Baltimore City Mayor Martin O’Malley’s announcement last Wednesday marked the start of what will be a long and expensive campaign as several candidates vie to become the next governor of Maryland.
In his announcement speech, the mayor mentioned this university and noted tuition has gone up more than 40 percent. He stressed the importance of higher education and why it isn’t something that should be ignored.
Martin O’Malley understands the importance of investing in higher education and will end the current administration’s efforts to raise tuition and deny more young people the opportunity of higher education. O’Malley’s commitment to the state and its youth is illustrated by his work in Baltimore: Increasing investment in education and job training, cleaning up the environment and working for a healthier Chesapeake Bay, making the city safer by cutting violent crime by almost 40 percent and expanding the economy and creating new jobs so that more of Maryland’s students will have greater opportunities after they finish school.
O’Malley’s leadership in Baltimore has helped the city turn around and become one of the country’s most progressive cities, with improvements in schools, housing, tourism and homeland security. But this doesn’t mean Baltimore is finished progressing. There is more work to be done and the mayor has acknowledged that. His dynamic personality and his go-getter attitude has inspired other cities and mayors to follow suit. The city was recently labeled as one of the best-managed big cities in the country.
Recent awards such as being one of Time magazine’s “5 Best Big City Mayors” only illustrates the positive change O’Malley has brought to the region. He also joined a lawsuit along with 11 states, challenging the federal government on its environmental issues at a time when our state’s leadership sat idle. This shows guts.
CitiStat, a program the mayor has used to help save the city money and unnecessary man hours, is what the mayor calls “a results-based system of performance politics.” Isn’t it nice to know that we’re getting the most out of our taxes?
The mayor is often criticized for supporting slots. What is often ignored by critics is the mayor’s reasoning and how his plan differs from the state leadership’s plan. The mayor favors limited slots at racecourses: just enough to keep the 15,000 jobs that would otherwise be lost if companies like Magnum move races to neighboring states. On top of that, it would be up to local jurisdictions to decide whether to allow slots. The state has lost enough jobs as it is; why should we slide back even more?
Guts, results and fiscal responsibility are what we need. The state needs to invest in higher education; if it doesn’t graduate satisfied youth, it won’t have the work force to have a solid economy. The state needs to retain jobs which could be lost to neighboring states. Simply put, the state must put people first and personal interests dead last.
The mayor is ready to reverse the drastic cuts in higher education funding we saw by funneling more money into universities and making higher education accessible to more Marylanders. The mayor has stressed that everyone who wants an education should be able to get it.
College students across the state are rallying behind O’Malley. Right here on our campus, Terps for Martin O’Malley is kicking off with more than 50 student supporters, ready to get this campus excited about him and disprove the notion that College Park students are apathetic. O’Malley will not ignore college students and their input as he campaigns, and he won’t forget them when he’s governor. Johns Hopkins. McDaniel. UMBC. St. Mary’s. Morgan State. Towson. Salisbury. Loyola. The campaign is spreading.
I encourage students to look at each candidate. Be selfish. See what each candidate can do for you individually – higher education funding, better job opportunities and a state that makes you say, “I want to live here.”
Get involved in the process. We are the future and it’s in our own interest that we start shaping it now.
Jahantab Siddiqui is college coordinator for the Martin O’Malley campaign. Molly Quell is president of Terps for Martin O’Malley. They can be reached at terps4omalley@gmail.com.
