Kevin J. Boyle is a Democratic state representative from the 172nd Legislative District, covering Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010. Boyle has acted strongly on behalf of the will of the people and has been consistently focused on improving the lives of his constituents, through his focus on gun control, education, economy and taxes.
Boyle is fiercely passionate on the issue of education in Pennsylvania. With a master’s degree in education, Boyle understands and advocates especially for students with lesser privilege. He shows this through his REACH Scholarship, which aims to provide a chance for students who demonstrate academic excellence to go to college for free. Boyle understands that in Pennsylvania, the funding toward schooling is insanely low compared to the rest of the northeastern United States. He also voted no when Gov. Corbett proposed a budget plan that would strip $1 billion from education funding. His most prominent point about education is that each child should be given equal access to education, no matter their socioeconomic status. As students who are passionate about our own education, and many of us not as fortunate in our circumstances, it is uplifting to see a representative who takes a stance with us on these issues. We appreciate the action Boyle has already taken and urge him to continue improving our school systems. We implore him to continue to oppose budget cuts for the Pennsylvania schools, as we in the Philadelphia school district have seen how detrimental these cuts are to the quality of our education. Instead, we hope the government can help increase school budgets, to help supply things such as free breakfast, lunch and school supplies that many students lack.
Another issue Boyle has been vocally passionate about is gun control. As recently as August, Boyle had hoped to co-sponsor legislation forbidding the sale, offering and exposing for sale, use, purchase, possession and control of a large capacity ammunition magazine. He also voted against a bill allowing security personnel in schools to be armed and for one that restricted firearms. While we ultimately stand with Boyle’s views on gun control and believe that his actions are helping to ensure our safety, we feel uncertain with this decision.
While we wish to have protection in our schools against any kind of attack, a problem that has become very common in today’s world, we also understand that giving security personnel firearms could lead to an abuse of power. Overall, we believe the gun control action Boyle has taken is significant and important to not only our own personal safety, but that of all people. For future action with gun control, we hope Boyle will try to get harsher restrictions placed on guns and firearms as well as stricter requirements on who can own them.
As constituents of Boyle, we find that he is representing his constituents quite accurately and with much consideration. He is addressing issues very close and relevant to our lives and making sure to better the lives of everyone. We greatly appreciate the work he has put forth for our education and safety, and hope to see more successful efforts from Boyle. ••
Engels Ferrer, Aleya Hussain, Lindsay Shuster are students at Masterman High School.
