Intelligencer Journal 11/30/2012
By Michael Shank

Will the state of Pennsylvania ever produce another Republican leader on par with Thaddeus Stevens (“Hollywood Thad,” Nov. 21)? The bar is set unquestionably high. Stevens’ adamant promotion of equality and opportunity contrasts starkly with the present Republican Party’s state policy initiatives.

Whether it is the Republican Party’s voter-ID push that disproportionately impacts communities of color, or the push to close public schools, replace them with charter schools and further privatize a once-public right in America, we have clearly regressed from the civil rights standards set by Stevens.

Stevens, if he were alive today, would be appalled at the educational achievement gap in Pennsylvania, specifically that the high school graduation rate among white students stands at 84 percent while Hispanic, African American and Native American students fall far behind at 50 percent, 49 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

On equality, Stevens would be steaming mad at the latest report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, published recently, which shows Pennsylvania’s income inequality grew substantially over the last decade. Annual household incomes of Pennsylvania’s richest one-fifth grew by 7.2 percent while the poorest fifth saw average income fall nearly 8 percent.

Will Pennsylvania’s Republican politicians take a lesson from Stevens going forward? Let’s hope so, and not simply for the sound moral and ethical reasoning, as postulated 150 years ago by one of Lancaster Pennsylvania’s foremost thinkers, but for economic reasons as well.

The state’s economic competitiveness is predicated on its ability to create an educated, skilled and thriving work force, a healthy middle class and fewer poor people on the government dole — a proposition Republicans are certain to appreciate. But none of that is possible as long as the state’s income inequality rates are on the rise and educational opportunity remains elusive for many minorities.

It behooves Pennsylvania’s Republican Party, then, to take a lesson from Stevens, not solely for the good of all its citizens but for the sustainability of the economy and the survival of the party.

Michael Shank

Washington D.C.

(Editors’ note: The letter writer is communications director/senior policy adviser for U.S. Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.) The writer’s parents reside in Lititz.)

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/787878_Pa–GOP-should-take-its-cue-from-Thad.html#ixzz2Dwmk2xRp