Tag: Featured
EDIT: City of Wilmington Mayoral Cattle Call — Announcement Season Edition 2015
This is the first Cattle Call I’ve written for the Wilmington Mayor’s race, even though there has been a fair amount of public positioning and “listening” going on among potential candidates. My work has taken up way too much of my time over the past several months, but it is well past time to start thinking about the folks who say they are running and who are “thinking” of running. What is interesting right now, is that so very many candidates are declaring and are circling around declaring for what would be Mayor Dennis Williams’ second term. This is a field that you would expect to see when a politician is term-limited out and the field is open, OR you would see this kind of field when the incumbent is widely seen as incredibly weak and mostly a failure. There’s been a rush of candidates declaring recently, so let’s take a look at the field so we can talk about this again come the New Year.
Come Home, Joe.
I was in line to pick up my lunch order in Philadelphia at around noon. I looked up to the TV in the shop, tuned always and thankfully to MSNBC, and I see a live shot of an empty podium in the White House Rose Garden. The red Breaking News chyron at the bottom of the screen informs me that we are awaiting a “statement” from the Vice President. Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell are breathlessly speculating that if this is a Presidential campaign announcement, the expected presence of the President along side the Vice President during his announcement would be a massive rebuke to Hillary Clinton. I suppose it never crossed their mind that no Vice President in their right mind would announce a campaign from the Rose Garden, and no President would allow him to do it while there was an active campaign in his party. But you would announce you are not running. So I immediately assumed, correctly, that the Vice President was going to announce he was not running, while our wonderful liberal media continued to engage in their favorite game for a few more minutes.
It was the same game we have all engaged in for months if not years. The speculation over whether Joe Biden would mount a third campaign for President.
He was never going to.
How Wilmington’s Leadership Keeps The Tale of Two Wilmingtons Narrative Alive
This time, I ask you to compare the reactions to two important developments:
2016 Democratic Debate Thread
Share your thoughts with us as you watch.
The debate begins at 8:30 on CNN.
Nobody Wins in a Zero-Sum Game
If you have been following anything related to funding public schools in Delaware, you probably know that the system is severely broken and there are major changes being talked about. The Wilmington Education Improvement Commission is talking about needs-based funding (or weighted-student funding) and reallocation of the existing money in the system. Others are talking about changes to the equalization funding formula that’s been frozen for about 20 years. Some are talking about property reassessment. So who’s right? The short answer is: everyone, partially.
Opposite Day
I thought long and hard about what topic to make my inaugural post on DL about. There were so many choices. Trump, Cruz, education, anything Delaware like the new Financial Review Committee that Markell created, the Pope. I started an education post and then thought to myself, there will be plenty of time for that, I should write about something that’s a hot topic right now and that won’t be around forever, a 15 minutes of fame type subject. I’ve got it! KIM DAVIS. Yes, she’s still “relevant” and her 15 minute BBC (Bigoted Bible-toting Christian) segment is not quite up yet.
Welcome our Newest Contributor, Brian!
I would like to both welcome and introduce Brian Stephan as our newest contributor here at Delaware Liberal. He may be familiar to all of you from his own blog, Those in Favor. He volunteers for the Christina School District on the Citizen’s Budget Oversight Committee and has been writing great pieces on education in Delaware. That is how he came to our attention. I’ll let Brian speak for himself:
Father of three, husband to one. Several years ago I reached the conclusion that I wanted to become involved in public service somehow. I had no idea where to start or what to do so I let the desire cool over the years until October 2013 when my wife happened to mention that the school district we reside in was looking for volunteers to serve on something called their Citizen’s Budget Oversight Committee. I had no idea what that was about, so I found out by showing up to a meeting. Citizen’s Budget Oversight Committee (CBOC) is an all-volunteer team that functions as an extension of the District Board of Education and reviews financial matters relating to the district on behalf of the board. We meet monthly to review district financial reports to ensure they align with expectations and make any and all inquiries relating to the financial operations of the district. Monthly reports are given to the Board of Education summarizing the district’s financial position and CBOC’s support of the financial information provided by the district CFO and the State of Delaware. […]
Education is the most important service we provide to our children and I’m honored to play a small part in providing that service.
But now Brian is spreading his blogging wings here at Delaware Liberal, and all of us look forward to his first post… which is right now!.
Guest Post: Crossroads Wants to Tell Its Own Story
Crossroads and its principals have been much in the news recently and subject of a recent post here. Since Crossroads was not contacted in the recent post here, I offered them the chance to tell their story, themselves. That is the guest post from Alberta Crowley that follows. I’m also going to be clear that I know that Crossroads is doing incredible work with a population that is never well served — urban poor kids with mental health and addiction issues. They’ve certainly had their problems — with recent unethical behavior and with a long-running tug-of-war with the state over resources to serve these kids. I’m interested in helping these kids and the people who do — which is why I’m posting Crossroads story here.
Carney Jumps in the Gov. Race, Expect the Musical Chair Race to Accellerate
Congressman John Carney (D) filed paperwork today to launch his campaign for governor next year.
“This is an opportunity to serve and meet the challenges that we face here in Delaware,” Carney said during an exclusive interview with The News Journal on Wednesday. “They are frankly challenges that every community and every state in the country faces right now.”
Carney, 59, who will bring deep government experience to next year’s race, said his campaign will focus on restoring Delaware’s middle class, improving public education and addressing Delaware’s budget issues. […]
The Paper of Record notes Carney’s long experience in government, with his connections to both Senator Carper and Senator Biden, and that it really was supposed to be Beau Biden running next year.
Carney spoke with the vice president by phone a little more than two weeks ago. Carney said he wanted to consult with the vice president about his plans to seek the governor’s office.
“This opportunity to serve comes because of the vice president and his family’s worst nightmare, which is Beau’spassing,” Carney said. “It’s a very personal thing. I just needed to know that he was comfortable with it. He could not have been better, he encouraged me to run. I can tell you it’s lifted a huge burden off my shoulders in terms of making that decision.”
Biden called Carney again Wednesday morning to wish him well, the congressman said.
Comment Rescue: Dorian Gray, Education And The Uncomfortable Truth
I keep going back to Dorian’s comment on my Education post. Here is what he said:
This Barbieri Business Does. Not. Look. Good.
I’ve made no secret of my opinion that Mike Barbieri was one of the most effective legislators in Dover during his time there. A serious legislator with the willingness to build coalitions to pass progressive legislation that helps some of our most vulnerable citizens.
Having said that, the relationships between Barbieri, his company (Crossroads of Delaware), the state, and his recent hiring by the state raise all sorts of questions that require answers.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Poverty And The Smarter Balanced Assessment
Last week LiberalGeek took a comment I posted about the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) scores and turned it into a graph. Now we have many graphs and charts.
Inside you will find charts of the four districts that serve city of Wilmington students (click on charts inside to enlarge). You will also find a chart of Charter Schools. Pay attention to the trend lines. Some are more obvious than others. Before I continue, let me say this: I do not support the SBA, but since we’ll be using these scores to judge and label students, teachers and schools we need to look at the data. This test will have consequences.
We Stand with the Democratic Six.
Last year, the budget deficit, which fluctuated between $60 and 83 million dollars, could have been solved by the implementation of new progressive tax rates on the wealthy alone. But we did nothing and now we have double the budget deficit. That was the main objection of the Democratic Six to the budget that passed last year. Their no votes were a reflection of disappointment that the can was kicked down the road.
Guess what? Pete Schwartzkopf is not that strong of a kicker. Because “down the road” is January 2016. That’s about 100 days from now. And no one time settlement money or budget gimmicks is going to balance the budget this year. And Pete Schwartzkopf is going to have to get over his hurt feelings, and not engage in petty retaliation against the six. Instead, he is going to have to follow their lead on the budget. We did it your way last year, Pete. Now we are going to do it our way.
