PITTSBURGH — When her daughter was born, Valerie Williams had already had her on a waitlist for childcare for six months, hoping she’d have a spot lined up before it was time for her to go back to her job as an early childhood educator. She eventually found a child care program, but said she had to work extra jobs just to pay the $1,400 monthly bill— the equivalent of a second mortgage or rent payment, Williams said. 

“I was a pretty good teacher working for untenably low wages, teaching in a local Pittsburgh area child care center making $12.40 an hour — that’s $496 a week before taxes, or $25,792 a year — from which my own health care premiums were also deducted, a few hundred dollars each month,” Williams said. “So I worked two additional jobs at that time, routinely working seven days a week.”

But then she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While it was ultimately benign, at the time of her diagnosis Williams had no idea how she was going to manage or how much medical care she would need. Then she was hit with another shock: She could not afford the deductibles and copays under the health care plan provided by her teaching job. 

“I realized that my wages were so low, I couldn’t afford to use my own health care,” Williams said. She made her comments at the Friday launch in Pittsburgh of an “Educators for Biden-Harris” initiative for Pennsylvania, joined by state Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Bill Hileman. 

Sen. Williams, who is minority chair of the state Senate Education Committee, said the launch was “about mobilizing educators, school staff, parents and everyone in the community who cares about public education in this country.” 

For many teachers, Sen. Williams said, the pandemic pause on student loan payments — which began during former President Donald Trump’s administration — and the recent loan forgiveness initiatives were the only ways they could afford to remain in their classrooms. 

First lady and teacher Jill Biden launched the national Educators for Biden-Harris initiative April 19 in Minnesota, joined by the presidents of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The two national teachers’ unions, which have already endorsed President Joe Biden, have nearly five million combined members with local affiliates in all 50 states.

As part of its student loan debt forgiveness initiatives, the Biden administration in March announced it would forgive about $6 billion in student loan debt for 78,000 public service workers including teachers, nurses and social workers. 

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Philadelphia earlier this month to tout a new round of student debt forgiveness from the administration, and spoke with educators who described how having their loans canceled had changed their lives for the better. 

VP Kamala Harris in Philadelphia to tout Biden administration’s latest student debt relief proposal

To date, the Biden administration has canceled or forgiven a total of $144 billion in student loan debt for more than 4 billion borrowers, Harris said. 

Campaigns’ education plans

Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president, has criticized the Biden administration’s student debt relief efforts, calling them “very, very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work.”

On his campaign website under a “Protect Parents Rights” section, Trump outlines his education plan if he wins another term, which includes “reward[ing] states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure for grades K-12 and adopt Merit Pay, cut the number of school administrators, adopt a Parental Bill of Rights, and implement the direct election of school principals by the parents.”

Under his 2025 budget request, Biden proposes $12 billion to “fund strategies to lower college costs for students,” according to a White House fact sheet accompanying the budget request. And during his 2024 State of the Union address in March, Biden echoed an earlier call to increase pay for public school teachers.

Valerie Williams said she ultimately left her teaching position and took a full-time role with her second job for better benefits and pay. “I still think about those children and their families and how frustrating it was to have to make that call,” she said Friday. “If I’d been making more money and had the benefits I needed, I would have been able to stay at the job I loved so much.” 

Democratic congressional candidate Ashley Ehasz said on Thursday that she is ready for her second turn taking on four-term incumbent GOP U.S. Rep Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1st District) this November.

At the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers’ (NFT) union office in Middletown Township on Thursday, Ehasz received the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania (AFT-PA), which represents more than 36,000 members in the Keystone State. It was her campaign’s first labor union endorsement of the election cycle.

The Ehasz campaign added the education union’s endorsement to a number of others, including from EMILYs List, NewDems Action Fund, and VoteVets.

Ehasz, a U.S. Army veteran and public school graduate, thanked the teachers’ union for their support and said she believes in “greater oversight of the charter school system to real solutions for affordable higher education.”

Ehasz said she supports “high-quality education” in public schools.

While Fitzpatrick, a former FBI special agent, has held back past primary and general election challengers since his first race in 2016, Ehasz’s campaign thinks they have a better shot this year.

Ehasz didn’t talk about whether national Democratic groups were planning to throw their support and funding behind her campaign, but she said she already has a roster of groups behind her and helping support her message.

“For us,” she said, “it’s about talking to voters and making sure we have a plan to do that.”

The campaign and candidate have cited Ehasz’ familiarity with voters due to her second run for the First District Congressional seat, recent election wins for Democrats, and a message they believe will connect with voters. The campaign is putting a focus on protecting access to abortion services and fighting to protect democracy.

Ehasz will have to make that case to voters as she goes against Fitzpatrick, who has strong name recognition.

The Democrat launched her campaign last April in a bid to have more time to fundraise, gain endorsements, and get in front of voters. She remained active in Democratic events since her 2022 loss.

Fitzpatrick has proven to be a skilled fundraiser and entered April with $3.6 million in the bank, while Ehasz campaign had approximately $820,000 on hand. Her campaign has pointed out that it has raised $1.4 million this election cycle and have had strong fundraising cycles.

NFT President Tara Huber, a longtime Neshaminy High School teacher, said Ehasz will support public schools and educators if elected.

“Unfortunately, the incumbent has failed to recognize the invaluable contributions of our teachers. Instead, he has allowed our schools to come under siege from extremist forces, threatening our fundamental freedoms and the very fabric of our education system,” she said.

AFT-PA President Arthur Steinberg noted Ehasz’s support of Democratic school board candidates in the First Congressional District in the past. He said those candidates weren’t focused on culture wars, adding that Fitzpatrick has supported “MAGA extremists” for school board races.

“We had voters stand up and reject the extremists,” Ehasz said.

After speaking with teachers, Ehasz told this news organization that Fitzpatrick, who was endorsed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020 but has worked to brand himself an “independent voice,” wants to “go after our schools and turn them into battlegrounds” for the culture wars. The message, she believes, will work with voters.

Ehasz lost the 2022 general election to Fitzpatrick by 10 percentage points, a gap of close to 36,000 votes.

Fitzpatrick’s recent primary win over Mark Houck was by 23 percentage points. While an overwhelming victory for the congressman, it marks his smallest victory against a primary challenge by percentage of the vote in his political career.

Fitzpatrick and his campaign did not return a request for comment.

• A Pennsylvania man has been arrested for shooting his wife and daughter 
• Roger Hanks, 76, was cleaning his gun while arguing with his wife Judith, 75
• After shooting her in rage – he then shot their daughter Emily, 37 

By Martha Williams For Dailymail.Com

Published: 03:16 BST, 27 April 2024 | Updated: 05:29 BST, 27 April 2024

A Pennsylvania man shot and killed his wife after she nagged him about gun safety at their mansion – then murdered his daughter too, police say.  

Roger Hanks, 76, of Chester County was arrested at his home on Thursday evening and charged with first-degree murder.

The charges came after police were called to the 200 block of Wiltshire Drive, where Hanks lived with his 75-year-old wife Judith, at around 6:15pm. Their home was a $746,000, four bed and three bathroom single-family house.

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After being found in his garage and taken into custody, Hanks admitted that he had shot his wife Judith and daughter, Emily, 37, ABC reported. 

Hanks, who says he’d been drinking whiskey and beer earlier in the day, confessed that he had gotten into an argument with Judith while cleaning his gun and told her ‘if you keep up this thing is going to go off on you.’ 

After being found in his garage and taken into custody, Hanks (pictured right) admitted that he had shot his wife Judith (left) and daughter, Emily, 37

When Judith (left) fell to the ground after the gunshot, Emily (right) ‘went into a rage.’ This caused Hanks to then point the gun at his daughter and it went off again, this time knocking her down

Hanks had allegedly pointed the gun at his wife and told her ‘if she did not shut and leave him alone that he was going to ‘plug’ her,’ documents showed

The Hanks’ home was a $746,000, four bed and three bathroom single-family house

Hanks confessed that he had gotten into an argument with Judith (pictured) while cleaning his gun and told her ‘if you keep up this thing is going to go off on you.’

He then allegedly pointed the gun at his wife and told her ‘if she did not shut and leave him alone that he was going to “plug” her,’ documents showed. 

The 76-year-old pointed the gun at his wife and it went off, Hanks told police. 

When Judith fell to the ground after the gunshot, Emily ‘went into a rage.’

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This caused Hanks to then point the gun at his daughter and it went off again, this time knocking her down. 

He aimed the weapon at the chest area of both women, an affidavit revealed.

Hanks went onto to brag to police that he is ‘the best of the best’ when it comes to shooting firearms and showed off about his frequent participation in competitions for shooting, according to the affidavit. 

The Pennsylvania man also told police that he drank two German beers and Irish whiskey earlier during the day of the tragic incident. 

Police reported that the gun as well as two spent shell casings were found at the scene. 

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Emily’s Linkedin account reveals that she graduated from the University of Miami and worked as a consulting director for a risk management and governance company in Chicago.

From Judith’s social media accounts, it appears that the Hanks were a tight-knit family and that Emily and her mother were particularly close

Judith’s most recent Instagram post was a picture of the mother-daughter duo, captioned ‘To my “favorite” daughter. Celebrating you on National Daughters Day’

In other posts, Judith gushed about being a ‘lucky mother’ and shared sweet pictures of her and Emily on trips to New York City and spending time together with their dogs 

From Judith’s social media accounts, it appears that the Hanks were a tight-knit family and that Emily and her mother were particularly close. 

Judith’s most recent Instagram post was a picture of the mother-daughter duo, captioned ‘To my “favorite” daughter. Celebrating you on National Daughters Day.’ 

In other posts, Judith gushed about being a ‘lucky mother’ and shared sweet pictures of her and Emily on trips to New York City and spending time together with their dogs.