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1. Good government starts with accountability — even for Shapiro

By The Editors
 

In 2023, Mike Vereb — a member of Governor Josh Shapiro’s cabinet and a longtime ally of the governor — was forced to resign after a sexual harassment scandal. Only while he was in the mix to possibly be the vice-presidential candidate for Kamala Harris did Shapiro say he had no early knowledge of the incidents, and the mainstream press has not questioned him on this.

Since then, Broad + Liberty has been working to nail down the details of the investigation the administration allegedly conducted into Vereb. Our premise was very simple: when faced with charges of abuse in his own ranks, would he — his words —  go after these kinds of cover-ups and abuses? Or would he protect the powerful and the institution they serve at the expense of the victim? When it was his turn to deal with abuse and institutional protection in his own domain, how did this governor respond? To be overly generous, the responses from his office have not built our confidence in the governor’s claims. 

The biggest problem in researching this question is that when we requested the emails Vereb’s accuser sent in her final week on the job, we were told that there were none. Further requests through the Office of Open Records and the courts produced an even more shocking truth: her entire account had been deleted. No archive, no nothing. Just gone.

Why It Matters. Who ordered what and when? It’s impossible to say for sure when the governor keeps stonewalling. We can only speculate what the deleted records might have shown — and that’s the problem. When a public agency destroys records, it prevents accountability by design. That’s why the law treats it as a serious offense. We have no doubt they understand that the destruction of public records is a crime in this state. There is no question records were destroyed. Someone destroyed them. Given the risks, why? 

It’s time for the man who once held Pennsylvania’s most powerful investigative post to turn that scrutiny on his own administration.

The governor and the governor’s office cannot be allowed to simply destroy documents without consequence. Should that be the case, then Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law is a tiger without teeth — it is no law at all. 

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2. Cyber charter students, the piñata in Harrisburg

By Guy Ciarrocchi
 

There is a group of students in our state who have become a political piñata — the object attacked repeatedly, with those wielding the political “stick” wearing blindfolds choosing not to see the students they’re attacking. 

Worse, the attackers encourage other parents also to attack these students, and their parents. These students already had their education funding cut for 2024-25 and 2025-26, yet some politicians want to take another financial whack at them. They are the only segment of students to have their funding cut for two years in a row. 

Cyber charter students: they are Harrisburg’s tragic piñata.

Why It Matters. In a state with about two million K-12 students, cyber students account for just 70,000 — about 3.5 percent. More importantly, cyber students only receive about 68 percent of what is spent on local public school district students. In 2025-26, they are scheduled to get even less — about 66 percent — of what’s spent on their peers in school district schools. Yet some want more cuts.

District schools have never had more money to spend, have billions in reserve, and cyber students account for only 3.5 percent of all students. So why focus on them?

Cyber schools work for over 70,000 students — and more each semester. They’re accountable to parents and taxpayers as they’re regulated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. They’re far less expensive. It’s a win-win-win.

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3. Lightning Round

• Beth Ann Rosica: Shapiro silent on Save Women’s Sports Act

• Thom Nickels: New hope from Rome?

• Sen. Jarrett Coleman: It’s time to end Covid penalties on small businesses

• Boraski declines Falls Twp. reelection bid, supports Loteckie; Lawson also running

• Guy Ciarrocchi: Two vastly different visions of what America is and should be

• Paul Davis: Latest report on officers killed in the line of duty

• Stephen Gambescia: Fields of pink

4. Broad + Liberty gets results!

No one else in the Delaware Valley was writing about the Democrats’ shenanigans with the fake school board sample ballots. But after Beth Ann Rosica’s article on the subject, the cat was out of the bag. A short time later, a local court approved a settlement with the Democrat-aligned PAC that enjoined them from sending out any more fake mailers and required them to mail an apology and explanation to everyone who received one. It’s just another example of how a free and independent press can help to keep politicos honest.

5. What we're reading

A year after Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to a debate “any time, any place,” we are awash in news stories and books about how the 46th President of the United States was already deep into the state of mental decline that led to his disastrous debate performance, his withdrawal from the race, and the re-election of President Trump. One such is featured in the New Yorker this week, an excerpt of the forthcoming book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Democrats now blame Biden, but will they point the fingers at themselves, as well? A White House eager to lie about the President’s condition and a credulous corporate press that believed every word all led to a country not being run by the man elected to lead it. It’s a national scandal that goes beyond just one man.