Dear Candidate, Please answer these three questions. Part 3: Terra Friedrichs
Mon, 2018-10-08 22:54 — Scott S
On behalf of Acton Forum, I contacted third party candidate Terra Friedrichs and asked her three questions on topics many voters believe are important. These are the same questions already answered by Eldridge and Busse and I intended to have them all published at the same time, but due to a snag with SPAM filters, there was a delay with the candidate from the Cooperative Green Economy. I thank Terra for her participation.
Do you support the movement to create Sanctuary Communities or States for illegal immigrants? Why or why not?
I support the right to "due process" for all individuals, and was a co-author of Acton's due-process for immigrants policy, which bans the sharing of immigrant arrest information with the federal government. When the group which sponsored this started, the group voted to use the word "sanctuary" in its name. When people outside the group objected, I worked with people to come up with a list of alternative titles, that were focused on "due process". I was outvoted. That said, I am very much for due process. I am against using state/municipal tax money to do the job of federal agents. I believe we should be strengthening our resistance to federal overreach. Local police are, too often, being used by the federal government, in their attempt to create a standing army on US soil. The feds give equipment to local police and then pay for training by contractors who are told what to teach local police. Local police are asking to sign "mutual aid" agreements which leave the local police subjugated to "federal command". This to me, is very scary. In our region, we have begun to limit what local police can do with the feds. The Brookline Police Chief, for example, signed an agreement with the feds which required them to do xyz. When residents finally caught up with him, he apologized and said that he didn't realize what he was doing. This led to a new policy regarding any agreements that the feds offer. I investigated this in Acton, and the police said that they have not signed any agreements with the feds. That said, they are scanning license plates and sending that information up to the state system, which goes to the federal system. So they are participating in a federal data collection scheme, which I am against. We have to limit how much power the federal government has. That's why the founders of the country gave so little power to the federal government.
Should the minimum wage be changed? If so, what is the legislative process?
I believe we should have a minimum income guarantee of $12,000/year. I learned about this from the Cato Institute who concluded that it would save us money by eliminating poverty. I didn't believe this and ran my own numbers and I now believe they are correct. I figured that if you make $70,000/year, that your tax rate would go up about $2,000/year (net of the minimum income). If you made $100,000/year, it would go up about $3,000/year. BUT when you subtract the amount that we give to charities, it to works out quite a bit cheaper to do a minimum income guarantee (aka Universal Basic Income, Basic Income Guarantee). Significant business leaders support the idea. I believe it will not only be cheaper, but it will nourish the innovation economy, and reduce the amount of state regulation required. It will allow people to quit lousy jobs and start their own companies. And it will be easier for workers to leave unsafe jobs. ?
See here for this Bloomberg article on the topic: Basic Income
Process: a bill, or citizens petition. I would try a bill, if I were elected, because I'd have the ear of the Legislators. I also believe that this is something that a significant cross section of business leaders support. I believe that more would support this if they knew about it One of the reasons I'm running is to educate more people about the concept. See above link.
Do you support school choice? Explain your position or proposals for improvement.
I'm very much a supporter of having choice, which allows the free movement of students to where they think the education is best for them. While this is a "free market" justification of choice, where "the market" would decide what's best, it also concerns me that this would leave "poor performing" schools at a disadvantage. While theoretically this should put bad schools out of business, I believe we can affordably prevent this. I believe that there should be adequately funded schools in walking distance from every urban home. And everywhere in the state, I believe that there has to be quality public schools available. That said, I do believe that there could be improvement in the way that funds are distributed to protect the basic education quality of "sending districts". I believe that the financial algorithms used are too simplistic. State funding for schools needs to satisfy basic, standard, fixed costs in a way that does not punish poorer performing schools. And leave the fancier costs to the locality. At this point, I need to bring up the concept of "poorer performing", because I do not support the track we're on, with schools so focused on testing and ruthless capitalistic ideals. First of all, the idea of capitalism has its limits. You can't just take over a country, or pollute the world endlessly for example. So capitalism has its limits. Since this is true, why are schools so focused on capitalistic ideals? Often students tell me that they are being told "making the most money" is the goal. Why would we promulgate ruthless greed? We'll end up paying much higher costs, if we continue to promote money as the main object. For me, a "free school" is the perfect solution. A school that has its basic facilities paid for, and has enough teachers available, but is lean on administrators. I believe, that in an ideal situation, schools would have no "forced" curriculum, but would have a variety of curricula available for students to choose from on their own, learning at their own pace. That way, each day, the student would choose what to study. In this way, a quality education can be provided at a much lower cost. I would spend the extra money on allowing students to travel. To me, a well traveled student is a well adjusted adult.
Free School
More info: VoteForTerra
Subscribe to the Acton Forum and get our newsletters emailed to you -- FREE! Click Here!
Do you support the movement to create Sanctuary Communities or States for illegal immigrants? Why or why not?
I support the right to "due process" for all individuals, and was a co-author of Acton's due-process for immigrants policy, which bans the sharing of immigrant arrest information with the federal government. When the group which sponsored this started, the group voted to use the word "sanctuary" in its name. When people outside the group objected, I worked with people to come up with a list of alternative titles, that were focused on "due process". I was outvoted. That said, I am very much for due process. I am against using state/municipal tax money to do the job of federal agents. I believe we should be strengthening our resistance to federal overreach. Local police are, too often, being used by the federal government, in their attempt to create a standing army on US soil. The feds give equipment to local police and then pay for training by contractors who are told what to teach local police. Local police are asking to sign "mutual aid" agreements which leave the local police subjugated to "federal command". This to me, is very scary. In our region, we have begun to limit what local police can do with the feds. The Brookline Police Chief, for example, signed an agreement with the feds which required them to do xyz. When residents finally caught up with him, he apologized and said that he didn't realize what he was doing. This led to a new policy regarding any agreements that the feds offer. I investigated this in Acton, and the police said that they have not signed any agreements with the feds. That said, they are scanning license plates and sending that information up to the state system, which goes to the federal system. So they are participating in a federal data collection scheme, which I am against. We have to limit how much power the federal government has. That's why the founders of the country gave so little power to the federal government.
Should the minimum wage be changed? If so, what is the legislative process?
I believe we should have a minimum income guarantee of $12,000/year. I learned about this from the Cato Institute who concluded that it would save us money by eliminating poverty. I didn't believe this and ran my own numbers and I now believe they are correct. I figured that if you make $70,000/year, that your tax rate would go up about $2,000/year (net of the minimum income). If you made $100,000/year, it would go up about $3,000/year. BUT when you subtract the amount that we give to charities, it to works out quite a bit cheaper to do a minimum income guarantee (aka Universal Basic Income, Basic Income Guarantee). Significant business leaders support the idea. I believe it will not only be cheaper, but it will nourish the innovation economy, and reduce the amount of state regulation required. It will allow people to quit lousy jobs and start their own companies. And it will be easier for workers to leave unsafe jobs. ?
See here for this Bloomberg article on the topic: Basic Income
Process: a bill, or citizens petition. I would try a bill, if I were elected, because I'd have the ear of the Legislators. I also believe that this is something that a significant cross section of business leaders support. I believe that more would support this if they knew about it One of the reasons I'm running is to educate more people about the concept. See above link.
Do you support school choice? Explain your position or proposals for improvement.
I'm very much a supporter of having choice, which allows the free movement of students to where they think the education is best for them. While this is a "free market" justification of choice, where "the market" would decide what's best, it also concerns me that this would leave "poor performing" schools at a disadvantage. While theoretically this should put bad schools out of business, I believe we can affordably prevent this. I believe that there should be adequately funded schools in walking distance from every urban home. And everywhere in the state, I believe that there has to be quality public schools available. That said, I do believe that there could be improvement in the way that funds are distributed to protect the basic education quality of "sending districts". I believe that the financial algorithms used are too simplistic. State funding for schools needs to satisfy basic, standard, fixed costs in a way that does not punish poorer performing schools. And leave the fancier costs to the locality. At this point, I need to bring up the concept of "poorer performing", because I do not support the track we're on, with schools so focused on testing and ruthless capitalistic ideals. First of all, the idea of capitalism has its limits. You can't just take over a country, or pollute the world endlessly for example. So capitalism has its limits. Since this is true, why are schools so focused on capitalistic ideals? Often students tell me that they are being told "making the most money" is the goal. Why would we promulgate ruthless greed? We'll end up paying much higher costs, if we continue to promote money as the main object. For me, a "free school" is the perfect solution. A school that has its basic facilities paid for, and has enough teachers available, but is lean on administrators. I believe, that in an ideal situation, schools would have no "forced" curriculum, but would have a variety of curricula available for students to choose from on their own, learning at their own pace. That way, each day, the student would choose what to study. In this way, a quality education can be provided at a much lower cost. I would spend the extra money on allowing students to travel. To me, a well traveled student is a well adjusted adult.
Free School
More info: VoteForTerra
Subscribe to the Acton Forum and get our newsletters emailed to you -- FREE! Click Here!
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