The Delaware plan Pt. 2
May 6th, 2008 by DavidAnderson
An important part of the plan is education reform. Idea #4- Improve our public schools by empowering parents through expanding school choice and charter schools.
Idea #5- Require that at least 70% of education expenditures are spent directly in the classroom where it will benefit the students. Entirely too much money is being wasted on
administration and bureaucracy.
Idea #6- Help children with discipline problems by removing them from the classroom and providing them an opportunity for alternative education where they cannot disrupt the
education of other students.
Idea #7- Implement merit incentive pay for Delaware’s teachers. Our highest performing teachers should receive the highest compensation.
I believe all of these ideas have good potential. I think this is one area where the party should be bolder. It hinted “implementation of the most promising parts of the well-researched and bold Vision 2015 Plan. Vision 2015 is bold. I would love to see our platform grab people by the lapels and get them talking. This doesn’t do it. It does provide a starting point, however for individual campaigns to flesh out without getting bogged down in controversial detail. I think it lays down two important markers. We will stand by the charter schools and we are willing to look at bold reform. Considering it is a consensus document, I will give it a “B”.
The next area is limiting spending. Delaware’s $20,000 a household government is the most lavish in the 48 contiguous states. Now, we are finding it an unsustainable mess.
The plan calls for reviewing all expenses to find waste. fraud, and abuse. It also calls for the streamlining of state payroll through “natural attrition”. The additional ideas are as follows.
Idea #8- Pass a Taxpayers Bill of Rights, which would limit
budget growth to the rate of inflation plus the percentage of
population growth.
Idea #9- The governor should be given a line-item veto over
spending bills, which could only be overridden by a supermajority
of 2/3 of both houses of the General Assembly.
Idea #10- Keep Delaware’s dollars in Delaware. Government
spending should remain in Delaware unless there is a compelling
cost or competitive advantage for an out-of-state contractor.
The only one I find lacking is 9. Increasing the majority from 3/5’s to 2/3’s is not worth the effort. It is almost worded like we don’t have a line item veto. I take points off for poor gamesmanship. Sunsetting and consolidating duplicate programs would be better.
Number 8, however is bold enough to make a real difference if designed properly. It is a big idea. Overall, I give this section a “B”.
“Delaware’s $20,000 a household government is the most lavish in the 48 contiguous states.”
You should reword this, David. We have the 3rd-highest STATE government spending; when state and local taxes are combined, we slip on that list, though we remain in the Top 10. This makes a difference because few states fund education mainly through the state, as we do. Most rely more on property taxes, which as you know are low in Delaware because the state pays the school freight.
Also, I think #8 has to include some sort of clause that gives us an out when unfunded federal mandates come down the pike.