Jack Markell on Education

Delaware Governor-Elect

State provided public schools deserve improvement

Our commitment to improving K-12 education is clear and constant--because it gives children a much better chance to graduate ready to succeed in the work world. Our commitment to early childhood education is becoming more clear as well-- because children need every opportunity to show up, ready to learn, ready to succeed, and ready to make the most of the great public schools our state provides-- all critical components to keep our state, moving forward. Source: 2011 gubernatorial press release, "Early Education" , Oct 14, 2011

Improve charter schools, teachers, and accountability

Efforts to improve education continued with legislation to reform the charter school system, better enable schools to attract the best teachers, improve the state's ability to measure the impact of education initiatives, and ensure that services for children with disabilities are more equitably and effectively delivered.

These reforms will help us improve accountability and react more quickly and effectively when a school is in trouble.

Source: 2011 gubernatorial press release, "Legislative Session" , Jul 1, 2011

Ensure we have the best possible public schools

[We will work] with Delaware's excellent educators to ensure we have the best possible public schools. Employers want to know that their children will have a great place to learn and that our schools will graduate young people ready to thrive in the work world. Our students today are graduating into a job environment far different from what their parents faced. They are competing with graduates from around the world for jobs and we are competing with governments to help make those opportunities available Source: 2011 Delaware State of the State Address , Jan 20, 2011

Evaluate whether charter schools are becoming segregated

Delaware students and families can choose to attend any public school in the country, making our system one of the only comprehensive public school choice programs in the country. We are ranked 3rd in the country in the percentage of children who attend charter schools. After over a decade of operation for both programs, I will ensure the following evaluations are made:

Are the programs working as intended or not?
Are school choice and charter schools helping or hurting the ability of existing public school districts to offer quality programs?
Are the Charter schools and public schools becoming “segregated?”
How do we deal with construction financing for charter schools?

We need to seriously review how well charter schools are inter-district transfers are serving the needs of all Delaware families. And we need parents to understand their options for utilizing charter schools--a deficit identified in Opportunity Knocks. Source: Campaign website, www.markell.org, “Issues” , Nov 4, 2008

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Page last updated: Nov 23, 2011