Delaware

Christina’s Plan For “Priority Schools” And Last Night’s Meeting

Filed in Delaware by pandora on January 8, 2015 • 28 Comments

Here’s what happened at last night’s Christina’s School Board meeting:

With two days remaining before a threatened state takeover of its three inner-city schools, the Christina board delayed action on the state’s priority schools plan – but it gave Superintendent Freeman Williams permission to work with education officials on a compromise.

Department spokeswoman Alison May said officials there were willing to extend the deadline for negotiations – at least for the moment. Gov. Jack Markell has said he will close those schools down or hand them over to charters or other outside operators if the district and state can’t agree.

The board’s move comes after the Department of Education rejected draft plans the district had crafted after months of meetings with parents, teachers and others in the schools’ communities.

“At the highest level, the plans propose continuing the work that is already underway at the schools, which we know has not been effective,” May wrote. “The plans propose supplementing the current work in minor ways, which we do not believe will be transformative for students.”

Before continuing, let’s break this down. First, Gov. Markell will not close these schools down, so he should probably drop that bit of nonsense. Charter and privatization have always been the end game for these Priority Schools (It’s actually more than the end game, it’s the entire point of this), so let’s stop pretending that closure is on the table. It isn’t… unless someone wants to tell me where the children attending the closed schools would go? And while the MOU doesn’t have much to say about the children attending these schools, they do, in fact, actually exist.

The Archives of the Honorable Chip Flowers, Jr.

Filed in Delaware by El Somnambulo on January 8, 2015 • 34 Comments

Who needs satire when Chip does the work for us? If you’re a loyal DL reader, you OWE IT TO YOURSELF to parse every syllable of this Ode to A Delusional Narcissist. For fun, count the number of times he uses the word ‘historic’ or variation thereof. Lest you doubt that this is Chip’s work, you can access it here.

However, if you are loathe (to steal one of Monsignor Lavelle’s favorite words) to give Chip the web traffic (although the big-ass watch alone is worth a peek), here is Chip in his own words (I know, b/c they’re in the Third Person)….

Carper’s keystone veto override vote should be a watershed moment for Delaware’s Democrats

Filed in Delaware by jason330 on January 8, 2015 • 24 Comments

When it comes to pass that Senator for Life, Tom Carper, sides with Republicans and votes to override the President’s veto of the Keystone XL pipeline it could change things here in Delaware. At long last, all pretense will be set aside and even the most out of touch Democrat will know that Carper is not a member of the Democratic Party in any meaningful sense. It will be an undeniable break with public sentiment on the issue of the environment and the brazen opposition to the President will be impossible for him to hide from.

It doesn’t mean that he will lose the next election – he is the Senator for Life after all. But I think it does open up some room for actual Democrats to begin to assert what it means to be a Democrat, and perhaps begin rebuilding the Party’s brand equity. It could take a generation for the party to recover from the damage that Tom Carper has inflicted on it, but I think a recovery is possible. Recovering our sense of what the Democratic Party stands for is therefor, something we should be preparing for. When this execrable vote happens, we need to be ready to use the public disgust with Carper to launch a larger movement to articulate Democratic values.

Just this morning I was thinking that I might register as a Green Party, but just the prospect of this vote – this horrific inevitable vote has sparked something in me that I haven’t felt for a while. It has reminded me of the fact that votes do matter. That Carper is in DC to represent me and my interests. That’s his job. It has fired me up to demand that he do his job for a change.

Thursday Daily Delawhere [1.8.15]

Filed in Delaware, National by Delaware Dem on January 8, 2015 • 0 Comments

The Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes.

Dog Bites Man: Carney Votes to Gut Dodd-Frank.

Filed in Delaware by El Somnambulo on January 7, 2015 • 6 Comments

If this guy wants to be our next Democratic governor, the least he could do is at least pretend to be a Democrat. The bill almost passed, thanks in part to Carney’s supposed bipartisanship.

Maybe he’ll hold a REAL town meeting where someone can ask him how a Democrat votes to screw citizens while giving carte blanche to huge financial institutions that demonstrate time and time again that they will use the lack of regulation to make obscene piles of money by winning a rigged game. A game that the Carneys of this world help rig.

Maybe a real newspaper would ask him the same question. Too bad we no longer have one.

Wednesday Daily Delawhere [1.7.15]

Filed in Delaware, National by Delaware Dem on January 7, 2015 • 0 Comments

From Sky Jack.

Tuesday Open Thread [1.5.15]

Filed in Delaware, National by Delaware Dem on January 6, 2015 • 9 Comments

Wall Street Journal: “Six is the number of Democratic senators that Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s new Republican Majority Leader, will have to woo over to his side to reach the 60 votes needed to break filibusters. Republicans have 54 seats and therefore a majority in the new Senate, which is nice for them. But it doesn’t guarantee much of anything, because most items of importance can be filibustered to death, and breaking a filibuster requires a super-majority of 60 votes.”

Tom Carper will always be available for anything that Mitch McConnell asks for, because BIPARTISANSHIP!, so really, the GOP has 55 Senators. Joe Manchin will likely join a lot too, so 56. I imagine Joe Donnelly of Indiana is reachable too. 57. On certain issues, given her red state-ness, Heidi Hietkamp of North Dakota is gettable. 58. But really, that’s it. All the traitorous red-state moderate Dems either got beat or retired last year.

But there is always Tom Carper. BIPARTISANSHIP!!!!

Terms End and Begin Today

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on January 6, 2015 • 3 Comments

Outgoing Treasurer Flowers delivered a goodbye press conference to all yesterday (which you can listen to here if you are a masochist or willing), and he warned the residents of Massachusetts that he will soon run for office there.

Outgoing Beau Biden bid farewell in an op-ed to the News Journal yesterday.

Their replacements get sworn in today.

Tuesday Daily Delawhere [1.6.15]

Filed in Delaware, National by Delaware Dem on January 6, 2015 • 1 Comment

The Ryves Holt House on Second Street in Lewes, built in 1685, making it the oldest building in the state.

Politics is Petty

Filed in Delaware by jason330 on January 5, 2015 • 35 Comments

Nancy Willing at Delaware Way has been all over this and I’m sure El Som will be into the nitty gritty of how and why Kowalko was bounced from the Chairmanship of Energy and from the Education Committee. All I can really add is that Jack Markell seems to really hate John Kowalko on a personal level.

I had heard stories from early in Jack’s tenure and I chalked it up to hyperbole, but it gets hard to ignore stories when confirming evidence starts to pile up.