Political Student

Written by Dave Chase

Education reform is sadly one of those things that every politician says they want to take on but have absolutely no political motivation to actual do so. Democrats are too afraid of Teachers Unions and the Republican approach resulted in No Child Left Behind, a true failure.

In fact, the only real success that we have seen across the country in education reform is in charter schools. Charter schools, nationwide, out preform their district schools in standardized tests and college acceptance rates. Despite these successes, most States still have caps or funding limits on charter schools.

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Written by Dave Chase

Today the Maryland Senate altered the Governor’s bill that would have repealed capital punishment in Maryland.

Who can blame them though? 46-50% of the country “favors the death penalty over life in prison for murder one.” (Source) They are just looking out for their political future.

Well, to answer my own rhetorical question, I can. The Maryland Senate stripped the repeal of the death penalty but are proceeding with capital punishment reform because they know that the country is not there yet, despite the fact that few arguments can be provided for the death penalty beyond the satisfaction is gives victim’s families.

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Written by Dave Chase

As the State of Maryland gets hammered with record amounts of snow it also reconsiders the death penalty. Although the state has only sentenced 5 people to death since 1976, many state residents, including the Governor, see it as a black spot on the moral record of the state.

Governor O’Malley has made this issue his personal mission. In the last few weeks, the Governor has used the databases of emails he got during his campaign to encourage Maryland residents to email, write and call their State Senators and encourage them to vote for the end of the death penalty.

The Governor even guest wrote a blog post on the Huffinton Post outlining his argument against the death penalty.

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Written by Dave Chase

One of the proposed solutions to California’s serious deficit is to legalize marijuana and put a hefty tax on it. I think it’s a great plan.

It’s pretty clear that pot should be legalized or at least decriminalized and you could put a HUGE tax on it without affecting the demand for the product.

Let’s start with the basics though. There are a few common assumptions about marijuana that are simply not true. First, marijuana has almost no serious health implications. No study has shown pot has any link to high rates of cancer and guess how many people die each year from marijuana world wide? Zero.

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