In today's News-Journal John Young endorses Libertarian position on elected State Board of Education

It should be emphasized that John is endorsing an idea, not a candidate, but it is also worth noting that Libertarian positions in this year's Delaware elections--from openly supporting marriage equality, to ending the war on drugs (see the political cartoon in today's WNJ which isn't up on the website yet), to an elected State Board--are rapidly gaining traction and forcing Demopublicans to deal with the fact that they haven't really had an original (or gutsy) position in state politics since . . . forever.

From the letters:

The recent excellent reporting by The News Journal on the crisis of confidence at Pencader Charter High School has exposed a fissure in Delaware government accountability: the appointed State Board of Education.

Delawareans deserve a responsive government. Currently the Delaware Department of Education, unlike other states, is run by a gubernatorial appointment: Secretary of Education. This person then is accountable to the State Board of Education, also appointed by the governor. There is no direct electoral link to the operations of our Department of Education. The result: plodding and slow reaction to situations like Pencader. An elected board could easily be directly lobbied by the voting public into calling a meeting within seven days to respond to the new challenges at the school.

Recently our state’s Libertarian candidates have endorsed the concept of an elected State Board of Education that would, among other duties, hire/fire a newly created replacement position of state Superintendent of Education, removing both the Board of Education and Chief DOE officer positions from the politics of the Governor’s office.

I ardently support this idea, particular as Pencader continues its struggles in real time with no obvious public action in sight.

John Young

Newark

Comments

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

Search This Blog