An 18-year-old Fox Chase resident discusses politics in Northeast Philadelphia.
By William Taubenberger
I am a student at Julia R. Masterman High School. I have just turned 18 and am now a voter in state Rep. Kevin Boyle’s district. Unlike many other kids my age, I am interested in the political scene and want to have a better connection with those who represent me.
Learning that he has earned his master’s in education from Harvard and that his wife is a teacher was nice to see. That not only means that Boyle has an understanding of the whole public education system, but that he also has a personal connection to the situation. Since I am a student in the School District of Philadelphia, education is a fairly important topic to me. I am lucky to attend a great school in a very weak school district. Other schools in the district are well below where they should be in terms of graduation rate and proficiency on standardized tests. I hope that he and his colleagues take the issue of our nation’s future into account when discussing future funding and other education-related bills.
A hot topic in the political world recently is the legalization of marijuana. I saw Boyle is on the Health Committee and that currently they are discussing to have a study on how legalization of marijuana would impact the state of Pennsylvania. I believe that it should be legalized simply because of the health benefits it can have for certain diseases. Medical marijuana has been very popular recently, and every day more and more people are looking to that as an answer to an illness or injury. This being true, it should not be used outside of a building that is designed for this purpose. Recreation use should not be legalized, but arresting all of these people for having minimal amounts of marijuana to me is not only wasting taxpayer money to jail them, but also ruining their life after they get out of jail.
In 2013–2014, Boyle voted with the National Federation of Independent Business 36 percent of the time, but then in 2015–2016 that drastically fell to 11 percent. I believe being a part of Northeast Philadelphia, which has grown because of all the small businesses that we have, we must protect and help them flourish. Small business is the backbone of America and Pennsylvania. It is what builds cities and gives back to the community in jobs. I hope that next term, Boyle can do a better job of protecting these businesses and vote to help businesses stay in the city as they are all now leaving.
I noticed that he supported a bill to help support Israel economically. Showing our support of Israel is important since they are such an important ally. Stopping business with companies that boycott Israel truly shows that we back our federal government and its decision to be aligned with Israel. ••
William Taubenberger, of Fox Chase, is a senior at Masterman. Members of the senior class have been assigned to write about their state representatives.
