HOW TO HELP KIDS SUCCEED IN LIFE: BECOME A SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER

By: Nancy Mercante, Guest Contributor

“Our educational system is in the grip of a crisis caused by low standards, lack of purpose, ineffective use of resources, and a failure to challenge students to push performance to the boundaries of individual ability.”– President Ronald Reagan after the release of “A Nation at Risk” report he commissioned 42 years ago.

The problems in education that President Reagan highlighted from A Nation at Risk still hold true today. We’ve lost too many generations to a poor education. It’s past time we fixed Delaware’s failing school system, which is near the bottom in the nation in academic achievement while near the top in spending per student. Is it fair to children of public schools that we as a community are failing them because we don’t demand better?

How do we start? By electing local school boards filled with common-sense members. Citizens who step forward as school board candidates could have an enormous impact in bringing a return to academic excellence in Delaware.

Serving on a school board enables you to:

• Support student and educator success.
• Promote transparency and accountability.
• Collaborate with the community and parents.
• Uplift children’s lives.

The founding of this country depends on citizens becoming involved in government, including public education. While we certainly need educators on our school boards, we also need business leaders, community representatives and especially parents. These are the kind of people who are better connected with the broader needs of our communities.

The best candidates are principled, good listeners, willing to learn, and advocate for the education and well-being of students in ways that align with shared values of the community.

Becoming a school board member is a chance to make a direct impact on the future of education in your community. It’s also a way to drive common-sense reform that will make all Delaware schools effective centers of learning again. As a school board member, you can expect to take on a multifaceted role that involves governance, oversight of the superintendent and budgets, setting educational policies, and community engagement.

Now is the time to decide if this role appeals to you.

Mark your calendar!

March 7, 4:30 p.m. is the deadline to file as a candidate for school board election. The requirement to run is that you live in the district of the open seat, are not currently a paid employee in that school district, can pass a background check, and have a passion for helping kids. Go to the Delaware Department of Elections/School Board for details.

May 12 is election day. Vote!

For other questions, text me at 302-307-2485 and visit citizensfordelawareschools.org to see which seats are up for election.

 Nancy Mercante, communications professional, has worked for major corporations within the financial, pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries. She founded Citizens for Delaware Schools, a nonpartisan nonprofit, two years ago to increase awareness of how and why our education system is failing children in Delaware so Delawareans can demand a better education for every student. 

The Answer to Delaware’s Housing Shortage: More Housing, Less Government

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

“This waiting list is not accepting applications at this time.”

If you are suddenly, or even chronically, in need of assistance in finding a home you can afford to rent, in Delaware, you are out of luck.

The above message is on every website listed for government assistance for housing in the State – the Delaware State Housing Authority, the New Castle County Housing Authority, and the Dover Housing Authority.
Those agencies provide rental assistance to low-income families for housing, as well as actual rental units in specific complexes, particularly for senior and disabled individuals, statewide.  Hulling Cove in Lewes? Closed to applicants. Holly Square? Closed. Willis Road? Closed.

Renters are a significant part of the housing demand.  According to the Joint Center for Housing Statistics, approximately 35% of the population rents where they live. Some rent out of choice, others by necessity. In any event, Delaware is an expensive place to rent. If you rent, the rents are high relative to the rest of the country, with Delaware ranking between 14^th or 18^th highest in the country, depending on the source. And, with the government literally shut down when it comes to supporting anyone not already in the programs, families are hurting.

Homeownership is expensive as well. Selling a house is more expensive in Delaware, with transfer taxes almost three times any other state. If you want to move – to a smaller home, to a bigger home, or out of state with a job opportunity- costs are high. The transfer tax for doing so, on a medium-priced house of $384,079 is over $15,000! That’s a hit to anyone’s pocketbook.

While the taxes are high because our legislature has passed laws to make them so, the price of housing is high because of demand. Estimates are that Delaware is in need of 14,000 more units of affordable housing for our lowest income level households. And, even more at the highest income levels. What is holding us back?

Taxes, construction fees and zoning laws are significant factors.

The answer to a housing shortage is more housing. Any kind of housing, no matter how much it costs. If new, high priced apartments or other housing is built, the units attract people to leave their lower priced apartments or old houses, which leave them vacant. As more vacancies are created, rents come down and the benefits filter all the way to the least expensive units.

Government regulations impose great costs on construction – with new and more oppressive requirements imposed, seemingly with each new session. “Green” costs and excessive micromanagement of construction features go far beyond assuring a buyer gets a safe and sturdily constructed place to live.

As a practical matter, Delaware is in a rather unique situation where many of the home buyers during, and just following, the pandemic did not vacate current Delaware housing units, but moved in from out of state, forcing prices higher. Higher price, higher collection of those pesky transfer taxes.  We have written numerous times about the need to lower the transfer tax and remarked upon the huge amount of money the state and counties have received in recent years from that source but will not belabor the point here.

We applaud the recent zoning changes in several of our counties which allow for accessory dwelling units, detached or not, which are what has been historically known as an “in-law suite.” These changes are a positive addition to housing options and expand the number of housing units at a relatively small cost, and the occupant may either leave another unit available for a new resident or find a home when they previously could not.

We have heard the rumors and need to say – what we do not need is a moratorium on building. Every study (and common sense) suggests that more housing is the answer to a housing shortage. Lower taxes, reduced regulations that add costs to construction and zoning reforms, such as accessory dwelling units, cluster construction or planned commercial and residential projects like Village of Five Points in Lewes, are the better answers.

Our legislators and state leaders should take a hard look at how they can, with little effort, offer new and expanded options to families looking for a home, without requiring them to rely on government programs that cannot, and should not be required to, meet their housing needs.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Delaware’s Workforce: A Case For Concern

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Many Delaware citizens believe our economy is doing just fine. Not great, but not so bad. The truth is concerning.

We have discussed the economic and regulatory issues that affect the establishment and growth of businesses in Delaware. But there is another, significant force that affects Delaware businesses – people. More specifically workers.

We all have heard about an unemployment rate. It is the percentage of people who would like to work but cannot, or have not, found a job.  In Delaware, our unemployment rate is, and has consistently been, higher than the national average. But it is important to remember – that rate represents real people. 19,500 real people in Delaware, according to our state’s Department of Labor in November 2024.

Why might they not be able to find work, despite looking? Maybe they are not prepared for the workforce.  According to a report commissioned by Delaware Workforce Development Board, “half of civilian workers required over one year of preparation time to perform their jobs in 2022.” That includes not just job training, but basic education in Math and English as well. Delaware actually has a program to teach young adults basic skills to pass the test to become an apprentice to the trades.  As long as we continue to graduate students who cannot get a job because they cannot do the job, we are doing them and our community no favors.

If you think that does not matter, you would be wrong. It discourages those high school graduates from continuing to try to get work. Proof of that is in the percentage of high school graduates who are not even looking for work anymore, higher, by percentage, than any other segment by education level.  Remarkably, 54,000 25–54-year-old high school graduates in Delaware are eligible to, but do not participate in the workforce.  The report referenced earlier identified those individuals as “candidates for training” to make them capable of earning sufficient wages to sustain themselves.

Meanwhile, their lives are stagnant. They are not developing new skills, making contributions to our economy, finding the personal satisfaction that comes from doing a good job, making a contribution to their company and community.  That stagnation carries into the workforce itself. Incredibly, Delawareans work 102 hours per year less than the national average. Right at the bottom.

We need to energize our workforce, excite our workers and create a vibrant, growing business environment.  We have said it before, but the numbers and reports prove it – it all starts with our schools.  High school graduates need basic skills in order to feel and be valued, and to be a contributing part of a workforce.

We should recruit new businesses to Delaware, with better paying jobs that give aspiring workers visible benefits and incentives to pursue further education and job training programs in order to take advantage of those job opportunities.

We should encourage programs between schools and businesses to develop interest in specific industries, offer internships to develop skills that will make the students employable after graduation.

There are young graduates out there who are discouraged, unskilled and unmotivated. There is no question there is talent in those numbers cited above, and it is wasted if it is not cultivated.

Let us all – teachers, employers, entrepreneurs, and our elected officials – resolve to end the stagnation in our workforce and generate the excitement that comes with knowing you are valued, valuable and contributing – to family, community and our economy.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

US Wind Farm Project: Of No Benefit to Delaware

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Recently, a lot has happened in the world of energy, and especially, in the world of offshore wind.

As you may be aware, US Wind has proposed an offshore wind project for the State of Maryland, that has been supported by the Maryland legislature. The citizens of Maryland, particularly the Eastern Shore, are not so sure. When no town or county in Maryland would allow US Wind to bring the transmission lines from the towers in the ocean ashore in Maryland, Governor John Carney offered part of our Seashore State Park, at 3Rs Road as a siting location.  US Wind then proposed to bring the transmission lines from the towers to a substation on the Indian River Bay by running the lines under the beach, Route 1, the Bay and through the wetlands to a substation they proposed to build on the shore next to the existing power plant.

As a result of the Governor’s decision to engage with the project, US Wind made application to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) for permits to enter the beach area and establish connections underground there and to take the transmission lines under the Bay and through the wetlands.  On December 9, Secretary Garvin announced the permits had been granted. Litigation is being filed with the Superior Court and before the Environmental Appeals Board to challenge those permits for a number of reasons, including that the permits did not include information required by law and regulation, were not complete, and the public did not get to review and comment on much of what the Secretary considered in making his decision.

A week later, a matter relating to the US Wind Maryland Project (as US Wind has titled this proposal) was before the Sussex County Council.

To build the substation, US Wind needed approval from Sussex County to authorize a zoning change to allow for a conditional use of the parcel.  This week, Sussex County Council denied US Wind’s request. The Commissioners (4-1) ruled that there are no or few benefits to Sussex County (no jobs, no electricity, etc.) and yet Sussex County assumed all of the burden and liability for the destruction of our ecology. The Indian River Bay is one of the top 20 most important estuaries in the country.
The implications of drilling under our Bay, putting huge electromagnetic fields in the waters where fish and clams spawn, and into this unique aquatic habitat are significant and even DNREC concedes the damage to the Bay will be permanent. Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service recommended against going under the Bay.  It is anticipated that US Wind will appeal that decision.

There is also, of course, a lot of speculation about the future of offshore wind at the national level that may affect this, and other projects.

This project is entirely intended to benefit Maryland.  US Wind needs to find an alternative to coming into Delaware to then take the electric generated by the project to Maryland customers.  Maryland and US Wind need to find a resolution to the issue, not Delaware. For US Wind, finding that resolution is the cost of doing business.

Delaware should stand strong on this issue. We gain no benefits from assuming the risk attendant to this Maryland project and should act as good stewards of the precious resources we possess that are important to more than just Delaware’s citizens – they are important to the region and the country.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Delaware’s Next Governor Must Declare a State of Emergency in Education

By Tanya Hettler, PhD, Director, Center for Education Policy, The Caesar Rodney Institute*

Delaware’s educational performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked in 2013. Since then, proficiency scores for 4^th and 8^th grade math and reading have plummeted, underscoring the urgent need for improvements in student achievement.

Delaware is among the top ten states in the country in spending at $20,231 per student and yet has a performance ranking in the bottom five states on the NAEP at 46 out of 50.

This poor performance exists due to the influence of a Delaware “Iron Triangle” consisting of:

• The legislative and executive branches, including the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE)
• The Delaware State Education Association
• The district administration and school boards

These policy-making groups have resisted meaningful education reform for decades. Delaware’s education system is in a serious crisis and requires emergency intervention–an issue that started well before the COVID-19 school closures.

Shortly, we will elect a new Governor of Delaware. To make the needed reforms, the Governor should declare a State of Emergency in Education and order the implementation of a four-part program as described below:

 I. Accelerate the “Science of Reading” Implementation: The Evidence-Based Reading Bill (passed in 2022) requires all districts to fully implement Science of Reading instruction by 2028. This implementation date should be moved forward to 2025. Delaware is behind other states in fully implementing a Science of Reading curriculum. This change is critical to ensuring that Delaware students learn to read now.

I I. Require Reading Proficiency for Promotion to 4^th Grade: As has been successfully implemented in Mississippi, Delaware needs to require that students be able to read at grade level in order to move from third to fourth grade. In kindergarten through third grade, students learn to read. In fourth grade and beyond, they read to learn. If they are promoted to fourth grade without being able to read, it puts the student at a significant disadvantage, leading to struggles throughout the rest of their education and life.

III, Grant Superintendents Authority Over Spending: The DDOE contracted with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to assess Delaware’s public school funding system. This report, released in December 2023, assessed what would be necessary for the state to provide an equitable and adequate education for all students.

I disagree with the AIR recommendation to increase education funding. Delaware is already in the top ten states in spending and yet performs 4^th from the bottom in outcomes.

NOTE: The per-pupil spending amount used in the AIR study was $17,000 while the actual spending was $20,231, which is an increase of more than $3,000 per student. If this amount is multiplied by the total number of students in the state (142,000), this amounts to $426 million, which is nearly the amount the AIR study recommended for increasing spending and yet produced no improvement in outcomes.

Additionally, a common complaint of superintendents in the AIR study was the inability to reallocate funds once assigned by the DDOE. The current patchwork funding system includes a main funding formula and multiple side formulas that allocate staff and funding, each with its own formulas and rules. This dramatically limits how these funds can be spent for the benefit of the students.

Superintendents should have the authority to reallocate funds based on immediate student needs, rather than being constrained by outdated and rigid formulas.

IV. Restore Preventive Discipline Measures: Since the passing of SB 85 in 2018, which encouraged the use of restorative justice, the occurrence of discipline problems and violence in Delaware schools has increased. Delaware must return to preventive discipline measures that impose consequences on students, such as in-school detention. Restorative justice can be helpful when applied to first offenders. It generally is not effective when dealing with chronic offenders.

To address this crisis, Delaware’s next Governor must declare a “State of Emergency in Education” and swiftly implement the “four-part program” mentioned above.

Without immediate action, Delaware risks failing another generation of students and jeopardizing the future of our state’s educational system.

*Originally published by the Caesar Rodney Institute on October 28, 2024.

Delaware’s State Tax Competitiveness: On the Wrong Track

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware: A Road Map For Improvement.

Delaware’s taxes are hurting our competitiveness. Our corporate and individual income taxes are having a negative influence on the expansion of our workforce, the development of new businesses and the bedrock of our state’s revenue – corporate filings.

We are the seventh worst state in the nation in which to form a business and have the worst corporate tax rate in the country.  We recently adopted a law that would put government supervision over non-profit and hospital budgets.  Only one other state in the nation has tried that, with terrible results.  We have adopted mandates that go against a majority of the citizenry’s preference and do not comport with current science.  And, we have multiple layers of regulation that stifle business initiation and development.  We are seeing the results of our policies.

From 2021 through 2023 we saw a drop of 10% in the filing of new business formations with our Department of State, Corporations Division.  As a result of a high-profile dispute with our Chancery Court, a specialty business court, Elon Musk has advised businesses to leave Delaware and took steps to remove three of his own companies from Delaware.

Business regulations and a shift in social attitudes in the General Assembly and state administrative agencies has been noted by even the Wall Street Journal. A recent article in that publication drew an analogy to the trust industry, once thriving in New Jersey, and noted how that state lost its standing as the place to formulate trusts.  Delaware ‘s reputation as the place to incorporate, which took great vision and decades to establish, is fading or at least at risk.

The Brookings Institute published an abstract on the impact of changes to the individual income tax rates in states, and how it affects long-term economic growth. They found out that the structure and financing of tax changes are critical in achieving that growth and that lower income tax rates encourage people to work, save and invest.

Our General Assembly is on the wrong track, leading Delaware down a path from which it may not recover. While the General Assembly should not, but can, be irresponsible, the Governor must take the big picture approach to our state’s future standing and solvency. We encouraged out incumbent Governor to do just that, without success. Let us hope the incoming Governor will give consideration to the long-term harm our current policies could have on our long-term prosperity and take the leadership role necessary to assure our workforce, small businesses and state services can meet the needs of our citizens.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

We Are Victims of Too Much Regulations

By: Hon. William L. Witham, Jr., Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

Most people do not realize that federal and state regulation is exploding at a record pace. Over the last decade, Congress has adopted an average of 344 new pieces of legislation during each session of Congress.  That amounts to about 2 to 3 million words of new federal law each year.  That is not all, even the bills have grown in size with the average page count of around 2 pages in the 1950s to 18 today.  Same is true for Delaware.  When one considers the amount of paper that go with these bills, we seemed to be killing entire forests.

Is this due to the fact that our society is more complicated than it was in years past?  Less than a hundred years ago, all of the federal government’s statutes fit into a single volume.  By 2018, the U.S. Code encompassed 54 volumes and approximately 60,000 pages without adding the huge expansion of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  The CFR is a collection of rules and regulations for the federal government.  Each federal agency writes rules on implementing or interpretating laws.  Delaware does the same for bills passed by our legislature.

Obviously, we need laws and regulations to maintain public order and safety.  Yet we as a free people lose a little bit more of our freedom when government passes laws and regulations supposably to improve our lives.  For example, have you noticed that there is now limitation on what kind of car we must buy, what kind of appliance and heating system we have to buy for our homes?  There are limits on how our meat and vegetables must be labeled, the type of bags we must use.  The list goes on with every product we buy or make. Some products we can no longer buy made in the United States, such as incandescent light bulbs. I am sure you have noticed that some of the household items we buy do not last or work as well as the “old” ones. Showerheads are federally regulated to restrict flow, as are the toilets and garbage disposal units.  Have you ever used the new gas cans? They are awful – the pre-regulated ones are in big demand.  It is hard to think of any product that is not regulated, presumably for safety, that is not trapped in some kind of forced design emanating from a federal or state agency. Even, the municipality gets into the act.  As residents of Dover, we must use certain garbage cans for trash and recyclables. Have you noticed that Dover is now billing its residents on a quarterly basis for stormwater management, supposably required by the federal government? The city apparently did this without notice or explanation and just sent bills out.  Of course, the state now requires Delawareans to buy electric cars by a projected and improbable date.   Most citizens of Delaware are aware of the controversy over the impact of windfarms coming to Delaware and Maryland off our coast and worry about the cost and impact. It makes us envious of states that have the remedy of referendums.

Government regulates all aspects of our economy and to a large extent our life.  Take meat for example. It is not possible to raise cattle and sell the meat without jumping through many hoops and using independent processors. This benefits agri-business, but not small farmers.  If you want to start a new business, the number of roadblocks you have to jump over is staggering.  Try hiring one employee, for example.  The bureaucratic requirements can be daunting – permits, licensing and IRS requirements multiply the cost of doing business.  It seems the bureaucracies simply cannot sit still.  They make new rules and regulations on a daily basis.  There is no consideration of the economic cost and impact on growth and job creation. The United States has created whole industries entirely devoted to achieving compliance.

In the late 1970s, there was a bipartisan consensus to deregulate three industries: trucking, energy, and telecommunications.  All three initiatives were a huge success and the prosperity of the 1980s is owed to these emancipations.

But this success was short-lived, in part, due to the financial deregulation of 1983, which freed up the banking sector that was then blamed for every crisis that followed, from the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s to the 2008 financial crisis.  It is a given that some regulation is justified, but the government tends to always go overboard.

We can and have faith in the private sector.  No business wants its product or service to be a failure or attacked by the public.  The business wants to be successful. Every professional field has an oversight organization that certifies and provides credentialing apart from government mandates. For example, lawyers have the bar exam that regulates the admission of attorneys.  The Underwriters Laboratories (UL) founded in 1894 independently certifies industries and has great credibility.  Much of our bureaucratic regulation is too expensive, too arduous, and too limiting for our free enterprises to thrive.  In an ideal world, the government would only do what is mentioned in the Constitution and nothing more.  That may not be possible, but we need to substantially push back from too much regulation and let our free society survive and thrive.

William L. Witham Jr. is a retired Kent County Resident Judge who has served over 40 years in Delaware’s justice system. He is also a former leader in the US Army Reserve and National Guard with 34 years of service.

It’s No Secret: Transparency is Key to Good Government

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

We at A Better Delaware place a priority on the transparency and accountability of our state government. Our representatives’ obligations, when we elect them, is to represent our interests, spend our money wisely (it is OUR money) and inform us about the actions they plan to take and why.  And we expect them to listen to and hear our views. In the best of circumstances, they actually act according to our views.

Representative government works better in the light of day. Our state fails to work the best for us when it does not let us know what laws and regulations are being formulated and where and how our money is being spent.

Recent events point out the importance of transparency. For nearly a year, one state agency knew there was embezzlement of its funds and failed to report it publicly. We learned about it when an independent auditor could not determine how much money had passed through the agency, nor where it was spent.

Even more recently it came to light that the former Speaker of the House asked staff to sign confidentiality, or non-disclosure agreements to protect “pending legislation” and “legislative projects,” among other things. Those topics are directly within the duties and responsibilities they have to us in their positions.

To find out what our Department of Education is doing is a frustrating journey. Recently, the information about academic performance, if you know where to look, is easier to find, but how and where our money is spent by that agency is in dark corners that are difficult to find.

We know that our public schools are spending on average, more than $22,000 per student per year, and even more in lower performing schools.  We know that the budget for public schools has ballooned over the past 10 years. And we know that there are more than a dozen schools in which fewer than 10 out of 100 students read or does math at grade level.

We need accountability in our public schools, much like we require our charter schools (which are technically public schools because they charge no tuition but are separately managed).

Every 5 years, charter schools have to seek renewal of permission to operate from the Department of Education.  They must prove they are meeting the expectations they established when they were granted authority to open, such as financial stability, academic performance, staff credentials and the content of their curriculum.

Candidly, if every public school had to show effective performance, as the charter schools do, our state would not be ranked 47 out of 50 in student reading and math. The proof is in the student achievement in our charter schools, which greatly exceeds other public schools in almost every instance.  No school should be exempt from the scrutiny we give to our charter schools. The new Governor, teachers’ union and parents should unite to demand such a rigorous review and put remediation plans in place to give the students, who parents entrust to the state schools, their best chance at a good future and success. Let’s hold government accountable to actually do what it is now only pretending to do in too many instances.

In addition to transparency, we expect accountability from our elected officials. In large part that means that they fairly represent our views and priorities. Our state government has woefully failed us when it comes to the electric vehicle mandate. Overwhelmingly, Delawareans oppose a mandate that, as presently enacted, would restrict access to gasoline powered cars and ultimately require the replacement of the majority of them with electric cars in only a few years. Our current, and soon former, Governor chose instead to listen to a few and guide his policies based on national trends, as opposed to Delawareans’ preferences. The new, incoming Governor should revoke the mandate.

Finally, when we talk about government operating best in the light of day, nothing could be more ironic than having the legislature go underground, literally. The legislature has approved the expenditure of millions of dollars to build a parking garage next to Legislative Hall. Maybe not a bad idea for the public, as most of the area’s parking spaces are designated to specific legislators and their staff.  But, included in the plans is a tunnel from the garage to Legislative Hall, for the sole use of our legislators, not the public.  They will be able to go from their car to the building in which they do the public’s business without the need to engage with a single constituent.  That is not transparent, and it is not accessible.  Let your legislator know you oppose the tunnel, and support constituent interaction and transparency in government.  After all, you should expect nothing less.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.