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H.S. Boys Volleyball: West rolls to 3-0 victory in WVC senior game

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Letter to the Editor: Ensure Pennsylvania’s building codes routinely get updated

<p>Is the budget impasse that hamstrings our public school systems today the way that our &#8220;small government&#8221; Republican friends think they can finally end public education?</p><p>They have said, many times, that they would like to change it into a &#8220;for-profit&#8221; system that would require tuition from every student.</p><p>School systems across Pennsylvania are looking at ending kindergarten or closing their high schools, as they try to balance their budgets. The system in Wilkes-Barre is looking at dropping necessary courses and laying off teachers.</p><p>Pension costs, health insurance costs. All other mandates from the state come out of the pockets of those who are hit with ever-rising real estate taxes. Those taxes hit senior citizens, living on fixed incomes, particularly hard.</p><p>Elected officials in Harrisburg seem to have forgotten that they work for us. They are supposed to understand our needs. So why do school children &#8211; our future &#8211; suffer, while seniors can be put out of their homes, and representatives and senators continue to receive paychecks?</p><p>Their ideas for tax relief seem to focus only on more gambling, a regressive tax on poor people.</p><p>Our overall state budget problem won&#8217;t be solved until the Republican majority in both houses finally admits that we need to close the various tax loopholes and finally let the shale gas industry pay its fair share.</p><p>Not every senior citizen is deaf, dumb or blind. We do read newspapers, computers or magazines, and pay attention to what is reported. We know when those in power are trying to sell us a partisan bill of goods.</p><p>Isn&#8217;t it time to stop trying to bamboozle us and to settle down to finally do the work you were sent to Harrisburg to do? I think so!</p><p>Remember: We talk to one another, and we vote.</p><p><strong>Eleanor Kandler Rodda</strong></p><p>Shavertown</p><style>
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Letter to the Editor: Stop squeezing life out of Pennsylvania’s public school districts