Do you have as much integrity as New York Governor David Paterson? From the New York Times (via Waldo ): On May 14, Mr. Paterson’s legal counsel, David Nocenti, wrote a memo to all state agency heads that directed them to evaluate their policies and begin rewriting them so they comply with a state appeals court decision that said New York must recognize gay marriages performed in other jurisdictions like Canada and California. At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Paterson repeated the directive and said that although he supports gay marriage and will continue to push for it in the future, this was not an “end run around the Legislature” but merely his interpretation of current laws on the books. “I’m following the law as it always has existed,” he said. Asked to respond to critics of the directive, he said, “I would suggest that if they went back and read the law, that they would come to a different interpretation themselves, even if they disagree with the concept of marria...

. . . here they are. I'm not sure if releasing them on April Fools Day was an intentional ploy by the Department of Education or not. At any rate, lovely page after page of wonkish stats . For the deeply concerned, according to the Feds, the average per-pupil expenditure is $9,138 per year; Delaware spends $11,633 (8th highest in the nation). In purely instructional costs, we're 7th, at $7,096 per pupil. The neat thing about bureaucracy is that you can publish all these stats and have them be meaningless without knowing what you're getting in terms of student performance. For that you have to visit the National Center for Education Statistics , which will compare our math, reading, science, and writing scores at 4th and 8th Grades against national averages on NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] tests. And that's about what we are . . . average. 4th Grade Math DE 240/US 237 8th Grade Math DE 281/US 278 4th Grade Reading DE 226/US 217 8th Grade Reading ...

Regular readers will recall that I recently posted An Open Letter to Mr. Michael E. Szymanczyk, Chairman & CEO, The Altria Group, regarding the return of the $708,000 of our tax money that Governor Ruth Ann Minner gave away to Kraft General Foods within a week of announcing that every public school district in the state would have to cough up $8-10 million in budget cuts. I sent the letter directly to Mr Szymanczyk (no answer yet) and also to the Contributions & Communities section of the Altria Group. They, at least, have answered. Sort of. Here is the text of the response: Thank you for requesting support from Altria Group, Inc. for Children of Kraft General Foods . Altria Group's contributions program focuses on supporting organizations in the areas of hunger relief, domestic violence prevention, and the arts. All of our grant making is conducted through an invitation only application process. Only organizations with which we have a funding history are eligible to app...

. . . then he's going to have to denounce Ruth Ann's $708,000 giveaway to Kraft Foods at the same moment she's demanding tens of millions of dollars back from every school district in the State . But he won't do that, because he can't. And that's why he won't be governor.

(My twelve-year-old daughter's observations will be in bold . They are probably much better than mine, anyway.) The setting: every education bureaucrat and party hack on the make all in one place. Damn few "just voters." Mike Protack standing in the third row, facing the crowd and trying to find someone to chat with. The short version: Markell and Carney agree on the following: the DSTP should be scrapped; no funding parity for charters (but at least Dave Burris got his question in); Gifted/Talented education is a must; good teachers are a must; we love minorities and the disadvantaged; got to spend a lot more money on education; can't scrap property taxes; there are a lot of teachers in my family, and I learned to name-drop at a very early age.... My daughter liked Markell: sez the same thing as the other guy but at least he keeps me awake . She's not so hot on Carney: he's kinda robotic and (kinda mean) but also a sissy . Hey, I don't write her ...

A few days ago I was actually contemplating a post called "Dave Burris is the Anti-Christ," in which I intended to point out that the former Sussex County Republican Chairman has singlehandedly become one of the biggest obstacles to the disintegration of the GOP in Delaware. (As an advocate that the Libertarian Party grow and take over the role of one of the two major parties in the First State I need the Republicans to keep shooting themselves in the foot. Dave has not been obliging me.) Now, in the wake of Al Levin's abrupt exit from the Republican field, circumstances would now apparently leave Mike Protack flying alone (in far more ways than one) if somebody else didn't step up. So Dave Burris is considering that challenge . I'll be frank: a Republican winning the governorship in Delaware this year is a looonng shot, a very loooonnnnggg shot, especially if Jack Markell wins the Democratic nomination. Registrations alone--not the mention Markell's overf...