News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
James J. Devenney , who did the classy thing a year or so ago by resigning as Springfield’s (Pa) 6th Ward Commissioner in the wake of a relatively minor scandal, is reportedly doing a classless thing by trying to get his old job back.
We have been told he has declared himself to be an independent candidate in Republican municipal primary election on May 17.
Say it ain’t so Jim. You do not have a right to the job.
The Feb 21 resignation of Joe Bastardi from AccuWeather is slowly creeping into the conscious of the politically aware.
Bastardi, one of the nation’s most respected meteorologist, had worked with the firm based in State College, Pa. He is a vocal critic of the claims about man-made global warming or anthropogenic global warming (AGW)
It is an irony that Bastardi worked in the same town as Penn State professor Michael Mann , the man-caused global warming proponent whose leaked emails in 2009 caused many to question global warming claims.
Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT? — Experts are predicting an bedbug explosion this summer so is it time to sneer in the face of the enviro-Nazis; invoke the spirt of Walter Steuber and follow the Delaware County tradition of homebrewing our own dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane?
Steuber was a chemist who in the final days of World War II made DDT in the basement of his Swarthmore home. The desirable insecticide had been exclusively for military use and when it popped up for sale at two hardware stores in Media and Swarthmore the authorities investigated. When it was found that Steuber was not using priority chemicals, the government allowed civilians access to the near-miracle stuff.
And this led to the almost complete eradication of bedbugs in the USA.
Which have now made a comeback.
So do we start moonshining the stuff while petitioning our elected officials to rescind the 1972 DDT ban?
Probably best not.
While the near-absolute ban on the chemical strikes many as being irrational, emotion-driven and quasi-religious — especially given as to how DDT was indiscriminately misused and highly abused during its heyday — bedbugs seem to have maintained the resistance they have developed to it.
So using it wouldn’t do much good.
There is, however, an effective anti-bedbug insecticide, propoxur, that was pulled from the market after its manufacturer declined to spend several millions of dollars on testing the EPA was demanding .
Apparently, the EPA is concerned about toxicity to children after chronic exposure. One wonders exactly how much “chronic exposure” children would receive if it were restricted to hotels and such which are a major source of the spreading of the infestation.
Freeing propoxur, which was sold as Baygon , would be something about which to petition our elected officials.
In the meantime, here is a link to the EPA search engine of pesticides that it claims are safe and might have an effect on bedbugs.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 has again showed its willingness to break ranks with the publicly funded leeches in the PSEA by endorsing a school choice bill.
Activist Bob Guzzardi is reporting that IBEW 98, which covers Philadelphia, has given its blessing to SB1 which was reported out of the State Senate Education Committee, Tuesday, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.
The bill, if it should become law, would eventually allow the parents of any needy child in the state to take the state subsidy — about $9,000 — that would have gone to their home school district and apply to the public, private or parochial school of their choice.
Schools, even public ones, would not be required to accept voucher students or change traditional entry requirements.
IBEW 98 supported the school choice bill, Senate Bill 1405, in the last session.
The Delaware County Daily Times, today, published my letter regarding the March 12 banquet the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Philadelphia chapter is going to have at the Springfield Country Club.
Thank you, Linda DeMeglio.
Gov. Tom Corbett has cleaned the rodent-droppings from Pennsylvania’s vermin-infested contribution to Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) appointing himself as chairman and replacing five board members.
But will it be the case of “meet the new rat, same as the old rat”?
Corbett’s appointments — William Sasso, Joanna Cruz, Joann Bell, Walter D’Alessio and David Simon — are all heavy political contributors to the governor each donating at least $1,500, personally or institutionally, to his attorney general and gubernatorial campaigns with Simon and Sasso kicking in $29,500 and $22,000 respectively as individuals.
DRPA is a Congressionally-approved arrangement between Pennsylvania and New Jersey charged with overseeing the maintenance and development of the Philadelphia-Camden port district and much of the Delaware River crossings including the four big toll bridges. The 16-member board is split evenly between the states. All New Jersey members are appointed to set terms by its governor. In Pennsylvania, six members are at-will gubernatorial appointments with the state’s treasurer and auditor general being automatically given seats.
Are Corbett’s picks going to be exterminators or just more bald-tailed looters looking for their cheese? One sign will be if crossing the Delaware gets cheaper and more convenient. Look to see what happens with the 20 percent toll hike schedule for July.
Chris Freind was the speaker at last night’s screening of The Cartel by The Delaware County Patriots . Chris is a strong supporter of school choice while at the same time being a harsh critic of SB 1 which is the pending school choice legislation in Pennsylvania.
He has given permission to run his column explaining his reasoning and it appears below.
My view is that you have to deal with the cards on the table and the only thing on the table regarding choice is SB1, and since Daylin Leach and the PSEA are both against it, it is certainly far more good than bad.
Anyway, Chris’s column:
WHAT’S WRONG WITH PENNSYLVANIA’S SCHOOL CHOICE BILL?
Pretty much everything. Here’s how to fix it—and get it passed
The school choice bill in the Pennsylvania Senate is significantly flawed legislation which should never have been introduced. Rather than craft a new bill to reflect the positions of the current legislature and Governor—both far more receptive to comprehensive school choice than their predecessors—the prime sponsors didn’t do their homework and jumped the gun by dusting off outdated legislation. As a direct result, Senate Bill 1 is effectively dead-on-arrival.
Since SB 1 was introduced a mere week after the new legislature was sworn in, no preliminary vote count was conducted during those seven days. Therefore, statements that SB 1 is “the best we can hope for at this time” and “school choice can be expanded incrementally in the coming years” are fallacies based on the musings of out-of-touch ivory-tower proponents naively setting the bar artificially low. Incomprehensibly, they are throwing in the towel before the fight has even begun. [SIGNUPS]
Here are the facts that show why statewide school choice is needed, and suggestions on how to accomplish that goal:
1) Pennsylvania students are 42nd in SAT scores, and rank low in literacy, graduation rates and rates of students continuing to college. Their performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress exam has not improved. And most startling, nearly half of all 11th graders are not proficient in math and reading. This cannot be attributed to just the poor-performing urban schools pulling down scores, but is a testament to an across-the-board educational failure.
Advocating school choice for only low-income students results in the default perception that education is adequate everywhere else, which, based on the results of PSSA standardized test scores, is not remotely accurate. We cannot afford to waste another decade, forsaking our children—our future—because some choose to ignore the widespread failure occurring on a daily basis.
2) Pennsylvania spends $26 billion per year on education—more per student than 39 other states—an amount which has doubled since 1996. Despite a drop of 27,000 students over the last 10 years, the public school system had added 33,000 employees in that time. Therefore, by definition, increased funding, added personnel and decreased class size have not improved student achievement.
3) Teachers’ salaries and benefits rank among the highest in the nation, yet Pennsylvania leads the nation every year in school strikes—more than all other states combined.
4) The components in SB 1 were derived during a prior legislative session with a Democratic House and an anti-school choice governor (Rendell). But the current legislature has 13 more House Republicans than last session, giving the GOP a 10-seat majority. While education should never be partisan, it is no secret that Republicans are much more favorable to choice than Democrats. And Governor Corbett made school choice a cornerstone of his campaign. Combined with the pro-school choice positions of several Democrats, including Senator Anthony Williams, passage of comprehensive choice is eminently obtainable. (And if Williams and his colleagues won’t support statewide school choice, but only a program only for low-income families, their motivations will be questioned and their credibility severely undermined).
5) With a legislature approximately 80 percent different (and one clearly less open to choice), no votes from the Black Caucus, and only a one-seat House Republican majority, the statewide school choice effort in 1995 failed by a mere three votes. Given the night-and-day differences between then and now, it is indisputable that political will from Governor Corbett and legislative leaders could, should and would result in the nation’s most comprehensive and inclusive school choice program, one which will save taxpayer money.
6) The argument that school choice will take money away from the public schools is not just wrong, but irrelevant. The only thing we should EVER be concerned with is the children. Schools don’t get jobs and lead nations; people do. The funding should follow the child, not the system—a brilliant aspect of SB 1, where parents designate the school to which the state subsidy will be applied.
Following are the steps necessary to ensure that meaningful school choice is passed in Pennsylvania:
A) SB 1 must be rewritten and introduced as a new bill or a separate bill needs to be introduced in the House. Grassroots organizations cannot support flawed legislation with the hope or “promise” that it will be amended at a future date.
The bill must make school choice available to all students, regardless of family income. This type of comprehensive program is the only way to bring accountability and competition to all schools, public and non-public alike. Our dire situation demands no less.
C) The provision for public schools to “opt out,” as is permitted in SB 1, must be stricken. Opting out will result in the public school establishment’s “Good Old Boys” network to kick in, guaranteeing that the vast majority of schools won’t participate. If that occurs, school choice is meaningless.
D) The bill should contain strengthened language that no additional regulations may be imposed on non-public schools. Current government requirements are adequate and unobtrusive, such as core curriculum and length of school year. Vouchers or subsidies do not lead to additional regulation, as the highly successful post World War II GI Bill attests, but eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so such language will alleviate this issue.
E) While government should not impose tuition mandates on non-public schools, the possibility of inflated tuition costs at these schools is an area of concern. Language can be written that limits the subsidy (which cannot exceed tuition cost) to a maximum two percent increase per year, based on the tuition charged in the first year that school choice is enacted. This common sense solution would keep tuition inflation in check while keeping government out of private school decision-making.
F) Expanding the Educational Improvement Tax Credit is a positive step, as the program has seen positive results. But to be clear, the EITC is not school choice since parents do not control their tax dollars; the scholarships, which average $1000, are doled out by organizations and schools. Parental control is significantly limited, unlike a true statewide school choice program.
Like any controversial issue, the school choice debate lends itself to misinformation, half-truths and personal attacks. Pennsylvanians should not be hypnotized by the complexities of education reform,
but rather focus on what is indisputable: our government-run public school system is a monopoly with no incentive to change, and only competition can begin to reverse decades of educational failure.
Comprehensive school choice provides that free-market solution, and, when passed, will be a model for the nation. Failure to do so will destroy another generation’s chances for success.
UPDATE: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia just announced that it will be closing seven more schools, a trend that has been occurring for decades. Despite some disingenuous critics who label any choice program as a “bailout of the Catholic Schools,” it is no secret that non-public schools would significantly benefit from comprehensive school choice legislation. And the more non-public schools there are, the more competition there is.
These school closings — four of which are in Philadelphia –reinforce Freindly Fire’s earlier-stated position that Senate Bill 1’s effectiveness will be extremely limited, not just because it caters only to low income families, but for the simple reason that fewer and fewer schools remain as alternatives to the current monopolistic system.
And to repudiate yet another fallacious argument that school choice costs taxpayer money (when in fact it would save it), consider the following:
The seven schools had a cumulative projected enrollment of 857 students next year. Based on dwindling number of non-public schools, assume that half will attend public schools. At an average cost of $15,000 per student, per year to educate one student in the public schools, these 428 students will cost taxpayers an additional $6,427,500 per year. If each student has, on average, six years of grade school remaining, the cost rises to over $38 million.
And of course, that figure does not reflect inflation, nor the huge costs of hiring more teachers, funding additional pensions, building more classrooms, buying more textbooks, and increasing busing.
Pennsylvania can’t afford NOT to enact school choice.
Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com. Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick Morris’ recent bestseller “Catastrophe.” Freind, whose column appears regularly in Philadelphia Magazine and nationally in Newsmax, also serves as a frequent guest commentator on talk radio and state/national television, most notably on FOX Philadelphia. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com.
The March 1 screening of The Cartel by the Delaware County (Pa) Patriots was followed by a question and answer session with Chris Freind on matters regarding school choice in Pennsylvania. This was especially relevant as S.B. 1 , the first significant school choice legislation to be considered in the state in 15 years, was reported out of the Senate Education Committee that afternoon on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.
The three-hour event held at the Marple Public Library started at 6:30 and drew a crowd of about 80.
The Cartel is a 2009 expose by Bob Bowdon of the plight of students in New Jersey public schools. It describes the corruption, incompetence and blinding greed of those charged with running them that would be inconceivable to those who attended them a generation ago. It also describes how school vouchers would help set things right.
Freind, now a popular columnist, helped lead the unsuccessful fight for vouchers in the 1990s. He is, however, a harsh critic of S.B. 1 , albeit he did end up defending aspects of it in the face of some hostile questions such as his belief that it would be ultimately found to be constitutional if it should become law; that the expansion of the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program provided by the bill would be of great benefit; and that S.B. 1 could very well end up saving tax dollars.
Freind’s biggest objection is that S.B. 1 does not help enough children and that not pushing for a more comprehensive choice bill at this time would be a tragically lost opportunity.
And he’s right.
The point that must not be overlooked, however, is that S.B. 1, as of now, is the only girl at the dance and that regardless of its flaws the status quo would still be improved if it should pass.
S.B.1, the proposed law that would give hope for thousands of children suffering in horrific schools, was reported out of the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee this afternoon with only two dissenting votes — Democrats Jim Ferlo of the 38th District and Daylin Leach of the 17th District which includes Radnor and Haverford townships in Delaware County.
Those voting for it, however, included Democrats Andy Dinniman of the 19th District and Anthony Williams, whose 8th District includes 12 towns and boroughs in southeast Delaware County.
All Republicans voted for the bill.
A ray of light just got a little brighter for education in this state.
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.
Reelz Pumping Kennedy Series — The star-studded, purportedly no-holds-barred mini-series about the Kennedy family discarded by The History Channel is being heavily pumped by ReelzChannel, the independent, family-owned networked that snapped it up.
The History Channel produced the eight-part series developed by Joel Surnow and Stephen Kronish at a cost described as “multi-million” but dropped it after a pressure campaign from family and friends of the clan.
Surnow is the producer of 24.
The Kennedys starts April 3 and stars Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes.
Reelz is on Channel 233 on Verizon’s lineup in Delaware County, Pa.