Thursday’s Open Thread

As I get ready to visit an old rat whose fondness of children is too Jacksonesque for my taste and his friend, a mumbling duck who is a bit too…

Women Should Not Have This Fear

As a man, sometimes I forget how tough it is to be a woman. Seriously, no joke here. Stop Street Harassment, a blog for women about the constant harassment they…

Two Delaware Programs Included in Harvard Top 50 Innovation List

Two Programs from Delaware — the City of Wilmington’s Instant Ticketing Program and the State of Delaware’s K-5 Early Intervention Program — have made it to Harvard’s Top 50 Government Innovation List for 2009. The list is developed by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Top 50 was selected from more than 600 applicants from city, county, state, federal, and tribal government agencies. These 50 are in competition for the Innovations in Government Awards that will be announced in September. The two Delaware programs in competition:

  • Instant Ticket Program; City of Wilmington, DE — The Instant Ticket Program allows Code Enforcement Inspectors in Wilmington to issue instant $50 fines, similar to parking tickets, upon property owners who violate sanitation laws.
  • K-5 Early Intervention Program; State of Delaware — Delaware’s K-5 Early Intervention Program provides intensive school and home-based services to at-risk children and families, preventing the future need for more expensive interventions by removing barriers to academic and social success. (This program is also shortlisted for a Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform.)

This is good news for these two programs, but if you look at the entire list (pdf file), it is chock full of good ideas that you could imagine being really good for us too:

Video from the Markell Event

Jack Markell discusses the stimulus, Vince Meconi and civil unions.  This should put to rest any idea that he is wishy-washy on civil unions. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnh7IwaO81c[/youtube]

Coffee and Talking Education with the Governor

I could never be a reporter, mainly because I would never meet a deadline.  That said, I am very good at mulling things over – which I’ve done for the last 24 hours and have finally decided to write about part of the meeting that hasn’t, as yet, been discussed:  Education.

There’s been a lot of debate over the number of school districts in Delaware and whether or not consolidating them would be an effective way to cut costs.  Governor Markell stated that while he’s not prepared, today, to reduce the number of school districts, the option is on the table.

Now, while I think nineteen school districts in a state the size of Delaware is excessive, I’m not ready to shrink this number without serious debate.  On the surface, I can readily support trimming down the number of administrative overlaps that come with having this many districts, (which, often times, strikes me more as fiefdoms designed to benefit those making big salaries) but I don’t support making any move without all the facts.  Obviously, I’m generalizing with the fiefdom comment, but given how many sacrifices our children are asked to make – from over crowded classrooms to lack of textbooks – I’d really prefer it if the next cost saving education plan didn’t take place in the classroom.

HB 17 Passes the House

From the GA website: This Act is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment which eliminates the existing five-year waiting period before eligible felons who have fully discharged their sentences…