Allentown schools must put academics before athletics

The Morning Call recently reported that Dieruff High School will receive up to $18 million in athletic field upgrades. Pennsylvania law does not require public schools to field sports teams or maintain athletic facilities, which makes this spending hard to defend in a district with some of the lowest academic performance in the state.

Allentown students are struggling in core subjects, and the district continues to fall well below state proficiency averages. At a time when classrooms urgently need stronger instructional support, tutoring and resources that directly improve learning, directing such a large investment to optional athletic facilities sends the wrong message about priorities.

State lawmakers should step in and place reasonable limits on major capital projects in districts that are failing academically. Oversight is necessary to ensure that scarce taxpayer dollars are used to strengthen education rather than fund projects that do not address the district’s most serious challenges.

Families and taxpayers deserve confidence that school spending reflects a commitment to student achievement. Allentown must put academics first.

Andrew Price

Lower Heidelberg Township

South Side Bethlehem deserves more green space

As one can see, a large portion of Bethlehem, especially south Bethlehem, where Lehigh University is located, lacks green space. Many neighborhoods in this part of the city have limited access to parks, trees and other natural areas. This creates an imbalance in environmental quality and recreational opportunities compared with other sections of Bethlehem.

However, this is not just a Bethlehem problem. Many communities nationally, especially communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, have significantly fewer parks and green spaces, which makes these areas hotter, noisier and more polluted. Bethlehem is a relatively low-income community, with the city’s own planning document noting that low-income families are concentrated on the South Side, bordering Lehigh University.

Walking around Bethlehem feels like walking through a hyperindustrialized community, where smokestacks, factories and steel infrastructure dominate the landscape. There are barely any parks on this side of the river, and the ones that are here are not being used to their full potential.

The goal of this city should be to create more accessible green spaces, parks and tree-lined streets. This would ensure that this historical community can enjoy clean air, recreational opportunities and a healthier environment.

Shantae Robinson

Bethlehem

The writer is a junior at Lehigh University.

Ukraine deserves true peace, not a forced surrender

Let’s be clear about something: Strong-arming an invaded nation into accepting the terms dictated by the invading nation is not “successfully negotiating a peaceful end to a war.” It’s asking them to surrender. And it is not worthy of praise or celebration. Or a Nobel Peace Prize, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Tom Cleary

Lower Macungie Township

Democrats should be blamed for shutdown, expiring subsidies

Republicans are blamed for the Democrats’ government shutdown.

The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (2022) included enhanced COVID-emergency Obamacare subsidies, set to expire Dec. 31 (the COVID pandemic officially ended in May 2023).  By doing so, Democrats hid the true cost of eventually continuing these subsidies indefinitely.

After Republicans triumphed in 2024, the House passed a 2025 continuing resolution to keep the government open, pending the normal appropriation bills.  The enhanced Obamacare subsidies lapsed, per the original legislation.

Democrats then shut the government down by opposing any continuing resolution that would not resurrect those expired subsidies.  Eventually, eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans in ending the shutdown.

Now comes Fatima Hussein’s Associated Press piece “It shakes foundation of trust” for us to ponder in the Nov. 16 Morning Call.  She notes that both sides used federal government workers as pawns during the shutdown.

Hussein quotes American Federation of Government Employees union steward Jessica Sweet who thought “standing firm on the issue of the health care subsidies was worth her sacrifice.”  Sweet claims that other federal workers were “extremely unhappy” when the shutdown ended without extending the subsidies.

Those unhappy federal workers certainly taint the view that they are nonpartisan public servants.

James Largay

Upper Saucon Township

Boscola should advance community solar law

In May, the Pennsylvania House passed HB 504, the Community Energy Act, which among other things enables what is known as community solar — a program by which state residents can buy into solar energy projects when they themselves cannot, for various reasons, install solar panels where they live. This allows residents who live in apartments, in HMO communities that do not allow such panels, or in homes where the roof orientation or surrounding trees do not allow for solar panels to access solar energy for themselves. This bill was forwarded May 27 to the Pennsylvania Senate Committee for Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure co-chaired by Republican Sen. Patrick Stefano and our Sen. Lisa Boscola. Unfortunately, HB 504 has lain dormant because, supposedly, Stefano was not willing to advance it while Pennsylvania status in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was still pending. However, because Gov. Shapiro withdrew Pennsylvania’s RGGI application as part of the recent budget deal, Sen. Stefano’s objection is no longer applicable. Therefore, I am requesting that Sen. Boscola, who in the past has been a strong advocate for solar energy, use her influence to move HB 504 out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote.

Thomas H. Pritchett

Easton

Trump administration should take lesson from history

The Trump administration is following a policy of appeasement with Russia. They should read my old history textbook. At the Munich Conference in 1938, Neville Chamberlain, the English prime minister, and other leaders of European countries attempted to appease Nazi Germany. The result was World War II.

Edward Pany

Northampton

The writer is a retired history teacher.

The Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication.