Should Washington, D.C., Become a State?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns Washington, D.C., and statehood. Democrats dream of the day when Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico become states and seal Democrat power forever. This dream is one part of a trio of Democrat dream with the other two parts being an elimination of the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court.

In an article published at The Daily Signal, Simon Hankinson explained why this dream is a bad idea. He gives “five reasons that autonomy – let alone statehood – isn’t a good idea.” 

1. The Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to create a “District (not exceeding ten Miles square)” to “become the Seat of the Government of the United States.” In 1790, Congress created Washington, D.C., which was to be run by three commissioners appointed by the president.

Two and a half centuries later, the residents of this district should know what the deal is: D.C. was never meant to be a state itself….

2. Crime.

Over 1,000 carjackings occurred last year in the District of Columbia. This year, we’re supposed to be happy that the number reportedly has declined, along with some other crimes.

But in the past year, the Secret Service has foiled two attempted carjackings in the best parts of Washington. The general sense of the population is that D.C. is returning to the bad old days of the 1970s and ‘80s.

Mentally ill vagrants, turnstile jumpers, shoplifters, and street racers perpetuate a climate of incivility and impunity….

3. Education

Spending per student in the District of Columbia is the second highest in the nation, yet the results are abysmal. Truancy rates are high. Test scores are low on average, although a few schools do better.

Only 33.7% of students who took D.C.’s assessment test last year “met or exceeded grade level expectations” in English. Only 22.5% did so in math.

As a result, most parents who can afford it either enter their kids in the lottery for charter schools after fifth grade or send them to private school….

4. Homelessness and Vagrancy.

Last year, I wrote to Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, about illegal tent encampments on public land. A few weeks later, the National Park Service removed a long-standing campsite in front of the State Department and another near the Kennedy Center.

The result wasn’t a renovated green space for locals and visitors to enjoy, but a fenced-off area no one can enter, with benches no one can sit on. Is this “progressive”?

Meanwhile, although the federal agency cleared trespassing campers, the D.C. government ignores violations on the land it controls….

5. Corruption.

The District of Columbia recently celebrated 50 years of controlling its own affairs.

Before President Richard Nixon, a Republican, granted this “home rule,” a president picked a mayor and commissioners to handle everything from traffic to trash. Congress managed education.

Home rule was a mixed blessing. With local control came local corruption. No one symbolized that better than “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry, a Democrat. A statue of Barry stands outside D.C. city hall on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

The plinth below the statue reads: “Mr. Barry was a larger than life figure – a man who could both lead the protest as an activist and engage the protest as Mayor.”

But Barry is also remembered for the city’s corruption and for his personal failings. Washington Post columnist Colbert King explains how Barry served six months in jail for crack cocaine possession, failed to pay taxes, and was censured twice by the D.C. Council for misconduct.

Sadly, the tradition of D.C. voters reelecting Democrat politicians despite corruption is alive and well….

Hankinson’s closing comment about why Washington, D.C., should not become a state: It just does not meet the necessary standards.

But it is in all respects just a midsize city, without any of the hinterland, industry, agriculture, and other attributes even the smallest of our 50 states needs to be a peer with the others. The city’s residents deserve better government, but not statehood.