Cheers & Jeers
Herald-Standard
Garden baskets judged at the Fayette County Fair this week in a file photo from 2021
Associated Press
Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance holds a piece of paper with the name of former President Donald Trump written on it, as he speaks May 3, 2022, in Cincinnati.
Cheers: The smell of funnel cake, excited yelling from rides, concerts, contests and 4-H shows are all a part of what makes county fair season a truly special time in our area. Between yesterday (the start of the Fayette County Fair) and Aug. 27 (the end of the Westmoreland Fair) not a day will have gone by without an opportunity to partake in the fun, upholding existing traditions or creating new ones. Fayette’s fair runs through Aug. 6, followed by the Greene County Fair, Aug. 7-13. The Washington County Agricultural Fair starts the same day Greene’s fair ends and runs through Aug. 20, and the Westmoreland Fair runs Aug. 19-27. With a month of fairs, there’s no excuse to miss out on the good times at any or all of them!
Jeers: “Hillbilly Elegy” author and Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance has reportedly been running an extraordinarily lackluster campaign in the Buckeye State, and it has his fellow Republicans worried. Throughout his time in politics, Vance has come off as a mean and joyless scold, and that image was certainly fortified this week when it was reported that Vance told students at a Christian high school in California last year that married couples should stay together if their union has gone bad for the sake of their children. He also believes they should also stick it out even if the marriage has become violent. Vance observed that some people “shift spouses like they change their underwear.” Vance may hate divorce, but his comments are divorced from reality – divorce rates have fallen from the peaks of the 1970s and 1980s, and children in violent homes have higher rates of mortality and behavioral issues. Vance’s ill-considered thoughts on marriage make it clear that if he loses in November, he probably shouldn’t consider family counseling as a career option.
Cheers: Having merged six of its campuses into two separate universities and gotten an infusion of additional money from Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) unveiled the third phase of its system redesign last week, and it’s ambitious. PASSHE’s board of governors and Daniel Greenstein, the system’s chancellor, hope to boost enrollment by 20% over the next five years. This could be a challenge, given the declining numbers of graduates expected to come out of Pennsylvania high schools in the years ahead, but the PASSHE hopes to accomplish this by having more adults enroll to earn a degree or enhance their skills. They also hope to increase graduation rates among students who are already enrolled and boost affordability by building partnerships with employers and expanding financial aid. Greenstein told the board that taking these steps would help the state fill its skills gap – right now, 60% of the jobs in Pennsylvania require a higher-education credential, but only 50% of working-age residents have one. Greenstein said, “We can rebuild. We can reinvigorate. We can reinvest.”