Commentary

The decades-long war on drugs was a big mistake. We sent hundreds of thousands of men and women to jail and prison for drug crimes when we could have been helping more of them end their addictions. Cracking down on the supply and use of drugs, from marijuana to heroin, had little effect on the demand for them.

As of Thursday morning, there had been 2,259 homicides in Baltimore during the nearly seven years Marilyn Mosby has been the city’s top prosecutor; that’s an average of around 322 murders a year since 2015. During the four years previous, when Gregg Bernstein was Baltimore state’s attorney, the city averaged 215 homicides a year. I make the comparison only because, as she campaigned to unseat Bernstein in the 2014 Democratic primary, Mosby criticized him as ineffective and blamed him for the relatively modest increase in city violence, from 197 homicides in 2011 to 211 in 2014.

The Sun reported this week that the Baltimore City Public School System has employed surveillance software to not only track student activity on school-issued laptops, but to identify children using search terms online that could indicate they’re considering hurting themselves or experiencing a mental health crisis that requires intervention. It certainly sounds like a noble aim. But the execution is problematic, to say the least.

President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda — composed of the $1.2 trillion Senate-passed infrastructure bill plus the Democrat-only $3.5 trillion budget bill — promises historic investments in pre-K, community college, paid family and medical leave, health care, and affordable housing, among other provisions. Congress is currently deciding its fate. As Maryland’s second poorest jurisdiction, Baltimore would benefit enormously from these investments.

The Frederick Board of Aldermen has formalized a new ethics policy that will create a procedure for handling complaints about sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior against the mayor or the board members. It is the quiet ending to the controversy that gripped the city at the beginning of the year, when one alderman took to Facebook to publicize accusations of inappropriate behavior against another.

Mohammed Choudhury began his tenure as state superintendent of schools in July with much good will. Given the widespread criticism heaped on his predecessor, he had nowhere to go but up. But much more was expected. In announcing his appointment, the State Board of Education cited his prior record of “transformative policies and groundbreaking practices that have shattered expectations and raised the bar for staff and students.”

Mohammed Choudhury began his tenure as state superintendent of schools in July with much good will. Given the widespread criticism heaped on his predecessor, he had nowhere to go but up. But much more was expected. In announcing his appointment, the State Board of Education cited his prior record of “transformative policies and groundbreaking practices that have shattered expectations and raised the bar for staff and students.”

As legislators calculate the right balance on how much to spend on infrastructure and clean energy, they should take stock of both the environmental and the economic gains that everyday Americans earn through the transformation to an efficient, clean energy economy. And make no mistake: That the transition is underway, built up from many small projects and successes.