A Staff Report

The Sentinel & Enterprise asked the four candidates seeking the State Senate seat in the Worcester and Middlesex district a series of 10 questions on regional and state issues. This is the third installment of their replies to be published over five days.

The special election is scheduled on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

Question: Is public education suffering from a lack of more state and local funding or a lack of more accountability in how that money is spent?

Charlene DiCalogero, Rainbow Green Party — Funding mechanisms are partly the cause. We also should ask: why are schools forced to waste huge sums on constant standardized testing, which tells us little and steals time from the kinds of teaching that helps students in the real world? Why do we ignore research showing that sustained high quality teacher professional development makes the most difference for students?

Sue Chalifoux Zephir, Democrat — As a City Councilor, I see how the state’s funding formula shortchanges our communities with inadequate funding for everything from special education to school buses. That’s why I support the Fair Share Amendment, and I’ll work to change the broken distribution formula so that our kids get enough state funding to give them the tools they need to succeed.

Claire Freda, Unenrolled — As I have said before, education is definitely suffering due to unfunded mandates and lack of money and commitment. In some cases there is a lack of accountability and school committees need to be sure they understand and agree with their superintendents philosophy and provide line item budgets for transparency. They also need to engage their respective communities’ input.

Dean Tran, Republican — I am a strong supporter of more funding for our public schools, and believe we need to better support them.

Question: Should the state Legislature impose tougher criminal penalties on drug trafficking that results in death?

Charlene DiCalogero, Rainbow Green Party — I will push for prosecuting Big Pharma criminally and in civil court, as we did Big Tobacco, for profiteering on people’s misery by flooding our communities with highly addictive drugs while lying about their effects. That would be the single most effective measure to reduce addictions resulting in death. Significant financial penalties would pay for expanded treatment we desperately need.

Sue Chalifoux Zephir, Democrat — We need to give our local and state law enforcement the tools they need to combat drug traffickers that are bringing deadly drugs into Massachusetts, but lengthy prison sentences aren’t the right way to handle people who deal small amounts of drugs to fund their own addiction. We must do more to get people suffering from addiction into treatment.

Claire Freda, Unenrolled — Yes. There should be tougher penalties imposed by the legislator on drug trafficking that results in death.

Dean Tran, Republican — Yes. Tackling the opioid crisis requires a two-pronged approach: We must show compassion for those trapped in a cycle of addiction, but also get tough on criminals who are perpetuating this crisis. I believe that for drug traffickers (who by the legal definition are distributing large quantities of controlled substances), we can do more to strengthen penalties to hold accountable those who are making the crisis worse. I believe this is a complement to the work the Governor and Legislature have done and are doing when it comes to recovery, treatment, and prevention.

COMING TUESDAY — Questions on how to address the rising cost of busing students to school and investing more money on public transportation.