Hits and Misses
HIT: Pennsylvania has not raised its minimum wage since 2009, and has gone even longer since it last raised the minimum salary for teachers. It was set at $18,500 per year and has not budged since. Granted, most teachers make more than that – the average salary in the Washington School District is a little more than $53,000 – but the floor should be raised for those teachers starting out in the profession. Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed raising the minimum salary to $45,000 per year. While that would allow young teachers the opportunity to help make ends meet and not take on second jobs in order to do so, opponents have said this is too high. How about a compromise? When you adjust for inflation, $18,500 in 1989 would now come to $37,800. That would be a good place to set the minimum salary.
HIT: Kudos to the off-duty Washington firefighter who helped a shooting victim at the Regal Crown Center Stadium 14 cinema in North Franklin Township last Saturday. A teenager who has not yet been identified was shot by a Greene County man after an altercation inside a theater showing the movie “Us,” and the firefighter – whose identity is also under wraps – stepped in and applied a tourniquet to the victim’s leg. The 20-year veteran of the fire department “was more than willing to run back in there not knowing what he was running into,” according to Gerald Coleman, Washington’s fire chief. “I am extremely proud of him.” The chief has every reason to be.
HIT: The weather has been improving incrementally lately, and the calendar is about to turn to April, which means Major League Baseball teams are back in action after the long winter. The old saying goes, “Hope springs eternal,” and that applies to the vast majority of the 30 major-league teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates. Like the others, the Pirates believe that if they get a few breaks and a few players return to better form, they can contend – perhaps not for a division title but at least for a wild-card playoff berth. And they’re not wrong. But neither are 20-some other teams. We’ll know how it all plays out in six months. But for now, it’s nice to hear the crack of the bats again.