We can play politics, or we can reduce crime.

Mandatory minimums have been shown to be discriminatory and waste the taxpayers' money.

Unequal funding resources also results in unequal educational opportunity when you consider studies that show that one half of low income students who are qualified to attend college do not attend because they can't afford to.

We live in an information and knowledge-based economy.

Rather than following through on the proven crime and violence prevention techniques that work, we are back to tough-talking sound byte policies that have been proven to not only fail to reduce crime but actually increase crime, waste taxpayers' money and discriminate against minorities.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Civil Rights Act.

While there are many obstacles that deter students from going to college, finances by no means should be the deciding factor.