After years of its law-abiding citizens being tailgated, flipped off, and continuously passed, the State needs to be realistic: speed limits are considered by most drivers to be too low. The State should adopt the 85th percentile rule for setting its speed limits EVERYWHERE. The speed most people drive is the speed most fitting for the road. Tickets for speeding MUST NOT be issued until the posted speed agrees with an 85th percentile measurement. If accident data supports lowering speed in a specific area, that area can be marked by warning signs or an 85th percentile limit can be measured and posted for that stretch of road. Traffic enforcement should focus on agressive drivers: tailgaters, those changing lanes agressively (i.e. too close in front of others, approaching oncoming traffic too closely), red light and stop sign running, and incidents of road rage.
The Federal government must not be allowed to hold funding over the heads of the States in the setting of speed limit laws.
The United States is illegally granting titles of royalty to Native Americans: a title conferred by heredity and granted privilege at the expense of taxpayers. To be clear, however, this "title" and its "privileges" have done nothing but destroy families and a sense of personal responsibility for many Native Americans. All Federal and State tribal recognition must end. Native Americans will become shareholders in their tribal corporations, and the shares can be bought and sold according to existing State and Federal laws. This corporation must abide by all Federal laws. States should not be allowed to allow gambling or other advantages to these corporations that they do not allow to any other corporation on its territory.
Endangering the public safety is not an option for fleeing criminals. People fleeing the police should be held financially responsible for damage they cause. Their property should become forfeit. The police should be allowed to use any means necessary to stop those felons, and they should be immune from lawsuits by fleeing felons. Police must do what they can to stop this as well: they should stop their tackling complaint suspects. Suspects must be given the ability to peacefully and non-violently surrender. Citizens who stop fleeing felons on their own property should be immune from prosecution and liability. Property seized from fleeing felons should be sold by the State to benefit a fund to help those who have been injured by fleeing felons.
Police use of dynamic entry should be curtailed to its minimum. This tactic will only lead to police and innocent civilian deaths. While a legitimate tactic in certain drug cases and hot pursuits, the simple use of knocking and presenting a warrant should suffice for most cases. The presence of legal firearms in a home should never be used as justification for dynamic entry, as it was in the Elian Gonzales case; indeed, the presence of legal firearms indicates the presence within of law-abiding citizens, and they should be afforded the respect of a knock and warrant pronouncement.
Schools providing junior high and high school courses should be required to develop pre-tests and post-tests for any course they teach: both for academic readiness and for pre-testing of knowledge. A course of remediation (which must have its own pre and post tests) must be developed for those not passing the academic readiness portion of the test. A specific score on a standardized test can be used for verifying language/reading ability, though the score required should not exceed the grade level at which the course is offered, except in cases of AP or other advanced credit. Credit must be given for those passing the knowledge portion of the course. Students taking the coure and not passing the knowledge portion of the exam MUST NOT be given credit for passing the course, though it could be up to the district to give credit for successful attendance of the course.
Public schools should be given the option to require students to submit to drug testing after any disciplinary referral. For certain offenses the school district should have discretion of requesting the test; for some offenses, the school district should not. If the student tests positive, the district should have the right to expel the student, require intensive counselling, and require the student and/or parents to pay the cost of the testing. If the parents or the student refuse after a certain number of days, then the student should be expelled from ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE STATE for the remainder of the academic year, and not be allowed entry into school until the beginning of the next normal beginning of an academic period (semester, trimester, year). If the student tests positive, at a minimum, the student should receive a long-term suspension; 30 to 60 days or an academic period, whichever is longer. Teachers should be given the power to request a certain number of students each year be tested. For each student testing positive the teacher should be given another allowed test request. The district should continue to receive funding from the State for the period of time the student is expelled. Positive tests must be reported to the State for possible child endangerment prosecution of parents or guardians. Districts can release the results of a positive test within a calendar year to public schools outside the State for purposes of determining admission qualifications on request.
