The Delaware Democratic Party has been holding Platform meetings up and down the state over the last two months, as part of the process of drafting a new platform that will be presented and hopefully approved of at the 2017 Democratic State Convention. You can submit platform ideas yourself by emailing proposals and suggestions to Platform@deldems.org, so long as you are a registered Democrat of course (if you are a Green or an Independent and want to take part in this process in order to make the Democratic Party more liberal, how about you, oh I don’t know, join the Democratic Party in order to make it more liberal). The public comment period will remain open until October 31, 2016.
The Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD) have submitted their suggestions:
Campaign Finance Reform
The Delaware Democratic Party believes the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the “Citizens United” case should be reversed and supports the calling of a Constitutional Convention to accomplish it. We also support strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws in Delaware to include mandatory reporting and identification of ALL contributors, corporate or individual, in a timely fashion that allows public scrutiny prior to any general, primary or special election.Rationale: This is seen as being the most effective way of getting big money out of politics. The influence of big money doesn’t end when campaigns do. The lobbying effects of corporations, political donors and special interests continue and often result in policies contrary to the public’s interest. “Citizens United” granted big money the same free speech rights as individual citizens and removed spending limits in the political arena. This must be ended in the public interest.
Public disclosure and openness is fundamental to an informed public, and transparency is critical to maintaining our democracy.Criminal Justice Reform
Delaware Democrats urge the creation of a Special Commission on Delaware Criminal Justice by the State Assembly in the 2017 Session to address critical issues on a malfunctioning system and bring back to them in that year a comprehensive plan for statewide reform through both legislative and executive action starting in that year.Members of said commission should be respected members of the legal defense, prosecutorial and judicial sectors of our city, county and state public offices dealing with crime and the treatment of those accused of crime and should include participation by those accused and convicted.
These are among the system components to be addressed with solutions to result in improved criminal justice:
Policing-elimination of racial targeting and abuse, maltreatment and unconstitutional treatment of the policed
Bonding and Pre-Trial Release-elimination of unequal disposition of pre-trial economic discrimination of those without assets
Judicial Justice-comprehensive review and rating of racial discrimination bench by bench across the state
Defense-provision of adequate funding for fully just and competent representation of poverty accused Prosecutorial-comprehensive review and rating of racial discrimination of all prosecutors across the state
Sentencing-review and of both law and discretionary sentencing records of all benches across the state Amendment of sentencing terms in terms of best practices by states across the nation. Develop an alternative sentencing procedure to current law on non-violent drug offense. It should include mandatory detoxification and/or treatment requirements. Persons guilty of non-violent drug crimes or possession should not be subject to jail time.
Incarceration-review of current jailing and imprisonment across the state and recommend legislation to reduce incarceration overall and in particular, discrimination by race and economic status according to best practices found across the nation. This includes revision of release and probation policies which contribute to recidivism due to inability of those who have served their time to navigate socially and economically after release.
Poverty School “Marshall Plan For Acceptable Education Outcomes”
The Delaware Democratic Party believes that the opportunity to succeed is the birthright of every child, not just the privileged. No school or its students should be labeled a failure.Delaware Democrats support an all out, sustained initiative, fully funded for a complete pre-school through high school generation (14 years) of remedial components for public schools designated as high poverty to assure attainment of student performance levels equivalent to the highest performing suburban pre-school, elementary, middle and high schools.
The components should be decided on by neighborhood parents, experienced poverty school teachers and principals as well as students and certified expert consultants engaged by the local community, to design the initiative. Thus we support the WEIC plan.
These components must include a means of objectively measuring results acceptable to the community. We encourage an openness to alternative forms of education. They might include financial incentives to retain the most qualified teachers and support their continuing education, special education, tutors, mentors, social workers, parental support for children at risk, interim guardians as needed for a safe, healthy home, nutrition experts, medical and psychological staff, after school programs, day care, summer school as needed, physical plants equivalent to state of the art suburban facilities, clean and safe environments with other resources experts recommend.
We believe our public schools are pedagogical establishments for the facilitation of learning, not to be treated as corporations. Children are not clients and customers to be trained as workers, but rather prepared to be citizens for enabling a thriving, enlightened society.
FUNDING
1 – Delaware Democrats support sustained initiatives to fully fund all aspects of early childhood through 12th grade. In particular, Democrats believe funding should include:Weighting with more funding for students from high-poverty schools
Weighting with more funding for students with disabilities (SWD).
Weighting with more funding for English Language Learners (ELL).Smaller class sizes for schools that have high concentration of students in the three above areas.
Funding should be available to ALL schools — charters, vo-techs, magnets, and traditional public schools – that have large portions of high-poverty, SWD, and ELL students.2 – Delaware Democrats DO NOT support attempts by certain charter schools that DO NOT SERVE high numbers of students in poverty, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners to access the unrestricted funds of school districts. These funds are often earmarked to serve children from these three backgrounds and should not be sent to charters with far fewer of these students.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
1 – Delaware Democrats support a moratorium on charter schools until such time as the State Board of Education approves a plan for charters to be included in the landscape of Delaware public schools. The plans should include HOW and WHAT charters are doing that is truly DIFFERENT from the school districts as well as detailed impact statements on how they’ll affect local school districts.2 – Delaware Democrats believe charter schools should do away with their enrollment preferences, which exacerbate issues of segregation and poverty in charters, traditionals, magnets, and vo-techs. Charter schools should equally serve the Districts and Counties in which they are located and they should not use potentially discriminatory enrollment preferences as a means to fill their schools.
Environmental Policy
1 – The Delaware Democratic Party supports defending all aspects of the Coastal Zone Act. With only having tourism as the single most stable job sector in Delaware today and the continued, and relatively uncheck, rise in sea levels around the world, to compromise any aspects of this landmark legislation like the Coastal Zone Act, is simply unconscionable. There are a number of Industrial site that have been shut down for less than two years that can be redeveloped under the present Act.2 – The Delaware Democratic Party is in support of the youngest of our citizens and stands in support of tightening Clean-up requirements, beyond present EPA and DNREC standards, when any property is proposed for development or redevelopment for Residential Use. The legacy support we have had for the Chemical industry has left its mark all over Delaware. Present standards are adequate for continued use for Commercial or Industrial purposes, but we must defend residents, from future health issue because of weak regulatory requirements when it comes to where Delawarean’s raise their families.
3 – The Delaware Democratic Party finds promise in the jobs that have been generated by the more environmentally safe power generation industries. We want to expand on that commitment by pursuing further job growth by supporting the production and use of other alternative power sources like solar and wind power operations.
LLC’s and Corporate Banking
The Delaware Democratic Party believes when companies register as corporations, they should be required to disclose BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP, which means naming the true ownership of the corporation.
We also believe in the reinstatement of an improved, updated and modernized “Glass-Steagall Act” is imperative to prevent excesses in banking that could lead to a devastating repeat of recent banking failures and economic disruptions.Open Government
The Delaware Democratic Party believes in open and transparent government at all levels. To this end our Party supports expansion of the current Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to apply to all governmental units, including school districts, post-secondary institutions of education that receive any financial support from the state, and other local units of government, including those deemed to be so-called “one-person” offices. This also includes public access to government financial records and independent auditing of same.Rationale: The Delaware Democratic Party believes every Delawarean should have confidence that their government and elected officials are always acting in the best interests of their constituents. Open access to records is a fundamental right of the taxpaying public and government must be subject to auditing of public funds. The restoration of public faith in government and fiscal management at all levels can only be restored in the glare of public scrutiny. Technological advances such as video and audio recording of all public meetings can be another means of allowing public access and openness, and are relatively easy to utilize. Government at all levels must be dedicated to protecting the public’s right to know.
Tax Policy
The Delaware Democratic Party supports tax reforms that will result in high income taxpayers and corporations paying their fair share of State taxes. This would include support for raising current caps on taxable earned income and adjustments in the Earned Income Tax Credit.NOTE: This proposal is purposely broad in nature to room for legislative determination of specific cap limits, exemptions and tax rates.