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.
Recently, Delaware legislators have been saying things like “We need to hold the power companies accountable to their customers” or “We need to hold hospitals accountable for the cost to their customers and the state” or “We need to hold teachers accountable for these students’ poor performances.” What we really need is to hold the legislature accountable.
Delaware’s public policies are costing Delawareans lots of money. While the legislature is looking for someone else to blame, it needs to look in the mirror.
Let’s take energy costs. Electricity costs have increased substantially in Delaware and particularly recently. Some have argued it was the cold weather in January; others that it was the electric grid operators’ fault. But the reality is that our energy costs could be much cheaper. Several issues increased cost and reduced supply. First, the state required the power companies to source huge and growing portions of electric power from renewable resources. Because Delaware does not generate very much power at all, including from renewable resources, the power companies had to go to other states and import the power. Part of the power is lost in the course of the distance it is transmitted, and of course, the cost is more expensive than if Delaware were to generate the energy itself. Then, the state shut down the power plant in Millsboro (which produced energy about as clean as any coal-powered plant could) even earlier than planned and before it replaced, from other sources, the electricity that was lost from the shutdown. Finally, the electric car mandate is going to continue to create demand — it is scheduled to hit us hard in the next year or two. Legislators also pushed for offshore wind, which costs between six and 12 times more, depending on whom you talk to, than the cost of generating electricity on land. The bottom line is that our energy policy is not sound, not rooted in common sense and isn’t consumer-friendly.
Now, let’s look at education. Delaware spends, per pupil, in the top 10 of all states. Education is nearly one-third of the entire state budget. Yet the state is ranked in the bottom three based on student performance. And, while the issue did not arise during the pandemic, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard — a report of a collaboration between Harvard and Stanford universities — between 2019-24, Delaware was 49th in the country in recovering math performance by students to 2019 levels and 47th in the nation in reading. Further, though Delaware saw some recovery of math competency between 2022-24, reading scores did not reflect any recovery at all. The former governor put $8 million into the budget for literacy specialists, and the current governor retained that expenditure, but the state has increased spending for years, with decreasing student performance. There are states that have changed lives by changing their policies with regard to reading. In Mississippi, which was 49th or 50th (until Delaware replaced it), officials passed a law that a pupil had to read at third grade level to go to fourth grade. That state is now 21st in the nation because its children can read. You can’t learn if you can’t read. The answer is not more money (Delaware spends as much per student as Massachusetts, which ranks first in the country); the answer is changing what the state is doing, how it defines goals and setting specific objectives. There are good teachers, good parents and good kids out there who are not getting the support they need to achieve the results that they’re aiming for. The legislature could change the world for those students. Implement the Mississippi plan.
As related above, the legislature has said it wants to hold utility companies accountable to their customers by restricting their ability to raise rates. This is much like what the state is now doing with hospital facilities. It has established a politically appointed governing authority to review hospital budgets and to exercise authority to direct or curtail spending as that body determines. While the legislators claim that they want health care in Delaware to be accessible, available and affordable, current policies achieve none of those objectives. What will accomplish it is more competition. The legislature should remove the certificate of need (now called the “certificate of public need”). You may not realize it, but there is actually a law in Delaware that says you can’t add a capability, such as a new technology, or build a facility for health care without the permission of a group of people — again, politically appointed — most of whom are already in the business of providing health care. Study after study have shown that accessibility to health care is restricted, and the cost of health care is higher, in states where this law is in effect.
The bottom line is this: The General Assembly is not serving Delaware citizens well. It is mandating that entities, other than itself, exercise good judgment, prudence and care in how they conduct their business, but it has not shown the same restraint and responsibility in how it conducts the state’s. Delaware should adopt accountable objectives for teaching kids to read. You can’t learn if you can’t read. It should allow competition in health care, to expand the number of doctors and services that are available to Delaware citizens at a lower cost. And it should remove the mandates and restrictions that are causing energy prices to be so high. The state has a ravenous appetite. It needs to trim the legislature’s desire to spend our money without accountability and without regard to the real impact it has on real people living and doing business in Delaware.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
