Terrell A. Williams of Middletown is an attorney.
Does it feel like Groundhog Day in Delaware?
Have we been in a constant state of déjà vu since Dale Wolf left the governor’s mansion in January 1992?
You’re probably wondering, “What the hell is he talking about?” Let me explain.
In the famous words of Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors: “I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold. It’s gonna be gray. And it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.”
Believe me, Phil wasn’t lying.
For more than three decades, Delaware’s Democratic gubernatorial campaigns have repeatedly returned to the same foundational issues: education, economic development, healthcare, public safety, environmental protection, government accountability and assistance for working families, while promising that new leaders, new investments and new reforms would produce better outcomes. Delaware has not had a Republican elected governor since Mike Castle was chosen for the post in 1988. Here is a little-known fact: Dale Wolf was the last Republican to serve and hold the governor’s office.
The names have changed. The promises have changed. The campaign slogans have even changed. But the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s blueprint has remained the same.
Tell me if this sounds familiar.
Since Tom Carper’s 1992 campaign for governor, Delaware Democratic gubernatorial campaigns have all repeatedly emphasized education, economic development and jobs, healthcare, environmental protection, government reform, public safety and assistance for working families and vulnerable populations as key platform issues. Carper’s original campaign blueprint is particularly important because it establishes many of the themes that recur decades later. In 1992, he identified education, welfare reform, healthcare and families as major priorities. He also called for making Delaware more attractive for businesses, improving healthcare access, protecting natural resources and reforming government ethics. More than 30 years later, Matt Meyer’s 2024 gubernatorial campaign again emphasized education, affordable housing, healthcare, jobs, environmental protection, public safety, criminal justice reform, police accountability and ethical/transparent government.
Gov. Meyer is no different than the assembly line of past Democratic governors and the regurgitated party talking points from yesteryear. Let that sink in, as we examine the inept history of Delaware’s Democratic governors: 34 years of Democratic leadership in the state’s highest office, many of those years with a party control of all three branches of government. We have witnessed carbon copy Democratic governors use the same rhetoric, the same tactics, the same promises and with many of the same outcomes, and what do we have to show for it?
Thirty-plus years of the same disappointing results! Every Delaware governor since 1992 has served two terms in office, many enjoying friendly state legislatures willing to rubber-stamp many of their legislative ideas. Yet Delaware’s reputation for affordability, business development/growth and jobs appears more fiction than truth.
So, I guess the question I am asking is: Have Delawareans benefited from the continuous Democratic leadership cycle, as one would imagine they would, given such a long, uninterrupted history of one-party leadership in the state’s highest office?
Well, let’s just say the results have been mixed at best and disappointing at worst.
Delaware’s public education system has consistently missed the mark, despite 34 years of campaign promises.
Delaware’s public education system has remained stuck in mediocrity under Democratic leadership.
For more than three decades, Delaware’s public education system has struggled to maintain mediocrity, while our neighboring states are home to some of the nation’s top-performing public schools and school districts.
Though Delaware has periodically ranked well in some regional education report cards, its actual K-12 public school achievements have often trailed those of many Democratic-led states nationally in overall rankings.
Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress results also place Delaware among the lowest-performing states in several key categories, including math, reading and writing.
For years, Democratic policymakers have controlled the governor’s office, the General Assembly and much of the state’s education apparatus, yet Delaware continues to face persistent racial disparities in academic achievement, inequitable educational opportunities, teacher shortages, poor student performance and increasingly difficult classroom conditions. The problem is complicated by a lack of substantive education policies and an outdated funding formula.
Delaware’s public education system has not had meaningful change since the end of racial segregation. However, segregation remains prevalent in Delaware’s public education system, as economic segregation creates a messy logistical nightmare of incoherent boundaries and borders between Delaware’s 19 school districts. Instead of Delaware’s governors focusing on countywide school districts to eliminate barriers to comprehensive public school education, the state has doubled down on reinforcing remnants of Jim Crow’s segregation by weaponizing a funding formula against poor and disenfranchised communities, and depriving the state’s public schools of the resources needed to consistently achieve tangible academic standards. This failure to produce measurable results and confront long-standing inequities has been the ugly legacy of Delaware’s Democratic governors since 1992.
Meyer’s leadership so far has produced only miniscule improvements for Delaware’s public schools, according to recent reports, while local school districts continue to burden taxpayers with yearly referenda to supplement budgets weighed down by administrative costs and salaries — costs that do not directly influence classroom learning or outcomes. Moreover, the average Delaware public school superintendent makes around $200,000 a year. That is for 19 separate school districts of various sizes and needs. That amounts to $3.8 million tied up in administrative salaries, which does not include the salaries of each superintendent’s leadership cadre.
When I was on the campaign trail, I would often say that the value of our public school system should be tied to our students’ ability to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery exam. If our schools cannot graduate students who are able to pass the military entrance exam, then the system is failing!
After 34 years of failed Democratic leadership, our education system is failing.
I told you Phil was not lying!
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
