By Dwight Patel

Amid the period of early voting and Primary Day in Maryland, I realize that most of you running in Montgomery County have no primaries, but you shouldn’t rest on your laurels and wait until November. Nor should you wait until after the primary to start knocking on doors.

Governor Larry Hogan has announced that Maryland will permanently eliminate the $7.50 E-Z Pass Maryland transponder fee for all new customers, putting $46 million back into Marylanders’ wallets over the next five years. This is the second time that Governor Hogan has announced a toll rollback for Maryland in just three years. In 2015, the governor announced major toll rollbacks across the state, resulting in $270 million in savings. Prior to 2015, there had been no toll rollbacks for the past 50 years.

By Laurie Halverson Candidate for Maryland House of Delegates, District 15

Maryland has the unfortunate distinction of being the second least accountable school system in the nation. This means that the federal plan (under the “Every Student Succeeds Act”) to determine school accountability is based on a weaker set of academic factors than most of the nation. Standardized test scores for high schools, for example, account for only 30% of a school’s overall score. Other factors that are used to determine accountability under the new plan are: