Letter to the Editor: SSVC closure promotes cynicism

I'm pretty sure you're getting plenty of mail from students from Scotland School, but I feel that it's important that you hear from a student.

[Bob]

Get a grip, live isn't fair in the eyes of everyone. Sometimes we get thrown a curve ball and we have to react in a positive manner. Your little piece of the country is not is not why your brother is fighting. Get on with your life, the sheltered aspect of it is over

[A Talking Horse]

Good - Americans could benefit from a healthy dose of cynicism.

For those of you in Rio Linda:

Dictionary: cyn·i·cism (sĭn'ĭ-s ĭz'əm)

-An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.

[Uncle Wiggly]

Haariet, the governor isn't about education. He is about the propping up of his cronies in the teacher's union and their failed public school system.

[Rod]

"The governor says he's all about education, but he just threw away potential lawyers, doctors, and scientists who would have repaid this state 10-fold had they had the chance to graduate from Scotland." Blarney, Harriet! The cream will rise to the top in any educational setting. Taxpayers are STILL paying for your education, just in a different setting. It is up to you to take advantage of it and excel. Stop whining and make excellent grades at Chambersburg High School!

[TooFunny]

Poor girl, they are forcing you to go to CASHS. Are you saying you lost the ability to study? Your statement, "The governor says he's all about education, but he just threw away potential lawyers, doctors, and scientists who would have repaid this state 10-fold had they had the chance to graduate from Scotland", is rediculous at best. Because you go to CASHS you can't be a lawyer, doctor, or scientist?? I am paying for you to go to CASHS, I don't need to pick up your tab for your little club in Scotland. You can whine and blame others for your failures or you can study and make your own future.

[Jack]

Appears that CAHS teachers and guidance counselors need to talk with Harriet and explain that her educational opportunities there are excellent and it's her job, as a student, to apply herself and excel. No doubt young Harriet is being trained to be a Liberal and blame someone else but never, ever accept personal responsibility. It also appears Harriet is being used.

[Not even close]

Harriet, don't let these individuals on here bring you down. I commend you on your essay. Standing up for something you believe in publicly is more than most can say. I will be sure to show Mr. Tressler your letter today when I see him & let him know how important he was to you. Your brother's sacrifice deserves our appreciation. SSVC was the least we could do for him.

To the others on here...Shame on you for bully comments. This young lady has more class than any of you. Voice your opinion but don't be abusive, espeically to a child who is voicing her opinion in a positive fashion.

[Jane]

Not even close wrote:

Harriet, don't let these individuals on here bring you down. I commend you on your essay. Standing up for something you believe in publicly is more than most can say. I will be sure to show Mr. Tressler your letter today when I see him & let him know how important he was to you. Your brother's sacrifice deserves our appreciation. SSVC was the least we could do for him.
To the others on here...Shame on you for bully comments. This young lady has more class than any of you. Voice your opinion but don't be abusive, espeically to a child who is voicing her opinion in a positive fashion.

Young Harriet does not understand, and possibly does not want to understand, why her state government closed SSVC. She does not grasp there is no unlimited supply of funds, and economically SSVC was a total failure and the governor's decision to close the school was sound and warranted. Your comment tells me that there's no chance you understand that fact.

[cfc]

Shame on the negative people again....
Bullying a student who is speaking her mind and sharing her feelings of being torn from her school.

[Tucker]

Won't some caring teacher in her high school explain to her the economics of why the governor closed the school? Point the finger of blame at the governor because she's ignorant of the real reasons it was necessary is leaving the child uneducated. It appears the adults, or seemingly adults, who rail against other posters on this thread will be among the 49% of Americans who will not pay any taxes by 2011. People in that category do not care how much government spends as long as the goodies are handed to them.

[Jack]

Agree, Tucker! Harriet needs help to understand the Pennsylvania budget and why SSVC could not be funded, year after year, at the high and increasing cost necessary.

[Dave]

Harriet, Tucker & Jack are just nasty, grumpy old men. Ignore them.

Your school was closed because of politics.

In a tempory budget crunch, you save money from cutting back on things that can be restarted after the crunch passes.

With State Parks, you close then a few days a week. maybe reduce some services but you don't sell them.

The truth is this, if your school was a big, expensive waste of money, why had it been funded for years? There were some that wanted to close it but were afraid to do it for political reasons. Who wants to be blamed for throwing kids out in the street?

So along came this budget crunch- the perfect excuse and wham your school is gone.

There were other options, depletion tax on natural gas like every other state has, a reducton in the staffs of the state legislature, fewer subsidies for some law maker's favorite industries, there were sidewalks to be bricked, wooden bridges to be preserved, fat cats to take care of on the turnpike commission and that gambling board, and we needed to spend thousands to convince people to stay in Chambersburg because it's close to places that are actually interesting.

I apologize, Harriet, that you & your fellow Scotland students were dispensable in the political arena.

[I love trees]

Harriet, good for you for speaking up.

Ignorant people, please learn the English language. I mean, if you're going to beat up on a child, at least be crafty or cheeky. What's more, to all you who are driving around in gas guzzling trucks and SUV's, burning Iraqi; Venezuelan; or Saudi oil; with the yellow ribbon stuck on the back, please take that irony off, you heartless un-American Fascists. If you can't see this as a blatant attack on education, how about Veteran's Benefit's? You narrow minded, self-centered, hypocrites! Some people have lifted themselves up by the bootstraps so that they could give those they love the opportunity to be in a position they didn't have. Seriously, you all go to church, meditate on that. Oh, and the next time you want to pick on someone for not trying, pick on your kids, because by your logic, they are just as much of a leech on society as poor Harriet here. Cling to your good books...but remember to let them go when there's something in there you don't like. Protestantism, wahooo!

[Harriet Leon]

TooFunny wrote:

Poor girl, they are forcing you to go to CASHS. Are you saying you lost the ability to study? Your statement, "The governor says he's all about education, but he just threw away potential lawyers, doctors, and scientists who would have repaid this state 10-fold had they had the chance to graduate from Scotland", is rediculous at best. Because you go to CASHS you can't be a lawyer, doctor, or scientist?? I am paying for you to go to CASHS, I don't need to pick up your tab for your little club in Scotland. You can whine and blame others for your failures or you can study and make your own future.

I'm sorry I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but
Scotland did give us better chance, and make us better prepared.
30 students can compete for scholarship, but at this school
it;s 3000, that's what I meant in a better chance.
And some of my friends who live in urban areas may not even
see graduation. I'm not going to be brought down by your words of
discontent, I'm proud to wear my S.O.S. Button to school everyday.

And FYI. You're paying 11,000 a year for a student who may not even
graduate, but at Scotland all of the students graduate.
Put that on your tap, sir.

[Harriet Leon]

TooFunny wrote:

Poor girl, they are forcing you to go to CASHS. Are you saying you lost the ability to study? Your statement, "The governor says he's all about education, but he just threw away potential lawyers, doctors, and scientists who would have repaid this state 10-fold had they had the chance to graduate from Scotland", is rediculous at best. Because you go to CASHS you can't be a lawyer, doctor, or scientist?? I am paying for you to go to CASHS, I don't need to pick up your tab for your little club in Scotland. You can whine and blame others for your failures or you can study and make your own future.

As I said before, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth,
but Scotland helped me put a spoon in my mouth.
Growing up poor isn't easy, and Scotland helped me out, so you paid
to save lives at Scotland. I'm grateful for it.
But please, slandering isn't needed. I'm simply saying that
Scotland made it easier to see a bright future.
It prepared us, not at CASHS where they throw you into the cycle because
they have to deal with thousands of other kids.
And I'm not a failure, I got good grades at Scotland, and I plan on
getting them here as well, I wish I could say the same for my friends
in Philly who may find themselves in places that won't allow for them
to live in the once save lives they had a Scotland.

But thank you for your comment.

[Steve]

Harriet, take yourself to state Senator Alloway and tell him about your plight. He will be sympathetic because he's a Liberal Democrat who successfully fooled Franklin County Republicans.

[Screwed]

Harriet Leon wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm sorry I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but
Scotland did give us better chance, and make us better prepared.
30 students can compete for scholarship, but at this school
it;s 3000, that's what I meant in a better chance.
And some of my friends who live in urban areas may not even
see graduation. I'm not going to be brought down by your words of
discontent, I'm proud to wear my S.O.S. Button to school everyday.
And FYI. You're paying 11,000 a year for a student who may not even
graduate, but at Scotland all of the students graduate.
Put that on your tap, sir.

Hey Harriet, stop whinning. CASHS has advanced classes to better prepare you for college. Classes at CASHS are free to all students. The difference is at SSVC "all students" received scholarships, while at CASHS you have to compete for them. Stop whinning and get to work, good things will happen. One of the problems at SSVC was that the students expected everyone to "give" them something. Life has been tough for the 99.9% of the people in the rest of the world, what makes you so special.

[Rob]

Harriet Leon wrote:

<quoted text>
As I said before, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth,
but Scotland helped me put a spoon in my mouth.
Growing up poor isn't easy, and Scotland helped me out, so you paid
to save lives at Scotland. I'm grateful for it.
But please, slandering isn't needed. I'm simply saying that
Scotland made it easier to see a bright future.
It prepared us, not at CASHS where they throw you into the cycle because
they have to deal with thousands of other kids.
And I'm not a failure, I got good grades at Scotland, and I plan on
getting them here as well, I wish I could say the same for my friends
in Philly who may find themselves in places that won't allow for them
to live in the once save lives they had a Scotland.
But thank you for your comment.

Answer me this, Harriet...would citizens of Philadelphia support a school much like SSVC but only for white kids from another town? Maybe they would.

But attitudes would change when they find out that kids have been going to school that are NOT children of our veterans and simply have been shipped there at every PA citizen's expensve.

I know the SSVC did help students such as yourself to become a good product of a decent school. The fact of the matter is that we were kept in the dark about why SSVC students were primarily black students from Philly. Why wasn't the school enrolling students from ALL over Pennsylvania that were direct descendants of veterans?

That, my dear, is why the school was shut down. For once, Governor Rendell determined from enrollment statistics that they were NOT doing what they were established to do. They were specifically catering to citizens of Philadelphia who wanted their children to have a better education. How is that our problem? Sure, that's cynical...but Philadelphia is REALLY messed up for wanting to ship kids to a school 3 hours away instead of improving their own schools to make education more beneficial for ALL of their students.

So, don't be angry at the governor for being practical in a very difficult economy...you should be angry at the board members of SSVC for perverting their enrollment process to benefit the few. Maybe you deserved the education from SSVC....we don't know. You should contact the people responsible for damaging the school's reputation instead of whining to the local newspaper.

[A Rational Person]

The real reason for Scotland School to be closed is Politics and greed. I personally don't see a need for the school other than tradition. but sometimes that should be all that is needed in order for something to exist. Rendell just wants to sell the property to one of his shady business partners. Let's see what pops up one the school is bulldozed over. I will bet Rendell has his greedy little hands in whatever it is. there are plenty of other things in this state that could have been cut to save money. The problem is that this is not about the States money it is about the shady people that will end up buying it. there may be a white knight though. Congressman Shuster had ask the gov. to spend some of the stimulus money to save the school. Let's see what he does with that, There is plenty of Stimulus money to do the job and then some.

[A Rational Person]

People that think this school is being closed because of the budget are nuts. the school is no different now than it has been for the last 10 years. why is it all of a sudden now a problem. some one in Philly must have mad Rendell mad and this is his way of pay back. I wouldn't put anything past this Shyster.