If you’re a Saucon Valley “education voter” like me, you have some terrific choices on Nov. 3.

For my own state legislator (I live in Hellertown Borough), it’s got to be incumbent Bob Freeman for the 136th House District. For the many Saucon Valley residents in the state’s 131st District in Lower Saucon Township, I humbly hope that people support the wonderful Meriam Sabih.

Rep. Bob Freeman from RepBobFreeman @ Facebook

Admittedly, our state legislators don’t have a massive direct impact on local schools budgets, but they can have a vast role in protecting the overall quality of public education in the Commonwealth.

Bob Freeman is a kind and unassuming realist, and a smart guy. He absolutely and genuinely cares about education and local residents. He supports fairer local property taxation and remains a strong advocate for Hellertonians. He also strongly backs cyber charter funding reform, and he has the voting record to prove it. The cyber charters drain local education budgets and produce poorly prepared students. At the same time, they continually fritter away taxpayer money.

They’re a mess.

I believe in supporting parents who want choices about education, and I would hold up today’s improved Saucon Valley School District beside any private or charter school in the Lehigh Valley.

But parents who send their children to their local school district need to feel confident that they’re getting stellar education here or anywhere in the state, and with Bob, the chances are much higher.

Meriam Sabih is all for funding local schools fully and fairly, and supporting teachers. Her opponent Milou Mackenzie has offered nothing to help Saucon Valley School District. Full stop.

Honestly, Milou “Fighting the Radicals” Mackenzie often tries to take credit for education-related things that any breathing legislator with a pulse would obviously support (who in their right mind votes against vocational and technical education and our community colleges? answer: no one), and meanwhile continues to push damaging vouchers, which would decimate local K-12 education.

Over and over, Milou Mackenzie has herself aligned with radicals seeking to downgrade our public schools and erode local property values. She needs to get back to interior decorating instead.

Now, what about Congress?

I was a proud Ryan Crosswell supporter in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s US Seventh Congressional District, but I will be voting eagerly for Bob Brooks.

It’s not that a member of Congress has a direct role on Saucon Valley’s schools. But what Congress does and doesn’t do can greatly impact the educational world we live in.

First of all, a spineless, depraved Congress that lets a wannabe dictator run rampant across America will vaporize the futures of young people. That could be a problem.

Incumbent Seventh District Congressman Ryan Mackenzie can scrub the grinning Trump faces from his Internet presence day and night, but he will never get rid of the orange stain he has bathed in for two years.

Mackenzie has not only enabled Trump at every turn, he has publicly genuflected again and again and again – legislatively, culturally, and morally. Up until it become politically inconvenient.

Mackenzie is an absolute, unmitigated disgrace. I don’t respect members of Congress who put party before country. Sorry, but I can’t pretend.

Bob Brooks supports the America I know and love. It’s the America I want to see our children and their children inherit.

It’s a country where elected officials obey laws.

It’s where we lift up those who want a better life and are willing to work for it. It’s one that supports real people and access to decent health care—and not just for the country club set.

Bob Brooks’ America, plain and simple, is the one that lines up with what we also strive to teach in our public schools civics and history classes. It’s about personal freedom and taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves. It’s about innovation and creativity and human intelligence—and the courage to work through conflicts.

It’s not an America that disappears immigrants, summarily executes criminal suspects with no due process, starts wars to distract consumers from runaway inflation and seeks to hand out country over to the Big Tech Broligarchy and their data centers.

Students should have a chance to pursue happiness no matter what you look like or where you come from. Their family’s incomes shouldn’t matter. We are a rich country, but only the super rich are getting richer.

No, Bob Brooks isn’t going to be teaching calculus at Saucon Valley High. But as a school board member, I ask myself, what’s the point of public education if our country turns into a banana republic and people can’t afford the basics? That’s why the vote for Congress matters.

For these reasons and more, the two Bobs and Meriam are the best candidates for Saucon Valley voters who value education.

Supporting public education: Bob Brooks for Congress, Bob Freeman, Meriam Sabih for PA Assembly

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