Candidate Questionnaire of Richard J. Douglas Candidate, U.S. Senate Republican Primary 2016, Maryland Tel: 202-257-7110 Prince George's County Candidate: Office Sought: Campaign Address: Campaign Contact: Richard J. Douglas U.S. Senate Friends of Rich Douglas P.O. Box 586 Bladensburg, Md. 20710 www.douglasmaryland.com Tel: 301-633-0658 email: douglasformaryland@gmail.com These are my official positions in seeking federal office. November 6, 2015 Section I. Opportunity Begins with Great Public Schools for Every Student A. Equity for All Students Public education is a state function. I support local control over public education. I do not support nationalizing public education or burdening the states with still more federal mandates and requirements. The federal government has demonstrated that it is not competent to manage or operate vast non-military national organizations. Moreover, federal requirements on the states should be deemed optional unless they are fully funded. The proper federal role in public education is to support -- not replace -- states, counties, and localities in their efforts to deliver high quality public education to our kids. I will take that philosophy to the U.S. Senate. B. Meeting the Needs of the Whole Child Struggling schools are often found in struggling communities. The key is to bring prosperity to Marylanders who have reached adulthood without experiencing it. No elected official in Maryland, federal or state, is entitled to sleep soundly while kids in Baltimore City are forced to run a gauntlet of rats and drug gangsters to get to school. The terrible conditions described in the Background to this question are consequences of the same problem; the failure of half a century of governance in Maryland, whose central feature has been to condemn workers to poverty and hopelessness. If elected to the U.S. Senate, I will do my utmost to turn that tide. The ripple effects of bringing work
and hope to our state will be felt across the spectrum of problems addressed in this question. As we pursue this goal, in the U.S. Senate I would energetically support measures described in the questions in this section to ensure that children in Maryland do not pay the consequences of the failures of two generations of elected Maryland officials in Congress and the General Assembly. C. Strengthening the Teaching Profession I am confident that no teacher in Finland, Singapore or South Korea could fathom let alone meet the challenges of many American classrooms. I support common sense measures to ensure that trained and confident teachers enter these classrooms ready to practice their profession effectively and with proper support. But I do not believe that federalization is the answer. Instead, the path to a properly-funded and operating local school system is local prosperity. If I am elected to the U.S. Senate by Maryland voters, I will do my utmost to bring prosperity to the neediest corners of our state. I believe that local school systems will be early beneficiaries of such efforts. D. Ensuring Access to the American Dream The first duty of a U.S. Senator is to ensure American access to the American Dream. U.S. Senators and Representatives who tolerate a nuclear Iran will also tolerate devastation of the American workforce by unregulated foreign labor. In 2016, voters should retake control of their hostile Congress before it finishes off beleaguered U.S. citizen and lawful immigrant workers. For their predicament, Congress is far more culpable than Mexico or Wall Street. Common-sense steps will help U.S. and lawful immigrant workers recover substantial ground lost to a hostile Congress. They will also help combat human trafficking. Inevitably, these proposals will be painted as anti-immigrant. The antidote to that poisonous charge is to send people to the Senate and House in 2016 with the courage to withstand the fury of the interests that must be overcome to make vital improvements for American workers. For their own sake, U.S. citizen and lawful immigrant workers need Senators and Representatives eager to wade into, rather than flee, the Alice-in-Wonderland migration debate. A sound, optimistic American workforce is a vital national interest. Today, the greatest obstacle to promoting that interest is Congress. We should also acknowledge conditions which help drive migrants from their homelands. In this, the U.S. has much to answer for. We must stop providing a haven for the assets of corrupt foreigners. We must reduce U.S. demand for unlawful migrant labor. We must also reduce U.S. drug consumption and the chaos it causes beyond our borders. We ought not contribute to problems which drive people north. When we do, let us recognize our responsibility and change. E. Revamping Accountability in K-12 Public Schools No federal statute is immune from review, and no person has an indisputable claim to public funding. If "No Child Left Behind" and other federal programs inhibit pedagogy or interfere with local control, they should be amended or repealed. Charter schools are a symptom of poorlyperforming public school systems, and have no monopoly on waste, fraud, or abuse. Charter schools that do not perform as advertised should be held accountable. In well-performing school
systems, charter schools are not a major drain on resources. Americans are intelligent and free, and they will put their resources where they think they will do the most good. F. Private School Vouchers I am a product of American public education. I will never agree that it can or should be written off. I attended public schools for eleven of my first twelve years of basic education. I obtained my undergraduate degree from a public university. I am the son of a career teacher. I feel fortunate to have had a quality public education during the 1960s and 1970s. I want the same for all kids today. I believe all reasonable people can agree the voucher issue is bound to the issue of underperforming public schools. Underperforming public schools are a symptom of larger economic and social problems. The long term solution is to resolve those economic and social problems. Vouchers are triage. Why should low income Americans be forced to endure underperforming public schools through abolition of voucher programs? Americans agree that assistance is warranted to prevent homelessness. Americans agree that assistance is warranted to supplement nutrition. Americans agree that assistance is warranted to tide workers over during periods of joblessness. I believe it is fitting to treat the education of our children no less favorably. The long term solution, either way, is to revitalize the economy to ensure that public school systems have the revenue, resources and highly-trained personnel required to deliver what parents, educators, and all Americans want: quality public schools. Section II: Opportunity Requires an Economy that Works for America's Middle Class A. Raising the Minimum Wage I have been a minimum wage worker. In principle, I support the policy reasons for having a minimum wage and pressure for increases should surprise nobody as the cost of living increases. When I worked for the minimum wage in the 1970s, Americans were not supporting families on it. Today, unfortunately, many do. We must improve the economy overall, and make it possible for more Americans to move into higher paying jobs. That is the best solution to the federal minimum wage "problem." In the meantime, I would support increases in the minimum wage, although I believe such increases should be set at the state level and have "sunset" clauses to permit review as economic conditions warrant. B. Making College More Affordable and Accessible It is generally accepted by informed observers that generous federal college financial programs have created incentives for universities to raise tuition. This is unfortunate, and would most likely be perpetuated by making federal funding for college even easier to obtain. One of the nation's most generous college financial assistance programs -- the armed forces -- is too often overlooked.
I support the public service approach to determining eligibility for public educational financing. I would certainly consider programs leading to a teaching commitment after graduation. I would also support programs entailing an armed forces commitment. C. Ensuring Democracy in the Workplace: Protecting Workers rights to Collectively Bargain Public sector collective bargaining is the norm in Maryland and there is no movement, so far as I am aware, to change that. D. Improving the Affordable Care Act I will work to repeal all taxation of all health insurance, employer-sponsored or not. E. Honoring Work by Ensuring Retirement Security I support the compelling policy imperatives which led to enactment of the Social Security Act during the Depression, and I would oppose efforts to harm the integrity of the system. The Social Security system has provided vital support for many millions of Americans. But no U.S. statute should be above review or repair if required. The issue for Congress is how -- not whether -- to ensure a solvent, reliable system into the future. As a federal annuitant, I understand how Congress gets things wrong with retirement. Amendments to the Civil Service Act during the early 1980s meant that I was required to write a check to the federal government for thousands of dollars so that my 2006-2007 Navy Reserve deployment to Iraq would count toward my FERS pension in 2009. There is something wrong with this picture. I am confident that similar problems exist elsewhere in the federal retirement system. If elected, I will work to correct them. On this topic, Congress's devastatingly poor performance on oversight of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should also be underscored. Recently, after cyber-attacks on OPM computer systems, a member of the House from the mid-west noted that the OPM Inspector General first expressed alarm about OPM cyber-vulnerabilities a decade ago. In my judgment, Congress is just as culpable as OPM Director Archuleta for the failure to address those vulnerabilities. It is also significant to note that none of the serving members of the U.S. House of Representatives in the suburban Maryland congressional districts (4, 5, 6, and 8) are even members of the House committee which oversees OPM, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of federal employees and annuitants reside in their congressional districts. The blatant lack of interest in OPM issues shown by Maryland's members of Congress is astonishing. If elected to the U.S. Senate, I will request assignment to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee as soon as I am sworn in. Federal employees and annuitants in Maryland deserve to be ably represented on these committees.
Section III: Opportunity for All Requires a Democracy That Works for All Maryland's record of gerrymandering to achieve race-based results is legendary. Yet no Maryland county has ever appeared on the 1965 Voting Rights Act pre-clearance list. This fact probably has more to do with politics than law, in itself a comment on enforcement of the Act. It is ironic that the question about voter disenfranchisement should be put to a candidate in Maryland, one of the most blatantly gerrymandered states in the union. Redistricting in our state was designed to prevent candidates of one party from holding elected office and to keep the other party in office indefinitely. The fact that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act apparently does not prevent this, raises fair questions about its fundamental utility. A federal constitutional amendment to enable Congress to regulate and limit federal political campaign contributions and expenditures has no realistic chance of approval by Congress or a convention of states, let alone ratification by the states. Also, I think most reasonable observers would see it as corrosive to the First Amendment. Section IV: Essay Question The single most important service I could perform in the U.S. Senate for Maryland schools, students, and teachers would be to make concrete progress in igniting lasting economic growth and sustainable employment in our state. When analyzing basic problems of society, it is important to seek out root causes. A root cause of much of what afflicts public education today and the teaching profession can be traced to poverty and economic distress. I will do my utmost to turn this tide, and if I am successful, I believe the positive effects will be felt in education and across the board.