Adam Patric Miller: As a teacher, I’m seeing the death of American education
A student I like turns in an essay. (She won me over because she brings “Crime and Punishment” to class, and her last name is Russian, which makes me think of the great-grandparents I never met who left Russia for the reasons many Jews left.) A few sentences into her...
Point: Standardized tests were built for a predictable world; that world is gone
For more than a century, American education has been driven by the same invisible engine: standardization. Rows of desks. National tests. Rankings. From No Child Left Behind to statewide report cards, we have long measured success by what can be quantified, compared and controlled. This model, born in the industrial...
Counterpoint: Standardized tests help students by creating a framework for accountability
When the College Board canceled SAT testing in 2020, hundreds of colleges adopted test-optional admissions policies for that fall. The Urban Institute reported that the number of four-year colleges and universities going test-optional nearly doubled in one year, from 713 to 1,350. Test-optional admissions had been spreading before the covid...
Letter to the editor: Forgetting the victims of overdose
Per the CDC: March 2025, 77,648 overdose deaths versus the previous year, 103,529. And we are worried about drug runners? So typical of our society now. Forget the victims. As someone whose family has been affected by drug addiction and death, we could care less about stopping the drug trade....
Letter to the editor: Congress members correct on war crimes
I am appalled that your newspaper should print the Associated Press story “Pentagon says it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly over video urging troops to defy ‘illegal orders’ ” (Nov. 24, TribLive). Six Congress members — unlike President Trump, veterans all — issued a video telling soldiers they did not have...
Editorial: Colleges can build big without begging for cash
Oh, those college expenses. There are those big ideas of what it will be like. It’s all freedom and independence until financial reality sets in. Then the calls start to come about borrowing money. No, this isn’t about your sophomore psychology student wanting to use that emergency credit card. It’s...
Letter to the editor: When disasters strike, our community steps up
While many of us are asleep, families huddle on the street, watching firefighters douse the flames consuming their home. At the same time, local Red Cross volunteers — neighbors from our own community — comfort those families and provide emergency lodging, recovery support and a shoulder to lean on during...
Cal Thomas: Conservative giants Buckley, Thatcher deserve more praise
While only a small number of us live to be 100, everyone’s birthday has a centenary date. For historians who seem mostly to be of the liberal persuasion and obituary writers (ditto) the way the 100th anniversary of a conservative’s birth usually results in one of the following: ignored, diminished...
S.E. Cupp: This really may be the political end for Trump
Over years and years of covering politics, the last decade of which has been spent covering Donald Trump specifically, I’ve learned you can never really count him out. It’s been a painful, exhausting, and deeply disappointing lesson, but an important one nonetheless. He keeps on keeping on. The things I...
Chris Rosselot: Pittsburgh’s mayoral transition opportunity for community commitment
As Pittsburgh prepares to begin a new chapter under Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor, the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) views this moment as an opportunity to center neighborhood voices and recommit to a development strategy that is responsible, equitable and grounded in community experience. Transitions in leadership can create uncertainty, but...
Letter to the editor: Immigrants should respect our flag
While watching the news on television, I see immigrants in this country waving flags of the countries they fled from and burning the flag of the country that they wanted to come to. Either go back where you came from or respect our flag. Bill Radvansky New Kensington...
Letter to the editor: Leaders should confront public education problems
Regarding the editorial “School funding, charter oversight are state-created problems” (Nov. 30, TribLive): For more than a decade, the debate over public cyber charter schools has been framed as an educational issue. In reality, it has always been about money, driven by school districts and state leaders who would rather...
Lori Falce: What is a war crime?
The history of war is the history of humankind, and it is a lengthy timeline of the most brutal savagery people can visit upon each other. It is a terrible storybook of blood and fire and pain. Armies took land by killing everyone who lived on it, ensuring no retaliation....
Laurels & lances: Contracts & consequences
Laurel: To getting things done. When it comes to labor contracts, we have all become accustomed to hearing things come down to the wire — or beyond. How many union and employer deals can go months or even years without resolution while things hang in limbo or head into strike...
Letter to the editor: Let’s rename the White House
Demolishing its East Wing prompts me to propose renaming the White House. I suggest Chat-Pala-Cas (Chateau-Palace-Castle). Picture a moat, drawbridge, towers and turrets. Imagine a courtyard with a medieval-style scaffold for beheadings and public hangings of the king’s enemies. Grandstand? (Tickets @ trumpstore.com) Expect a throne in one corner of...
Paul Kengor: The Pa. Lottery’s dubious Christmas gift
Residents of Pennsylvania, your government is at it again. ‘Tis the season. It’s Christmas time, and that means your government is again using your money to promote a scheme that gives false hope. It’s engaging yet again in its seasonal scheme to take money from millions without giving them anything...
Dr. Debra Bogen and Dr. Val Arkoosh: Protect Pa. children from hepatitis B infection
This week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines for all Americans, will discuss whether to change its recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine. Their vote could negatively affect the health of children and families...
Letter to the editor: Steelers need to follow Lambert’s lead
What has happened to the Steelers? They have morphed into a group of listless, lifeless, overpaid underachievers who don’t seem to care a bit about the total embarrassments they now are. So how about bringing in Jack Lambert? He epitomized everything great about the old Steelers dynasties. Although he was...
Letter to the editor: Standing up for FDR’s freedoms
FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech outlined his vision for a world in which all people have the essential freedoms of speech, worship, want and fear. Over 80 years later, we are still struggling to achieve those goals. In our country today, with ICE thugs terrorizing even children and peaceful protesters, and...
Editorial: Could AI be the new Twinkie defense?
People accused of crimes have laid the blame at a variety of doorsteps to excuse — or at least explain — what happened. John Hinckley Jr. said it was the movie “Taxi Driver” and his obsession with a young Jodie Foster that prompted his assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in...
Letter to the editor: Data center destruction
I was disappointed to read the article “Springdale Planning Commission OKs data center project; proposal moves to council” (Nov. 17, TribLive). We in Southwestern Pennsylvania understand the consequences of companies depleting our resources, offering false promises of jobs and tax revenue and leaving us with increased pollution that harms our...
Jonah Goldberg: You can’t hide from war crimes by calling them ‘fake news’
Since September of this year, the United States military has been blowing up boats allegedly trafficking drugs in the Caribbean. Whether these attacks are legal is hotly debated. Congress hasn’t declared war or even authorized the use of force against “narco-terrorists” or against Venezuela, the apparent real target of a...
Panini A. Chowdhury: Rural Pa.’s data center mirage
Rural Appalachian communities in Pennsylvania know the feeling of being promised the world and left with the bill. For generations, coal powered the region’s economy. But when demand collapsed, so did entire towns. More than 33,000 mining jobs have vanished in Appalachia since 2011, leaving behind shuttered plants, hollowed-out tax...
Allison Schrager: AI is more likely to cause a labor shortage. Here’s why.
There are two big worries when it comes to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence. The first is that it will lead to
robot overlords that will eradicate humanity. The second is that AI will eliminate many jobs. The more likely scenario is that it creates a labor shortage, or...
Letter to the editor: Questions about new Hempfield fire station
I’m shocked and thoroughly amazed at the Hempfield Township supervisors’ decision to purchase land to rebuild a fire station that will be farther from the areas most affected by emergencies requiring help, without the fire stations’ input (“Hempfield supervisors buy land for new fire station despite response time warnings,” Nov....
