation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is a United Church of Christ minister.