Monfredo: Vote No on Questions 2 & 4

Sunday, October 30, 2016

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

The voters of Massachusetts will be voting on several ballot questions… on two of those questions I’d like to urge our voters to VOTE NO! They are question 2 regarding expansion of charter schools and question 4 the legalization of marijuana.

Question 2 is most harmful to the students in the traditional public schools for last year, 243 local school districts lost a total of $412 million in taxpayer money to charter schools. Worcester loses $24.5 million annually to charter schools….that is 7.4% of the foundation budget. If the Worcester Public Schools had that money they would be able to add an additional 150 teachers who would be able to reduce class sizes and expand secondary school offerings and perhaps add additional instructional assistants to our kindergarten programs.

Interesting to note… Great Schools Massachusetts, the group spearheading the campaign to lift the cap, has been spending at a record-breaking pace… with misleading ads. Much of the organization’s funding comes from Families for Excellent Schools, a New York based group with strong ties to Wall Street. The committee also received a $240,000 donation from billionaire businessman and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg. The question… “Why would these outside organizations outside the state want to fund the Charter School expansion question? What interest do they have in our schools in Massachusetts?”

The central argument that we hear in their ads is “that 34,000 students are “trapped” on waitlist because of the cap. This is untrue for the lists published by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is inflated because they include schools that are not subject to the cap. They are further inflated by the practice of rolling over old waiting lists year after year, a practice that State Auditor Suzanne Bump has repeatedly warned about and stated, “The education of our children is too important to base these important decisions on misleading information.”

Question 2 is a poorly constructed bill that does not have the support of a single school committee in this state. All have argued it would take money away from existing schools and give it to schools that have yet to be created.

In addition, a bipartisan commission stated “that we’re already underfunding our public schools to the tune of a billion dollars a year. We simply can’t afford this. It would make Swiss cheese out of our existing schools.”

Short message … VOTE NO ON QUESITON TWO!

On question 4 … the legalization of marijuana. In a strong bipartisan effort both Democrats and Republicans urge a no vote for both agree that the legalization would harm health and safety of its residents in this state. At a recent press conference hosted by the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts state and local officials, business leaders and health officials came together to voice their opposition. Janet Yost, president of the Health Foundation opened the meeting stating that “Health policy, public policy should be based on science … the ballot question includes language that will make it very difficult for the cities and towns to limit the number of pot shops.” She went on to say that if passed it would impact the quality of life, health and public safety of our community. She spoke about reports from AAA showing that deaths due to marijuana impaired drivers doubled the first year after the state of Washington legalized marijuana. Building on that issue District Attorney Joseph Early, Jr. echoed, “That the state doesn’t need additional drivers with diminished ability to drive safety.” He went on to talk about the “dreadful accident” on the Massachusetts Turnpike that killed Trooper Thomas Clardy earlier this year that was tied into the use of marijuana. He reminded everyone that we need more prevention in our community and this bill flies in the face of everything his office has attempted to do.

State Representative Hannah Kane of Shrewsbury challenged the audience to start every conversation they’re having with Question 4 with a No vote. “It’s not about legalization for it’s about commercialization.” She expressed that the job of all elected officials is the prevent Massachusetts from making a mistake that will make it difficult to put back in the bottle after it’s authorized.

State Representative Michael Moore stated at the meeting today’s marijuana is much more potent than it was even a generation ago. Using the state of Colorado as an example, he spoke about teens in the state ages 12 to 17 where marijuana use jumped by over 12% in two years since being legalized this as the rate declined nationally. He went on to say that marijuana infused products such as candies, cookies and “cannabis cola” accounts for nearly 50% of the sales in Colorado and that number is growing. In addition, Colorado, now after two years, has more marijuana stores than Starbucks and Mc Donald’s combined and the numbers keep growing.

Other state and local officials at the press conference voicing their opposition included Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Dr. Matthew Forgues, president of the Society of Optometrists, Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, Stu Loosemore from the Chamber of Commerce, and Kate Toomey from the Worcester City Council.

Research also shows that regular use of marijuana starts in adolescence and has been shown to impair brain development, shrink school and career outcomes and even lower IQ. Many law enforcement officials have also stated that it would be putting our children at risk and threaten to reverse their progress combating the growing opinoid epidemic just so that this industry can rake in millions in profits.

Health officials throughout the state worry about families who are struggling with addiction every day and believe legalizing the commercial marijuana industry would certainly not assist the work of health professionals. In addition, this law also limits cities the ability to limit the nature and the presence of the marijuana industry in their community.

Please join our health officials, educators, public safety officials, state and local elected officials and business leaders in voting NO on question 4!

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Monfredo: Vote No on Questions 2 & 4

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