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Our Opinion

Our opinion: School funding reform an issue

Projections by the state’s Independent Fiscal Office foresee the burden of school districts’ property taxes growing by 4% to 4.8% from 2025 to 2026, according to reporting by The Center Square. While we hope these forecasts are the wake-up call our state government needs to prioritize reforms to how public schools in Pennsylvania are funded, we are unfortunately pessimistic. After all, court rulings that the property-tax structure Pennsylvania has long used is unconstitutional in its disparity have not prompted, in our view, the serious conversation our state’s families and ...

Our opinion: Don’t create a bigger cell issue

School districts across the nation are banning the use of cell phones in classrooms. Should Warren County? It depends, frankly, on what teachers say. Gary Weber, district superintendent, said the Warren County School District has been all over the map in recent years when it comes to cell phones in classrooms. The district’s current policy, in a nutshell, allows the superintendent or a superintendent’s designee to decide which devices are allowed in school. Teachers can allow students to use cell phones in class if it is for an educational purpose - but otherwise the ...

Our opinion: Parties have to find a compromise

It’s been 10 years since Pennsylvania’s voter identification system was ruled unconstitutional by Judge Bernard McGinley. A decade later, and Republicans and Democrats are still fighting over voter ID. State Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, recently complained that Democrats aren’t allowing Republicans to bring a bill to the floor for consideration that would place the issue on the ballot for voters to decide the issue. She blames House rules that require 25 House members from each party to sign a discharge petition to bring a bill to the floor. The blame, in our view, is a bit ...

Our opinion: Holiday brings day for U.S. pride

Today, people of the United States, as they celebrate the 248th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, ought to be neck-deep in patriotic pride for having the opportunity to live in this nation of freedom and abundance, despite its imperfections. Of course, as everyone who pays attention to the news knows, the patriotic pride this holiday deserves won’t be close to the unanimity that this day deserves to exhibit. The divisions on many political and non-political fronts - national, state and local - will not be eroded by the meaning, history and significance of today’s ...

Our opinion: A concerning step in county

It’s not necessarily a big deal that the Warren County Commissioners are dealing with a temporary gap between tax collections and bills that are coming due. That can happen to governments at all levels. Budgets can be shifted, savings used or short-term borrowing used to close those gaps. It’s usually such a routine action that most taxpayers never know it happens. But there are a couple of things that led to the commissioners’ decision last week to institute a soft hiring freeze and commissioner approval of expenses totaling more than $500 that are noteworthy. One is ...

Our opinion: Wortman leads on tough issue

After the controversy created last year when the topic of closing school buildings in Warren County - and the ensuing turnover on the Warren County School District Board of Education - it would be understandable if some school board members didn’t want to touch the idea of school closures with a 300-foot pole. But that’s not leadership. Frankly, it is political cowardice. John Wortman has to know his push to address the school district’s budget issues by continually bringing up school closures is going to upset people. He’s doing it anyway - to the benefit of students and ...