Philly teachers' pact is good for students

So the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the School District of Philadelphia have reached a contract settlement after four years — four years ("Three-year, $395M pact OKd by 95% of the votes," Tuesday).

As a longtime Philadelphia teacher, I know how important a contract settlement is to everyone's peace of mind. It is emotionally stressful for the staff to be working without knowing what the working conditions will be. The district wants to attract and keep teachers. An unsettled school system is not an attractive lure.

Knowing where and what you are teaching surely must be a good step. As a long-retired teacher, I remember standing on the picket line, fighting for salary and benefits and smaller classes. We froze and struggled for what we believed to be the right thing for the teachers and the children. The working conditions that benefit the teachers will benefit the children. Hopefully, the labor peace will bring the stability that the teachers, parents, and children — most importantly the children — deserve.

— Sheryl Kalick, Philadelphia

The long stalemate on teachers' pay in Philadelphia is over, but that doesn't mean the money to pay teachers is available. Harrisburg is skeptical, and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke is hopeful that school funds can be found.

Take money from the extravagant budget given to the city Parks and Recreation Department. While that department is promising more playgrounds, teachers and support staff in the school district go begging. When Philadelphia families with children look at local schools, many post For Sale signs and head for the suburbs, where the school tax dollars work.

Philadelphia has enough green space. Do something for schools.

—Ellen Kennedy, Philadelphia

Evergreen State College should not have supported a reverse racist agenda, calling for a day excluding all white people from campus ("How low higher education has fallen," Sunday). While I understand what the students decry as "white privilege," it is still a political correctness term with no reasonable demographics separating good white folk from those who discriminate. Therefore, their "Day of Absence" punished the good along with the potentially bad without fairness, and professor Bret Weinstein was accurate in pointing out it was racism against Caucasians. It did not promote peace or harmony, but was a truculent payback orchestrated by minority faculty and students against nonminorities indiscriminately.

As a Jewish American of modest means, I suggest these teachers and students learn from the Holocaust how to differentiate between political correctness and a valid and fair political argument.

— Marilyn Brahen, Philadelphia

George Parry's commentary about "on-campus goon tactics aimed at preventing the discussion of dissenting or unpopular views" oversimplified a very complex topic.

It is easy to complain about a few students on a few campuses who make unwise decisions. However, I would caution Inquirer readers not to jump to conclusions.

Reasonable work on diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice is more important now more than ever. Given the fact that the United States has a president who seems to understand almost nothing about these three very important areas of life (or much else aside from bullying, for that matter), it is not always going to be a smooth ride.

— Tom Lees, East Norriton, tlees2@aol.com

Former federal prosecutor George Parry's commentary claims evidence at Mumia Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial for the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner "proved beyond a reasonable doubt" that he was "a cold-blooded murderer deserving of the death penalty." Parry also condemns "fevered progressives" who defend Abu-Jamal.

Truth is more complex. A federal judge in 2001 overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence as unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, my book, Killing Time, includes crime-scene photos of the spot Faulkner died, showing he could not have been slain, as the prosecution and its key witness claimed, by a single "execution" shot (see my gun test video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hedfNPt6UQQ), raising questions of prosecutorial misconduct.

Abu-Jamal never received a fair trial and had his appeals sabotaged by, among other things, former Supreme Court Justice Ron Castille's refusal to recuse himself despite his having opposed them as Philly's district attorney (an issue now in the courts).

— Dave Lindorff, Maple Glen