​Looking at the recent news regarding a teachers’ strike in Los Angeles has brought back, for me, some strong feelings about how my country is contributing to the difficult challenges facing our public schools in America.
 
My two sisters and I grew up in Philly during the 1940s and 1950s and at a time when our public schools were truly terrific. We attended our public elementary, junior high and high schools and in my mind, I could never have asked for anything better. For those who wanted to attend fine private schools in those days, their families were required to pay separately for said attendance.
 
Today, privately owned and money-making charter schools have become a major factor in our education systems and have diminished public schools by drawing away tax money. If this method of education continues, we will hurt ourselves by diminishing the educational services that we should be providing for all of our children, including those who are unable to afford private schools. 
 
Please! Let us cease our giving of public funds to privately owned charter schools and return to those days when our public schools were truly places that provided a good education for all of our children.

​My fellow Americans spend far too little time addressing the unfairness that exists today when it comes to the cost of attending college in our country. I attended Temple University for four years from 1958 until 1962, and the total for my tuition costs for all four of my years amounted to $1,200. In today’s economy, $1,200 back in 1962 is worth $9,732. If only our current students were paying slightly less than ten thousand dollars for their four years of tuition costs. Unfortunately, our current students are paying slightly more than sixty three thousand dollars for their four years of tuition college costs at the same school I attended, or close to seven times as much as I paid for my education.
 
When are we as a nation, as a community, going to try and fix the problems we face as a result of a growing gap between the rich and the poor, between the well-to-do and those many of us Americans who have so little, and therefore, so many fewer chances to live out the American dream? I’m still waiting for my country to return to those days during the 1940s and 1950s when we actually were allowing for the well to do to live out their dreams while making certain that those at the bottom of the pole were at least above water with opportunities available to them to live well.