Posts published in “Letter to the Editor”

Dear Editor, 

One topic that comes up frequently in connection with higher education is the crushing burden of student loans. It is massive and growing all the time. The bigger question might be, is that smart public policy? I would contend that it is not. 

One of the economic effects is that students are taken out of the consumer pool for many years or decades by crushing debt that prevents them from buying a house or other goods which reduces demand and economic growth. When it happens to millions of people you can bet that hurts the economy.  read more

Dear Editor,

Police body cameras are not a smart idea anymore; they are now a smart tool being used across police departments not only all over the country, but all over the world as well. Police body cameras do not have to drain the budgets of police departments. The money to implement police body cameras can come from places like the city, the state, and possibly the federal government.    

According to an article by Time.com (Dec.2014), President Obama proposed a bill of $263 million to fund police body cameras. The bill would help fund 50,000 police body cameras. The plan is to match the state’s funding by half. If the bill is approved, police body camera’s cost will not be completely on one organization. The cost can be shared thus making it more bearable on budgets to implement the body cameras.  read more

Dear Editor,

The argument on the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMO) is intensifying as the correlation between Celiac disease (and other maladies such as Autism and thyroid issues) and glyphosate, the key ingredient in a pesticide used to make Roundup (a brand name pesticide) is under more scrutiny.  GMO agricultural giants (such as Dow ConAgro), along with the companies that make the pesticides (Monsanto, for an example) to keep the production of GMO yields high, have created a system that needs to have some form of regulation.  Accurate and truthful national GMO labeling is currently the best way to for both opponents and proponents of GMOs to compromise on the issue. read more

Dear Editor,

In debates about the cost of college we repeatedly hear terms like “free college” and “affordable college”. Unfortunately, many advocates as well as opponents of free college proposals are not aware that the term “free college” can stand for a variety of proposals that differ greatly and many politicians use the vagueness of terms like this one to their advantage.

When taking a closer look, most free college proposals only suggest free tuition and do not address fees or other expenses that lead to student debt. However, tuition is only a fragment of the cost that most college students are confronted with. Therefore, free tuition wouldn’t have as much of an impact as many people hope.  At Mount Wachusett Community College, for example, students pay $ 25 tuition and $ 177 college fees per credit hour. The tuition makes up less than 15 percent of the college cost, not even considering additional fees like registration or technology access fees. read more

Dear Editor,

Drug Replacement Therapy is an unrealistic aspect of treatment for addicts seeking recovery. One very important aspect is considering how dosage is acquired for each individual.  The means in which dosage is considered is based on a few simple questions. Answers to questions such as: number of years addicted, type and amount of opioids used, frequency of use, method of use, and health state, are considered factors for clinicians to determine proper dosage. A primary concern with these questions is that they all point to the honesty of the client.  read more

Dear Editor,

While the National Education Association means well when it expresses concern in a lack of social development among homeschoolers, I feel that these students gain rich experiences in life that they otherwise may not acquire. The fact is that homeschooled students are excelling socially by learning how to create relationships in their community.

Generally the definition of socialization is the process of learning to interact with society in meaningful and constructive ways. What real evidence is there that these lessons in life have to come from a child’s fellow peers rather than their family and other individuals? The actual social level of homeschooled versus public schooled children was studied by Thomas Smedley and Dr. Larry Shyers of Radford University in 1992, with dramatic results. Home schooled students ranked in the 84th percentile while public schooled students ranked only in the 27th. Smedley’s conclusion was that “public school students are socialized ‘horizontally’ into conformity by their same-age peers, while homeschooled students are socialized ‘vertically’ toward responsibility and adulthood by their parents.” read more