Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Helicopter parents making Pa.’s teachers miserable
Pennsylvania’s teachers have the lowest morale in the country. According to the most recent Education Week survey, it is not about pay, curriculum or testing. Instead, it’s the parents. Pennsylvania teachers overwhelmingly say student behavior is not improving. In fact, they are among the most pessimistic about whether things are...
Christopher Nicholas: Shapiro’s brand is high gloss, high cost
Pennsylvania’s “Get Stuff Done” (GSD) governor has a favorite state department that he’s willing to staff to the rafters: his personal, dedicated PR team. As published reports last summer detailed, Gov. Josh Shapiro now sports 21 employees in his executive office, “dedicated to promoting” his image. But earlier this month,...
Daniel Katz: Social media platforms aren’t the new cigarettes. They’re worse.
A jury in Los Angeles may have just done for social media what early lawsuits did for Big Tobacco. Outside the courtroom, families who said they have lost children to the effects of these platforms gathered in shirts that read “We Are K.G.M.,” expressing solidarity with the 20-year-old plaintiff. Inside...
Harry Psaros: The day I stopped denying my son’s autism
When my son Gus was diagnosed with autism, my wife saw it first. I did not. Like many fathers, I resisted the diagnosis with a stubborn optimism that masked something deeper: fear. Michelle noticed the early signs — the speech delays, the social struggles, the subtle differences that began to...
Felicity A. Williams: The affordability crisis Pa. families can’t ignore
Across Pennsylvania, families are doing everything right — working, budgeting and planning — yet it still feels harder to get by. The reason is not hard to find: the cost of everyday life has risen faster than paychecks, and the squeeze is showing up in nearly every monthly bill. At...
Abby McCloskey: Universal child care isn’t always good for kids
Free child care is starting to take root in the U.S. But is it good for kids? Last year, New Mexico became the first state to offer free universal child care. This year, New York began offering free child care for children ages 0-3 in certain cities, with a goal...
Jason Gagorik: National help needed to fight cybercrime
Picture a burglar who never sets foot in Whitehall. The miscreant doesn’t cruise our neighborhoods or test car doors under the cover of darkness, nor do they care about patrol routes or municipal boundaries. Instead, the thief sits behind a keyboard — perhaps overseas — targeting our residents with spoofed...
Noah Feldman: A judge’s vulgar dissent is a loss for everyone
A recent opinion by a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a contender for the most vulgar piece of judicial writing in the 300-plus-year history of recorded judicial decisions in the English language. The opinion in Olympus Spa v. Andretti — a dissent from...
Cal Thomas: Sending in the clowns
Even someone with a rudimentary understanding of economics should know that, if you tax a business or individual beyond their level of tolerance, they will pack up and leave the state for one with lower or no state income tax. Unfortunately, one can’t escape the long arm of federal taxes....
Elizabeth Shackelford: Global oil crisis once again makes the case for renewable energy
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and introduced an ambitious solar strategy to Congress. This came on the heels of the oil shocks of the 1970s caused first by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states and then the Iranian Revolution —...
Pat Browne: New tax credit will help working Pennsylvanians
As someone who served as a legislator in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly for nearly three decades, I was part of many conversations that revolved around our commonwealth’s tax system and the policies we could advance to help Pennsylvanians who are most in need. The challenge that has existed for more than...
Dennis Roddy: Lists of Jews never lead to anything good
Fifty years ago, a signup sheet was posted in Krebs Hall at the University of Pittsburgh’s Johnstown campus, asking Jewish students to kindly provide their names. A friend of mine was a recent arrival at the campus. She saw the sheet and phoned home to Wilkes-Barre. She told her mother...
Patrick McGinty: Pennsylvania Promise seeks to carry on local legacy
When high school seniors across the city return to class from their spring breaks, the countdowns will begin. Only 50 school days left. Three more Monday alarm clocks. Two more final bells. Unfortunately, there’s a more dismal countdown underway. The 2026 class will be the third-to-last group of Pittsburgh Public...
Ben Freeman and William Hartung: The trillion-dollar Iran war
In late 2002, as the U.S. was on the precipice of invading Iraq, the president’s top budget official estimated that the war would cost as little as $50 billion. That conflict ultimately cost American taxpayers more than $3 trillion, and we’re still paying the bill. Fast-forward to 2026 and the...
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson: Sacred restraint in a restless world
Across the globe, Muslims, Christians and Jews enter seasons of fasting, repentance and remembrance. Together, the Abrahamic traditions represent over half of the world’s religious population. In their distinct ways, each tradition calls its followers to humility and a deep concern for others, whether through fasting, repentance or remembrance of...
David M. Drucker: Your average Democratic voter isn’t a left-winger
President Donald Trump has a habit of referring to Democrats as “radical-left lunatics.” The unfair pejorative aside, it turns out the typical Democratic voter isn’t even left wing. Let that sink in. According to an expansive poll conducted recently for centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, a majority of Democratic...
Kevin Frazier: We’ve been ‘preparing’ for the future since 1991—it hasn’t worked
“Today, the demands on business and workers are different. Firms must meet world-class standards, and so must workers. Employers seek adaptability and the ability to learn and work in teams.” Sound familiar? It’s the sort of guidance you’ll find on X, in studies issued by nonprofits, and, as I recently...
Abby McCloskey: Republicans are squandering their MAHA moment
The MAHA base is bigger than you think. And the GOP is going to need all the support it can muster to survive what’s likely to be a bruising midterm. Roughly four in 10 parents (38%) identify as supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement, according to a KFF/Washington...
Victoria Elliott: Harrisburg must take action on Pa.’s growing pharmacy deserts
The ongoing pharmacy closure crisis in Pennsylvania has become an alarming issue for communities throughout the commonwealth. Since 2020, over 1,000 community pharmacies have shuttered their doors, creating a massive pharmacy desert that has engulfed cities, towns, suburbs and rural communities. A pharmacy desert is any area where residents no...
Panini A. Chowdhury: Pittsburgh can’t attract families without healthy food access
For more than 40 years the Shop ‘n Save on Brownsville Road was more than a business. It was a community fabric for the Carrick neighborhood. When Shop ‘n Save announced its closure, Carrick tipped toward being a food desert, joining roughly one-quarter of Pittsburgh neighborhoods already struggling with access....
Diana Vahabzadeh: Legislators must help bring down skyrocketing utility bills
Nothing in my life is going up except bills. My rent, car insurance, cellphone and cable bills have all gotten more expensive recently. At 74 years old, I can’t enjoy my golden years, and must work as a private caregiver in order to cover the exploding costs of living. Unfortunately,...
Jennifer Bertetto: The high cost of a secret — why real transparency still requires a newspaper
There is an old saying in the news business: “Democracy dies in darkness.” But in the modern halls of government, darkness doesn’t always come from a closed door; sometimes, it comes from a quiet, obscure government website that no one visits. On March 24, the Pennsylvania House will consider House...
Farrah Hassen: ICE’s warehouse scheme draws bipartisan protests
Warehouses are for storing goods. ICE wants to use them to store people. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramps up arrests, the Trump administration is seeking to spend $38 billion to expand its detention capacity to 92,600 people, according to agency documents. At least 73,000 people — a record...
Elizabeth Soltan: After decades of trying, Pa. needs to pass a state False Claims Act
Gov. Josh Shapiro urged Pennsylvania to pass a state False Claims Act (FCA) in his 2026 budget address. There is bipartisan support for House Bill 1697, which would create a state FCA modeled after the federal FCA, one of the government’s best fraud-fighting tools. The FCA encourages whistleblowers to come...
Leonard Greene: Thousands dead over war in Iran — biggest casualty is compassion
War is ugly. So is hubris. The next time President Donald Trump tells you how well the war is going, remember that U.S. missile strikes have killed more than 1,400 people in Iran, including 168 children who perished at an elementary school. Remember, too, that the average price of gas...
