At Ms. Inez Hearn’s 100th-birthday celebration, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton stood with the centenarian, a teacher who shaped generations.
“I joined her family… We sang Happy Birthday, and we had cake. I mean, it was awesome…” Days later, Ms. Hearn passed away. “I was saddened by her loss, but I also have joy at the same time for what she’s taught,” McClinton said.
The moment frames McClinton as one who is in the community and her case for a government that serves plainly and delivers on basics: strong schools, accessible health care, and elections that are easy to navigate.
Grounded in Education, Leading in Justice
Her governing approach is rooted in what she saw when she was a public defender. In courtroom after courtroom, she met clients whose struggles started long before an arrest. They would tell her the same things: “I didn’t finish. I dropped out. I made it to 10th grade, and I made it to 11th grade. Some of my clients made it to 12th grade and did not finish school.”
The through-line is blunt: weak literacy and incomplete schooling fuel avoidable harm, and public investment can change that. Education, in this telling, is crime prevention and community stability, not a line item to be cut during a tough budget cycle.
That lens shapes how she talks about school finance. Pennsylvania’s courts have already said what communities knew: the quality of a child’s education swings with neighborhood wealth. “Funding school now, it depends on where you live and what you pay in property taxes.” When school budgets track ZIP codes, districts with older tax bases and lower property values shoulder the steepest climb. McClinton argues the fix is not abstract: she wants to drive dollars to need, stabilize staffing, update buildings where students learn in outdated or unhealthy spaces, and give teachers the materials they need to teach reading well.
She applies the same test to cyber and virtual charter schools. Families should have options; taxpayers should know exactly what they are paying for. “We should pay them for their real costs,” she says. “The principle is easy to explain to parents: brick-and-mortar districts should stop writing oversized checks for online programs with lower overhead. Dollars saved can fund counselors, reading specialists, and safe facilities in neighborhood schools.”
Health Access Without Barriers
McClinton is clear about how her leadership changed the docket in Harrisburg. “It’s not symbolic that I’m the first woman speaker, because it has literally changed the types of bills that we get passed,” she explains. In practical terms, that means women’s health is treated as core policy. She points to measures that expand access to diagnostic testing for people with a genetic risk of breast cancer and ensure menstrual products in schools and policies designed to remove predictable barriers that derail daily life.
The health agenda follows the same pattern and addresses predictable barriers with concrete fixes. Coverage for diagnostic testing matters to families who sit with uncertainty after a doctor flags an elevated risk. Menstrual products in schools matter because missed class time compounds learning gaps, especially for students who already face long odds. McClinton’s point is that commonsense health access and strong schools both directly reinforce each other. Students come to class ready to learn; schools are equipped to support them.
Putting Voters First in Modern Elections
Election policy is the third leg of the stool. Pennsylvania’s 67 counties run elections with different rules and capacities, which confuse voters and delay results. McClinton backs a straightforward upgrade: one statewide standard; the ability to pre-canvass mail ballots, so results aren’t slow-rolled, and in-person early voting that gives working people a fair window. “It modernizes our elections,” she notes. “It keeps them safe.”
Voters should not have to guess where to drop a ballot, whether a signature will be rejected, or if there will be hours-long lines on a weekday. The theme is consistency, using clear, uniform steps that apply whether someone lives in a city, a small borough, or a rural township.
Her language throughout is service-oriented, rather than theatrical. She says: “I really wish… the entire country could redo it, and that we choose someone who cares about this country… but what we can do is [get] ready for the next one.” Preparation, in this view, means counties with enough staff to process ballots, equipment tested well before Election Day, and a short early-voting period that lets caregivers and shift workers plan. It also means public trust is built on visible competence.
McClinton links these priorities without jargon. A child who reads on grade level by third grade is more likely to finish high school. A teen who does not have to miss school for lack of basic supplies will not fall behind. A mother who can schedule health screenings, without out-of-pocket costs, will do it. A voter who can cast a ballot on a Saturday, or after work, will be more likely to participate. None of this requires a headline-grabbing overhaul, she argues; just steady rules, adequate funding, and public offices that answer the phone.
Constituent service is not an afterthought in her presentation; it is the spine. “I just want to let people know that when it comes to the government, you are the boss. The public is the boss.” She invites residents to treat her office as a front door for help, benefits, housing issues, IDs, and every confusing form that can stall a life. “Call my office… 215-748-6712… Help us… help you out today with whatever your questions are.” In an era when politics can feel abstract or angry, the offer is simple: bring the problem, get a plan, follow through.
The political math behind these ideas still matters. A fair-funding framework needs votes in both chambers and cooperation from the executive branch to execute on timelines and formulas. The cyber-charter recalibration will draw pushback from advocates who prefer the current system. Election changes must navigate persistent distrust and myth. McClinton’s answer is to stay focused on a narrow definition of progress: rules people can understand, budgets that aim dollars at need, and outcomes that show up where families live. She presents the work as a series of solvable tasks that, together, change the daily reality.
Tangible Progress
The stakes are visible in neighborhoods like the ones Ms. Hearn served as a teacher in. Her century of life touched thousands of students who carried lessons home, to jobs, to their children. If public policy can widen that circle, if reading instruction is strong, if school funding does not collapse when property values slip, if teens can see a nurse and a counselor, if voting feels routine, then a community becomes steadier over time. That is the case McClinton is making: respect for the people who built this city and state begins with the basics.
The work ahead is concrete and testable. Budgets can be tracked. Election timelines can be published and met. School buildings can be repaired and opened on time. None of it requires a leap of faith, just the discipline to keep public promises in plain view. In that spirit, McClinton’s message is that the public is in charge, and the path to a better commonwealth runs through simple, durable tangible choices. The type of choices that people can see and feel in their daily lives.
This article is made possible with the support from the following organizations:
Dr. Eric John Nzeribe is the Publisher of FunTimes Magazine and has a demonstrated history of working in the publishing industry since 1992. His interests include using data to understand and solve social issues, narrative stories, digital marketing, community engagement, and online/print journalism features. Dr. Nzeribe is a social media and communication professional with certificates in Digital Media for Social Impact from the University of Pennsylvania, Digital Strategies for Business: Leading the Next-Generation Enterprise from Columbia University, and a Master of Science (MS) in Publication Management from Drexel University and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Temple University.
