READING EAGLE: … To Rendell’s credit, he got results. According to the Washington-based, nonpartisan Center on Education Policy, ours was the only state to show across-the-board gains in both reading and mathematics tests administered in grades four, eight and 11, and at all achievement levels.
Related was the much-hyped Act 1, the Taxpayer Relief Act, passed in 2006 and sold to us under the guise of using revenues from legalizing slot machines to take a big chunk out of school property taxes. We got the slot machines – and later we got table games, too – but there was little relief…
Rendell has argued that problem gamblers would simply travel out of state to spend their money, but nevertheless the state is profiting from people’s misery. According to CBS News, calls to gambling addiction hotlines in the state have tripled since the first casino opened five years ago… (more)
