Understaffed agency faces record unemployment claims
More than 830,000 Pennsylvanians filed for unemployment compensation over the past two weeks after at least temporarily losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 economic fallout.
That exponential increase, more than all of the cases filed in 2019, would be enough to overwhelm even a healthy agency. But due to the lousy governance virus that infected Pennsylvania’s Legislature long before the coronavirus pandemic, the process is under water.
Spotlight, a state government reporting project of The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot News, detailed the problem.
The state government established a special fund in 2013 to ensure timely unemployment compensation payments, after the U.S. Department of Labor cited the state Department of Labor and Industry for poor service.
The fund expired in 2016, but when Gov. Tom Wolf proposed renewing it with $57.5 million, Republican majority leaders in the state Senate let it die without a vote.
The department responded by eliminating 500 positions and closing three service centers. Though the administration partially has restored the ranks, only one of those centers has reopened and staffing remains hundreds of positions short of where it was in 2016. The department announced Monday that it would add 100 positions, but even that will leave it short of the 2016 number. It has 183 claims examiners and 109 intake interviewers, 216 fewer staffers than it had four years ago.
Unemployment compensation is funded by mandatory contributions by employers and a tax on employees’ wages, making it especially galling that the Legislature has diminished the office. But it flows from a philosophy that the government is the problem, the “deep-state” baloney that some politicians hold as gospel.
Anti-government politicians often repeat a one-line joke: “I’m with the government and I’m here to help.” Well, not if they have their way.
The Scranton Times-Tribune
Parents’ role now magnified
For millions of American students, public schools have been closed since mid-March.
School has been wherever a quiet place could be found in the home. For most, class starts when they and their parents decide it will.
That simply will not work for many children. There is a reason we still send the children off to school every weekday.
Regular, personal contact with professional educators is important.
For the foreseeable future, schools will be closed, however. No one knows how long school buildings will have to remain closed as part of the battle to keep the coronavirus from spreading.
Educators have been conscientious and creative in coming up with ways to continue the learning process at home. Packets sent home, along with online initiatives, have helped.
But, especially for special needs students, there is no substitute for face time with professionals.
That makes it all the more important for parents and guardians to be engaged in the education process. While classes are being held, educators can make up for some lack of participation by parents and guardians.
Even then, with students in front of them every day, doing so can be a challenge. Ask any teacher which students come from homes where parents are actively involved, and there will be no hesitation in answering.
Now, however, teachers have no choice.
As much as they may insist assigned work be completed, it is up to the adults in a home to ensure that students do not simply forget about school while the buildings are closed. We realize that to an extent, we are “preaching to the choir.”
If you are reading the newspaper, there is an excellent chance you already are doing all you can to keep your children up to speed on school work.
If you are not, get with it. Education is important — wherever classes are in session.
In a very real sense, school is not out for the summer.
Altoona Mirror