The steady ascent of more and more women to positions of political leadership reflects basic changes in our society which cannot be undone. That’s because men depend on these changes as well as women. Families are smaller, so few of them need stay-at-home mothers for a lifetime. Modern families need two working parents; single women [...]
BY JOHN JOHNSON/ President, Transit Workers Union Local 234 Across the nation, anti-union governors and state legislatures are seeking extensive, structural changes to weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions. Many Republican legislatures have promoted bills intended to weaken unions. So far, they focussed on building trades and public sector unions. Fourteen states have introduced [...]
Philadelphians have gotten to know Congressman Bob Brady more as the “go-to man” to fix city problems than as the 1st Congressional Dist. representative and chairman of the Democratic Party. They have seen him in key peacemaker roles in union, school, city, and community disputes. He was also the key man to go to when [...]
From beginning to end, public schools belong to the public. That is why it is imperative that Philadelphia’s citizens be involved in planning how to downsize its public-school system. While it is the School District’s job and duty to carry out this task, it must be a collaborative effort with its end users. Top-down approaches [...]
BY JERRY JORDAN, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers/ The danger of being given an agenda and the authority to carry it out is that you run the risk of looking tone-deaf when you push that agenda through despite the public backlash. That is precisely what is happening here in Philadelphia, as the community’s cries to [...]
Mr. Mayor, you were in Washington basking in the limelight as president of the Association of City Mayors and did not feel the fervor of several thousand unionists gathered at Independence Hall to challenge you to do what is right and just. The cry of the rank and file was heard from Independence Hall to [...]
by Dayle Steinberg, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood S.E. Penna. Jan. 22nd marked the 40th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. This ruling established women have a fundamental constitutional right to make their own decisions about their pregnancies without government interference. Forty years later, a clear majority of Americans continue [...]
BY STATE REP. RON WATERS/ Much has been said and written in favor and in opposition of gun control since the Sandy Hook tragedy unfolded. The heinous crime has cracked the half-century-long gun debate wide open. Vice President Joe Biden has issued a set of gun-control recommendations to the President, and I hope, simply, that common [...]
Public School Superintendents in major cities have one thing in common … they all share the hottest seat in town. Faced with federal and state budget cuts, they need to save dollars; and where else to go, than to look within their budgets? Many are taking the heat because the only route to reducing budgets [...]
BY JERRY JORDAN, President, Phila. Federation of Teachers/ Dr. William Hite, like many of his predecessors, has put forth a compelling proposal for improving the performance of our public schools. The PFT agrees with many of the ideas put forth in the Action Plan, particularly as it relates to developing richer, better-rounded curricula for our [...]
