There are few things that we as citizens of Butler County can’t find to disagree about the value of having in our community. We value the importance of local control and ownership to a very high degree. Butler stands alone when you start looking at some very important aspects of the community. We can start with media and point out the almost 100% ownership and management of the local newspaper, the local radio stations, the local cable company and local billboard companies. Trust us that is very unusual in today’s business climate.

We all operate completely independent of each other and outside influences. Look at any other neighboring county and you will find decision making being done on the basis of what is good for owners outside the Butler County community and not for the sake of you and your neighbor. The same can be said for the independence of our great local health care provider, the Butler Health System. Post-secondary education is certainly another area that we benefit from local control, with Slippery Rock University avoiding the new consolidation and Butler County Community College being truly local, even while expanding to serve other counties in Western Pennsylvania.

The current debate in Congress to make community college tuition-free is an interesting concept, but remember the only sure way to screw something up is to put control in the hands of the federal government. Who would decide the amount to compensate the colleges for each student? Do we want the same system that health care providers now try to navigate where they get paid a small part of the normal and real cost of their product and services?

Doctors and hospitals suffer tremendously because of the low reimbursements from the federal government, and the next thing you know your doctor is no longer part of the group covered by your insurance and it costs you and the doctor more. It would likely have that same immediate impact on community colleges and their systems currently in place. And the one-third each sharing in cost where student, the state and the county each absorb a third of the costs, which local people have made work for decades, would be wiped out by some federal mandate, and we all know the success rates of unfunded mandates.

The system of education at community colleges is not broken. But turn it over to politicians to manipulate and the success stories about growth into other counties and expansion of programs, such as BC3’s nursing program, will be threatened based on who is elected to power.

We have great respect for the Nick Neupauers and Ken DeFurios of the world, the Wise family at the Eagle, the Sedwick/Stewart families with Armstrong and our friends at the radio stations for the amazing way in which they have navigated changes in their respective industries.

There was a day they could surely have taken the easy way and sold to some carpetbaggers and the decisions on what is best for the community could be made in Seattle, Chicago or maybe Australia. Letting the federal government make changes, instead of the local directors at BC3, is a recipe for failure. Most likely this “benefit” being touted as a great part of the government’s plan will fall victim to a stroke of the pen because there isn’t a groundswell of support for it with the politicians and it is costly. That would be great news.

Our advice is to keep politics out of the business of education. That is a lesson well learned over time.

— RV