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Continue funding early education
Proposed federal spending cuts for this year would leave crime fighters with both hands tied behind their backs.
On the one hand, there are proposals to slash federal aid to local law enforcement agencies. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of at-risk kids could lose access to early care and educational programs. We have a fiscal crisis on our doorstep, and it is time to make tough decisions.
As a prosecutor, I believe these cuts to early care and education programs would be shortsighted, both because of the impact on community safety, as well as from a fiscal perspective.
There’s no substitute for tough policing, prosecution and corrections. But cleaning up after the consequences of crime is far more expensive than preventing crimes.
We need to do more to maintain and improve programs that prevent at-risk kids from becoming criminals in the first place.
Research shows high-quality early care and education programs can help deter violent crime, improve public safety and save taxpayers far more in the long run than the programs cost. A long-term study of Michigan’s Perry Preschool found that children left out of the program were five times more likely to be chronic offenders by age 27 than children who did attend. The program saved taxpayers $180,000 for every child served, with the vast majority of the savings coming from the reductions in crime costs.
Cutting support for law enforcement agencies and early childhood programs will hurt our ability to fight crime and to prevent it on the front end.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, has been an advocate for early childhood education programs. Law enforcement will stand with him in opposing these cuts and will speak in favor of funding to strengthen and expand federal early care and education programs such as Head Start.
Our future public safety and our fiscal well-being depend on it.
Students, workers suffer under plan
I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch the live feed from the governor’s budget address in Harrisburg.
As I fully expected, our governor is balancing our state budget by gutting our education system – the only hope we have in making Pennsylvania a place that our young people want to live in or move to!
And to add insult to injury, this fool wants our state to become the “Texas” to the natural gas drillers like that state is to the oil drillers. I lived in Texas while on active military duty and if that is what he wants to do, we are going to see our beautiful area converted into a wasteland of industrial pollution and a continuation of low-paying jobs.
Since he already is gutting the education system, maybe his plan is to ensure that the gas drillers have a lot of our kids applying for truck driver, site guards and laborer positions.
At least he will ensure those jobs remain at minimum wage to increase the already huge profits of the gas drillers!
What is wrong with our state representatives who are supposed to be representing the taxpayers?
Get ready to see your property tax skyrocket while the out-of-state gas drilling executives get even richer.
Haggerty backed for bench position
James Haggerty, mayor of Kingston, is running for judge in Luzerne County.
He is an honorable man. Haggerty is more than qualified. He is big on home rule, which is important.
Respect rights of workers, unions
To discontinue collective bargaining, whether in the public or private sector, is an ill-conceived exercise. I label it a political move to destroy unionism.
Can you imagine what corporations would do with this power? Greed would go deeper.
This was tested in Poland and failed. It resulted in the birth of “solidarity.”
Rather than be at the mercy of political dictates, we must rely on labor management negotiations to resolve workplace issues. One must never forget it is the workers who produce products and profit.
Wherever and whenever events occur that put basic human rights in jeopardy, the unions in America should react and not fear to take to task those people who would attempt to deny union members of the most important of all human factors: dignity and security.
Workers in all sectors of our country aspire to more humane conditions, to share in the fruits of their labors in the areas of wages and Social Security and to have an opportunity for cultural growth at an acceptable degree.
We of labor seek to have the rights of its membership protected and respected.
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