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Our opinion: Cyber charters need accountability

It’s not uncommon for audits to say public school districts are holding too much in reserve funds - essentially taking too much in taxes to pay the expenses they carry. What happened to cyber charter schools as part of the state’s 2025-26 budget agreement, then, could realistically be considered a case of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Lawmakers agreed to a change in charter school funding formulas used to reimburse cyber charter schools, aiming to better reflect the actual costs of their operations. The reforms are designed to increase accountability for ...

Our opinion: SNAP monitoring must be better

Now that SNAP benefits are guaranteed to flow for the next year, it’s time for Pennsylvania to better monitor how the program operates in the commonwealth. Throughout the late summer and early fall there has been debate over Pennsylvania’s SNAP error rate. We’re one of the states that either overpays or underpays more than 10% of SNAP recipients. That’s a number worth paying attention to because states with error rates over 10% will have to pay money back to the federal government under a provision included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. According to a state Independent ...

Our opinion: New phase for reassessments

More than 2,700 Warren County residents who appealed their new property assessments to the county Board of Assessment Appeal now have a limited window to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas if they disagree with the board’s decision. It’s a milestone in the reassessment process. The board’s decisions essentially end Warren County’s involvement in the process after three years of heated discussion, debate and protest. Now that the new assessments have been largely finalized with the exception of those that will be appealed in the Court of Common Pleas, the spotlight shifts to ...

Our opinion: Nobody won with this budget

There are some good things in the budget agreed to late last week by state lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro. Pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a win for everyone who pays an electric bill in Pennsylvania. Additional school aid should help keep school taxes down a bit, something we’re sure Warren County taxpayers will appreciate. Creating a tax credit for low-income families will put a little more money in some people’s pockets at tax time. Cyber charter school reform is billed as saving public schools roughly $175 million statewide. And the state is spending ...

Editor’s corner: Fetterman standing tall in shutdown aftermath

Bad blood between political parties has created disruptions in the nation’s capital for the last 12 years. The most recent turmoil came in the form of the third government shutdown during that time period. Looking in from the outside, there is plenty of culpability on both sides to get a ...

Other voices: Plan is bad medicine for prices

In a landmark deal announced last week, President Donald Trump negotiated dramatically lower costs for weight-loss drugs produced by pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which could benefit Medicare and Medicaid patients, as well as Americans paying out of pocket. But here’s the skinny: What the president negotiated should not be reserved for big companies that play his game. GLP-1 medications, including Wegovy and Zepbound, currently have a list price of more than $1,000 for a month-long supply. Trump’s deal would bring that down to $350 on average, and as low as $50 ...