Brady: Transparency is key to good government
Jane Brady is the chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as state attorney general and as a judge of the Delaware Superior Court.
We at A Better Delaware place priority on the transparency and accountability of our state government. Our representatives’ obligations, when we elect them, are to represent our interests, spend our money wisely (it is our money) and inform us about the actions they plan to take and why. And we expect them to listen to and hear our views. In the best of circumstances, they actually act according to our views.
Representative government works better in the light of day. Our state fails to work the best for us when it does not let us know what laws and regulations are being formulated and where and how our money is being spent.
Recent events point out the importance of transparency. For nearly a year, one state agency knew there was embezzlement of its funds and failed to report it publicly. We learned about it when an independent auditor could not determine how much money had passed through the agency, nor where it was spent.
Even more recently, it came to light that the former speaker of the House of Representatives asked staff to sign confidentiality (or nondisclosure) agreements to protect “pending legislation” and “legislative projects,” among other things. Those topics are directly within the duties and responsibilities they have to us in their positions.
To find out what our Department of Education is doing is a frustrating journey. Recently, the information about academic performance, if you know where to look, is easier to find, but how and where our money is spent by that agency is in dark corners that are difficult to find.
We know that our public schools spend, on average, more than $22,000 per student per year and even more in lower-performing schools. We know that the budget for public schools has ballooned over the past 10 years. And we know that there are more than a dozen schools in which fewer than 10 out of 100 students read or perform math at grade level.
We need accountability in our public schools, much like we require in our charter schools (which are technically public schools because they charge no tuition, but they are separately managed).
Every five years, charter schools have to seek renewal of permission to operate from the Department of Education. They must prove they are meeting the expectations they established when they were granted authority to open, such as financial stability, academic performance, staff credentials and the content of their curriculum.
Candidly, if every public school had to show effective performance, as the charter schools do, our state would not be ranked 47th out of 50 in student reading and math. The proof is in the student achievement in our charter schools, which greatly exceeds other public schools in almost every instance. No school should be exempt from the scrutiny we give to our charter schools. The new governor, teacher union and parents should unite to demand such a rigorous review and put remediation plans in place to give the students, whom parents entrust to the state schools, their best chance at a good future and success. Let’s hold government accountable to actually do what it is now only pretending to do in too many instances.
In addition to transparency, we expect accountability from our elected officials. In large part, that means that they fairly represent our views and priorities. Our state government has woefully failed us when it comes to the electric vehicle mandate. Overwhelmingly, Delawareans oppose a mandate that, as presently enacted, would restrict access to gasoline-powered cars and, ultimately, require the replacement of the majority of them with electric cars in only a few years. Our current, and soon former, governor chose instead to listen to a few and guide his policies based on national trends, as opposed to Delawareans’ preferences. The new, incoming governor should revoke the mandate.
Finally, when we talk about government operating best in the light of day, nothing could be more ironic than having the legislature go underground, literally. The General Assembly has approved the expenditure of millions of dollars to build a parking garage next to Legislative Hall. Maybe not a bad idea for the public, as most of the area’s parking spaces are designated to specific legislators and their staffs. But included in the plans is a tunnel from the garage to Legislative Hall, for the sole use of our legislators, not the public. They will be able to go from their cars to the building in which they do the public’s business without the need to engage with a single constituent. That is not transparent, and it is not accessible. Let your legislator know you oppose the tunnel and support constituent interaction and transparency in government. After all, you should expect nothing less.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
