What should we make of the recent survey finding by the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) that 41% of the state’s teacher’s work a second job to make ends meet?
Commentary
Opinion: It’s time to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board
Across Maryland, people struggle to pay for the prescription drugs they need to lead healthy lives or even stay alive. Prices keep going up, while drug companies spend more on marketing and reap enormous profits. That’s why we are sponsoring legislation to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board that will have the authority to review and set fair and affordable maximum drug costs in the state.
Commentary
In West Baltimore for MLK Day: Too cold to march, but still honoring the dead
It was deemed too frigid Monday afternoon for the peace march from St. Bernadine’s parish in West Baltimore to walk the few blocks around the church where eight people, including a 7-year-old girl, were shot and killed just in the past year. Instead, in honor of Martin Luther King, we sang and prayed and listened to Archbishop William Lori. He condemned racism and acknowledged the complicity of the church in supporting it, including several of his 19th century predecessors who owned slaves themselves.
Commentary
Opinion: Kirwan Commission disregards achievements of charter schools
As we begin national School Choice Week, here’s an open letter to Brit Kirwan, chair of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, which completed its preliminary report on Friday with no mention of charter schools.
Commentary
How can we understand a Chesapeake Bay we’ve never seen?
Author Victor Kennedy has examined the Bay’s past abundances of seafood, from terrapins and sturgeon to oysters and shad and waterfowl, sifting through anecdotal evidence and early surveys to arrive at a sense of just how full of life the Chesapeake was as Europeans began to settle it. His book also pulls together an accounting of how thoroughly we squandered the “immense protein factory” praised by Baltimore journalist H. L. Mencken. Kennedy says “generational amnesia” relating to historical abundances risks setting the bar too low for restoration goals.
General Assembly
Opinion: Live streaming of legislative sessions would honor journalists
I spent three hours off-and-on last Thursday watching the live gavel-to-gavel coverage on C-Span of the new U.S. House of Representatives being sworn in, including the return to power of that Baltimore girl turned San Francisco maven, Speaker Nancy D’Allesandro Pelosi. Wednesday the new Maryland General Assembly is being sworn in and we can watch the live gavel-to-gavel of the proceedings NOWHERE.
Commentary
Commentary: Opioid epidemic started with the Civil War
Most of us don’t realize the first American opioid epidemic started in the Civil-war era with the invention of the hypodermic needle to administer morphine to injured soldiers. By the end of the conflict, the term “soldier’s disease” came into existence to describe post-war addicts.
Commentary
OPINION: Pugh’s ‘squeegee kid’ solution doesn’t solve the problem
Mayor Pugh’s $2 million initiative to transition so-called Squeegee kids from street corners to viable employment provides insight into why government is ineffective at creating sustainable productive jobs. First, the training she mentioned providing would be for a skill set that is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Second, she is creating a young adult job training program. Isn’t that what high school should be?
Commentary
Opinion: Why we are thankful that Maryland didn’t ‘win’ Amazon HQ2
In fact, Maryland won by losing, because it didn’t overpay and thus suffer the “winner’s curse.”
Commentary
OPINION: A fix for Mid-Atlantic transportation woes could be coming
Maryland and neighboring states in the Mid-Atlantic region are in the grips of a transportation crisis. Roads and highways that used to be clogged by heavy “rush hour” traffic are now impassable in three- to four-hour cycles, in never-ending congestion.
Commentary
OPINION: To Protect Maryland’s health, defend clean car standards
The Trump administration just announced its plans to roll back the nation’s clean car standards that cut tailpipe emissions and reduce air pollution. Attempting to withdraw these lifesaving health protections from every American will only exacerbate the health burdens faced by the people of Maryland, putting our health and the health of our children at risk.