Free Republic

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

To combat underage binge drinking, the national legal drinking age should be lowered to 18, a former college president is saying. Since releasing a 250-page study on the societal effects of modern drinking laws, Middlebury College President emeritus John McCardell has campaigned across the country calling for states to lower the legal drinking age to 18 because he observed fewer alcohol-related problems 30 years ago, when 18-year-olds could legally drink. "Before the law changed, it wasn't perfect," McCardell said. "But what you had then was out-in-the-open, intergenerational [drinking]." Since then, McCardell, who is launching the nonprofit group Choose Responsibility this...

In the New York Times September 15, 2003 issue addressing the topic of: "City to Track Why Students Leave School" Children are being pushed out of school because they are not able to learn. I have addressed this problem in many articles that I wrote. I believe there should be accountability in the educational system, which would require laws and policies to implement safeguards to protect our children. According to policy, children are supposed to have a proper education until age 21, but who knows about this? Surely not parents and their children. Now the educational system is trying to...