Jill Stein in Survey of 2010 Gubernatorial campaign websites

On Drugs: Bring marijuana sales under a legal regulatory framework

It's time to get rid of the black market and bring marijuana sales under a legal regulatory framework. In this way, we can staunch the flow of money to illegal drug networks, generate new funds for our communities, improve public safety, and create new jobs in growing hemp for food and fiber.

As Governor I will appoint a Cannabis Reform Commission to investigate the best way to bring marijuana sales under the new regulatory framework.

On Education: Vital public system under attack from privatization

The funding of education is clearly at a crisis point. Years of neglect, fiscal mismanagement, and promotion of privatization have combined with a budget shortfall to seriously threaten the viability of our public education system. If we tilt toward privatization, it will produce a stratified collection of schools that will make education more expensive, separate schools from their communities, and lead inevitably to the abandonment of the concept of equal access to education. Party leaders are now actively promoting charter school encroachment.

On Education: Stop blaming teachers for "underperforming schools"

Jill Stein's position is clear:
• Fully fund K through 12 education in every year, in every budget, for every student.
• It's a matter of getting our priorities straight. Do we hand out more corporate welfare and more tax breaks to well-connected CEO's? Or do we educate our kids? Jill says that kids come first.
• Put public schools first, and don't undermine them with private charter schools.
• Every child should have access to a quality public school in their neighborhood or community. Undermining public schools in search of privatization will inevitably lead to more expensive education, inequality, and loss of the democratic right to a free education.
• Let educators and parents decide how best to educate our children.
• Blaming teachers for deceptively labeled "underperforming schools" is an attempt to divert attention from the failure of Beacon Hill to properly fund schools and to address other factors affecting the ability of students to learn.

On Education: Standardized tests are misused; they hurt students

Teachers are spending time trying to increase MCAS test scores rather than focusing on what students really need. State officials cite increases in MCAS scores as if this signifies educational progress. It doesn't. It merely means that educational resources are being diverted into teaching to the test.

The goal of education should be to educate the whole student for lifelong learning and success. The current obsession with high stakes testing distracts from addressing the profound barriers to learning that arise long before the child has walked through the classroom door, including poverty and unemployment, poor nutrition and community violence.

On Education: No economic barriers to quality college education

Jill Stein knows that education is the key to life-long success. A student who is only prepared to serve the short term business goals of the high tech industry is not fully prepared for long term success in life and work. The lasting value of an education often lies in developing teamwork and conflict resolution skills, understanding the lessons of nature and history, and readiness for civic leadership. Striking the right balance between true education and mere skill acquisition should be the responsibility of educators, not panels of high tech executives trying to solve their short-term business needs.

On Energy & Oil: Logging wood for electricity is neither clean nor green

Biomass energy is not carbon neutral. To supply the proposed biomass plants, logging would need to dramatically increase. And this would provide only a tiny fraction of our current energy use, since wood is a low energy-content fuel, and combustion for electricity generation is an inefficient technology. Any logging on a scale sufficient to make a significant dent in our energy problem would be detrimental to forest and soil health, producing soil compaction and soil erosion. This makes it doubtful that logged forests would achieve the 'regrowth' needed for the carbon neutrality claim.

On Environment: $200M for 50,000 green jobs: address both supply demand

• Jobs in energy efficiency--like retrofitting homes
• Jobs in local sustainable agriculture
• Recycling workers
• Construction workers to build renewable energy infrastructure & public transportation infrastructure

On Families & Children: Fund community youth programs for at-risk youth

I am familiar with the issue of community violence as a doctor who delivered care in under-served communities. In this work, I've learned that youth violence is not an isolated problem subject to a quick fix. It is a symptom of the abandonment of our communities by the elected leadership and by those who hold economic power.

One of my key priorities in running for governor is to heal the wounds of our distressed communities and to rescue the at-risk youth who may lose their way irretrievably if we do not act. I will restore all the community service funds cut by the Patrick Administration over the past four years.

On Government Reform: Re-establish Clean Elections Law: end "pay-to-play"

The people of Massachusetts deserve a clean money campaign system that allows candidates to run for office without selling out to big money interests. Candidates who refuse to take tainted money should be able to compete on a level playing field.

The voters called for fundamental changes when they voted for the Clean Elections Law over ten years ago. Unfortunately, incumbent legislators who were profiting from the existing fundraising machinery repealed this reform on an unrecorded voice vote, opening the way to ten years of continued corruption and scandal. One of my top priorities will be to reestablish a clean money law that gives a fair break to candidates of integrity who refuse to participate in "pay-to-play" fundraising practices.

On Health Care: Single-payer Medicare-for-all system

There is a proven way to achieve all this while saving billions of dollars. It involves a Medicare-for-all system that pays for itself simply by cutting out the insurance company red tape. (It's sometimes called "single-payer," which means that all bills go to a single processing point--eliminating the costly and complex billing system required to submit claims to multiple private insurance providers, each following different rules).

Under single-payer, no one loses health insurance when they change jobs. And our health dollars are spent on better health care--not on insurance company red tape.

On Local Issues: Casinos are job killers; one slot machine kills one job

Nevada--which is loaded with casinos--currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. They are suffering a jobless rate of 14% while Massachusetts is around 9%. Nevada also leads the nation in foreclosures and bankruptcies. And Atlantic City, with 11 casinos concentrated within the city, has a jobless rate higher than Boston. Do we really want to emulate these economies?

On Tax Reform: Fees and sales taxes hit lower and middle income hardest

Beacon Hill has allowed the budget to be balanced by raising a number of taxes and fees that hit working people hard. They have raised the sales tax, college tuition, MBTA fares, and tobacco taxes. By cutting aid to cities and towns, legislators have forced hikes in property taxes.

When all state and local taxes are considered, lower and middle income people in Massachusetts are paying at twice the rate of the top 1% highest income bracket. This is not a fair system, and Beacon Hill has made it even more unfair with tax hikes over the past decade.

Jill Stein will fight any attempt to balance the budget through tax or fee hikes that hit ordinary taxpayers. She will stand for the fairness solution--which means closing any budget gap by asking higher-income taxpayers to pay something closer to the rate that most people have been experiencing for years.

On War & Peace: End our military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are costing Massachusetts $3.4 billion per year. That money could go a long way toward creating jobs here in Massachusetts. Rather than serving as a Pentagon propagandist and obediently sending our National Guard off for yet another tour of duty, the Governor of Massachusetts should be telling President Obama that we need to end the wars, bring our National Guard home, and heal our economy.