On Monday, I released the second part of my plan to improve our public schools.  The first part of the plan involved spending our education dollars more efficiently, to ensure that our education funds find their way into the classroom.  The second part of the plan discusses how to spend those dollars: by making our starting teacher salaries more competitive with surrounding states’ salaries, controlling class size, providing teachers with incentives to excel and teach in difficult schools, and emphasizing professional development.  My opponent responded by saying he also thought we should do all those things, but had decided that we couldn’t, so he proposed as an alternative to post school district invoices on the internet.

I think the idea that any problem can be solved by creating a web site is charmingly ‘90s—it makes me want to crank up the Backstreet Boys and over-invest in an internet IPO.  But we all know that making Delaware’s public schools the best in America will require a much more serious commitment than that.  I am a product of Delaware’s public schools, and I believe in them.  My opponent may have given up on them, but I will not.

Campaign For Lieutenant Governor Focusing On Children’s Issues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, July 28, 2008

Wilmington – Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor, announced his plan to “attract the very best teachers to Delaware’s public schools and to create working conditions and classroom environments for those teachers that will nurture real success for students.”

Denn said that the quality of classroom teaching is the single most important factor in the success of public school students and that recruiting good teachers will be critical in the coming years as Delaware faces 2,300 teacher retirements in the next decade.

A four-part plan to attract teachers released by Denn Monday includes:

Making Delaware’s Starting Teacher Salaries The Best In The Region – Salary and benefits for Delaware teachers should be the best in the region, making it the preferred choice for teachers, Denn said.

“Will this cost money? Of course it will. But I expect to use some of the savings that we realize from the plans I proposed several weeks ago [reducing the percentage of education funds spent outside the classroom] to fund this initiative,” Denn said. “We spend millions of dollars a year trying to lure new businesses to our state. It is about time that we realized that if we want to recruit new businesses, we can do that best by recruiting excellent new teachers. Strong schools are the backbone of a strong state economy.”

Controlling Class Size – Not only do small class sizes improve student performance, they make Delaware a more attractive place to teach. Denn said he supports incremental improvements to the state’s class size.

Changing The Way Teachers Are Paid – Denn believes that we must change the way that we compensate teachers, so that teachers who excel in the classroom and teachers who take on additional challenges are rewarded. Denn believes examples in other states illustrate how a plan to bring more accountability can succeed.

“First and foremost, they worked with teachers from the outset in designing their programs. There were disagreements, to be sure, but teachers were involved in the discussions from day one. The second common denominator is that the new compensation system was accompanied by significant new funds—that was the tradeoff, higher compensation for greater accountability,” Denn said.

“Third, several of the programs have significant financial incentives for teachers who are willing to teach in challenging schools. Finally, the rewards are based upon student improvement in the course of a school year, and they are based upon testing methods that have earned parents’ and teachers’ trust.”

Denn said alternative pay plans should initially be piloted in two Delaware school districts in the 2009-2010 school year.

Bolstering Professional Development In The Classroom – Professionals in every other walk of life receive constant training to make sure they are at the top of their game. Denn believes that teachers should be no different. One area where Delaware can improve is in having senior teachers work as mentors in the classroom with their younger peers, reinforcing the skills that have been taught in professional development classes. Education experts have said that this classroom peer mentoring is a critical and overlooked component of professional development, Denn said.

“If we take the steps I discussed several weeks ago to direct money into the classroom, and make public education a priority in the state budget, we should be able to do many of these things without imposing new burdens on taxpayers,” Denn said. “And if we do these four things, we will have put in place the most important building blocks to making Delaware’s schools the best in America.”

Denn has centered his campaign – and will focus in his term as Lieutenant Governor – on issues affecting children, including education, health care, environmental issues and improving services to children who are abused, neglected, living in foster care, or fighting to overcome disabilities.

To learn more about Matt Denn and his campaign, go to www.MattDenn.com.

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We are having one of our usual, hectic Monday mornings at the Denn household, so the weekend update today will be somewhat abbreviated.

Unquestioned highlight of the weekend: after visiting the State Fair in Harrington and the Stonewall Democrats annual fundraiser in Rehoboth, the boys and I headed to the boardwalk where they enjoyed a nutritious post-dinner feast of Thrashers fries and soft ice cream and several games of Whac-a-Mole.  (Mrs. Denn stayed home to engage in similar recreational activities such as weeding the garden.)  Because I knew that I was going to change the boys into their pajamas before we got into the car to head home, I didn’t spend too much time trying to clean the food off their clothes.  So if you saw a guy last weekend in a Matt Denn polo shirt walking down Rehoboth Avenue with two three-year-olds whose faces and clothing were smeared with chocolate ice cream and french fry debris, that was me, and thank you for not calling social services.

This video pretty much encapsulates what I’ve been dealing with for the last three-and-a-half years as insurance commissioner.

Denn aims high as he concludes four years regulating insurance industry

The Coastal Point, July 24, 2008

It’s hard to think about health without thinking about health insurance. Besides gas and food, it’s a top priority for most adults. Everything from how to pay for it, to what it covers, to its limitations — health care is a big concern for many Americans and Delawareans. And rightly so — because without your health, what do you have?

Now before you let your eyes glaze over in trying to imagine how you are going to stay awake for an entire article devoted to health insurance, relax — it will be fun! We’re going to meet Matt Denn, Delaware’s insurance commissioner.

Denn was born in Delaware and grew up in the state before moving to California at the beginning of his high-school years, due to his father’s job. After attending undergraduate school in California and law school in Connecticut, he came back to Delaware to settle down. He met his wife, Michele, at the Delaware beaches and proposed at Dolle’s on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach.

Just five days before he was sworn in as insurance commissioner, the couple welcomed their twin sons, Zachary and Adam. The twins were preemies and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before being able to go home.

“I spent the first couple of weeks running the office out of my car, in front of Christiana Hospital,” Denn recalled.

After that rough start to his new position, he found his way and settled in as commissioner. Over the course of the three and a half years he has been in office, some major changes have taken place — changes of which Denn said he is proud.

“I am allowed to regulate some types of insurance — for instance auto rates. Since 2005, average rates have been flat. They had been going up in double digits before I started. In some cases, we have seen decreases and, in most cases, only small single-digit increases.”

Another area Denn can regulate is worker’s compensation rates. “Last year, we cut premiums by about 20 percent.”

Another important thing that Denn has seen accomplished in his term is a change in homeowner’s insurance, something near and dear to those living in coastal Delaware.

“We were the only state in the region where your homeowner’s insurance could be canceled if you had a claim against it. And when you shopped for new insurance, you would be put on a national database and charged a higher rate. For three years, we worked to put at least some restrictions on that and got a bill passed. So we went from last in the country to fifth or sixth toughest in the country.”

Denn said the main changes were that homeowners could have two weather-related claims in a three-year period and at least one non-weather related claim without having to worry about getting dropped or charged more. “And that’s particularly important for people at the beach, who already have limited options,” he emphasized.

Another major success of Denn’s tenure as insurance commissioner has been the passage of a law that restricts insurance companies in how they use consumers’ credit ratings.

“We were last in the country for that in how lax we were, and in two years we have again gotten to be the fifth or sixth toughest state,” explained Denn. “Now, if you are a current customer and something bad happens to your credit, they cannot consider it. It lets us do more for the consumers.”

The job does not come without pitfalls, though. For instance, the commissioner has no authority to regulate health insurance rates. And this is one of the main changes Denn has tried make during his term.

“We are only one of 10 states that doesn’t allow the insurance commissioner to, in some way, regulate health insurance rates,” he said.

That means that, in essence, health insurance rates are unregulated in Delaware.

“It can be frustrating,” said Denn. “There are limitations on what you can do. I have to live within the laws that the General Assembly and the governor enact.”

“We’ve done a good job,” he added of efforts on his end. “For three years, I had a bill to change the law and it passed in the state senate overwhelmingly — but not the House of Representatives. “I would love to have it changed. We really could, or my successor could [make a difference]. It’s not going to fix everything, but it could have some impact. That’s been the only real frustration.”

Denn’s future involves running for lieutenant governor and he maintains that regulation of health insurance in Delaware is an issue he plans to pursue. “You can bet I’ll still be plugging away,” he promised.

Denn suggested that Delawareans who want to encourage their representatives to make changes should visit the department’s Web site to find out about bills set to be considered by legislators and to “put your legislator on the spot.”

“The only way they get passed is if your legislators feel like they are on the spot and are accountable,” he said.

Aside from working for such legislative changes to the system, on a typical day the insurance commissioner can be found regulating what insurance companies that do business in Delaware are doing.

“[This can be done]either in the larger sense — I have imposed some very significant fines on health insurance companies, for example, that failed to pay claims in a timely way — or the individual sense, as in intervening on behalf of individual people who are being treated unfairly.”

Denn oversees a department of 170 to 200 employees and contractors at any given time, and from January to June spends much of his time traveling the state and visiting Legislative Hall, building support to get bills passed in the General Assembly.

“I also spend a lot of time trying to develop regulations and statutes to ensure that people are treated fairly by insurance companies and that our rates stay under control,” he explained.

He pointed out that Delaware taxpayers do not pay for work done by the employees and contractors of the Insurance Commissioner’s Office, including his own salary. Since many of the contractors are doing financial examinations of the many companies that house their businesses in Delaware, the salaries are instead funded by surcharges on those insurance company’s examinations. “We’re the best bargain in the business,” he joked.

Although being insurance commissioner was never really on his radar as a life goal, Denn does feel comfortable in his role in helping people.

“When I was 4 years old, I would lie in bed and dream of being insurance commissioner,” he deadpanned. “No, I always knew I wanted to be involved in public service. I wanted to play professional baseball, but when I was about 11 or 12 I realized that wasn’t in the cards. I can’t say it was a childhood dream [to be insurance commissioner], but even when I was in the private sector I was always doing a lot of public service. So when the opportunity came up in 2004, I jumped on it. And it’s the best job I’ve had. I’m glad I did it.”

Interestingly, in Delaware, insurance commissioner is an elected office. In most states, it is an appointed position. Denn has been in the office since January 2005 and will end his four-year term this December. As for his future, Denn is hopeful no matter what happens.

“Either I’ll be sworn in as lieutenant governor in January or I’ll be back practicing law,” he said.

The News Journal, July 19, 2008

John Carney listens to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Buffett. Jack Markell flips his stereo to Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac.

And while surfing the Web, voters can read about the gubernatorial candidates’ favorite movies and TV shows or just poke fun at them — on Facebook.com that is.

Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are using the popular social-networking Web site to connect with younger voters. Facebook, which allows users to create personal profiles and explore those of others, has become a popular tool among candidates across the country — Barack Obama has more than 1,158,000 supporters on his page and John McCain has connected with about 170,000 users.

“We created a Facebook page because there are a lot of people out there, specifically those millennials, younger potential voters,’ ” Republican lieutenant governor candidate Charlie Copeland said.

Also on the list of Facebook users are Copeland’s opponent, Democrat Matt Denn, and gubernatorial candidates Bill Lee and Mike Protack. Each is taking a different approach to using the Web to reach young voters and each page offers a different approach to political networking.

Scott McConnell, Carney’s spokesperson, said they created a Facebook profile to complement their Web site and other digital efforts.

“I don’t think its something you can ignore,” McConnell said. “We’ve had people come to our campaign asking to volunteer who have said ‘I went to John’s Web site to learn more about him,’ or ‘I really like him, I saw his Facebook page.’ ”

Markell created a profile when he ran for state treasurer in 2006 and has found the Web site a useful tool for connecting with young voters, spokesman Joe Rogalsky said.

“The Facebook group is a recruitment tool to young people who are eligible to vote and also who want to get involved,” Rogalsky said.

Denn has mastered some of the more technical features of Facebook that are popular among the younger users that he is targeting, including adding family photo albums and tributes to Obama and his favorite store, Wawa.

“We have a blog, and I had put a blog post up about how I’m Wawa’s No.1 customer,” Denn said of his frequent stops for coffee while campaigning. “One of the kids on my campaign told me there was a Wawa page.”

Most candidates said they have no concern about sharing too much personal information on their sites, including Denn, who lists controversial musician Amy Winehouse as one of his favorites, an addition he made before her recent public scrutiny.

“I was sad that Amy Winehouse got in all that trouble when it happened, and now I’m even more sad that she’s on my Facebook page,” Denn said.

On Friday afternoon, Copeland expanded his profile from a simple photo and link to his Web site to include his favorite leisure activitiessuch as movie “Cinema Paradiso” that he said likely won’t have a negative impact.

“It’s one more method to reach out to constituents and potential voters and let them know a little about you,” he said.

In addition to profile pages where voters can learn about the candidates, supporters have started groups to join including “Team Carney” and “Jacklings.”

Unlike campaign-run Web sites and blogs, candidates can’t solicit donations on Facebook. But they can share their goals and let users post questions on their virtual “walls.”

Protack said Facebook is just one tool in an arsenal of options his campaign is using to contact young voters. He is also building a MySpace.com page.

Jason O’Neill created Protack’s Facebook support group — which currently includes about five members — as a way for people to connect with the candidate online.

“We saw presidential candidates using it so we rolled one out,” O’Neill said.

While Protack’s page was created by a campaign staffer, members from Lee’s campaign learned about his group after a non-affiliated supporter started it. The “Change Begins Today with Lee-Copeland” group, which posts links to articles about the Republican duo, was started by a voter and now includes about 40 members.

Brud Lee, Bill Lee’s son and campaign spokesman, said they are joining the group as an effort to support the full ticket, not the candidates separately.

The candidates are also seeing support growing in other online networks. Users can “follow” Carney on the miniblog site Twitter.com and a 15-year-old user posted a video blog on YouTube.com supporting Markell.

“Its unfortunate he won’t be 18 by September,” Rogalsky said of the video maker. “It’s a young guy who’s very passionate about Jack, and its great to see young kids involved in the process.”

Numbers are an important factor in the Facebook world that includes more than 80 million active users as groups and members supporting a variety of causes often compete to have the largest membership numbers.

Of the gubernatorial candidates, Markell’s group has 327 members, Carney has 76, Lee about 40 and Protack with the smallest virtual following at five.

“I think its an indication of Jack’s support of how well his message is being received,” Rogalsky said.

McConnell said while Carney’s numbers might seem lower, the campaign is hearing a large response from people claiming to discover the candidate through the site.

And Denn, who has 278 friends on Facebook, compared with his opponent Copeland’s 45, thinks the numbers mean very little.

“I’m sure that Charlie is a lovely guy and has many non-virtual friends,” Denn said.

The News Journal, July 15, 2008

The executive board of the state teachers union couldn’t decide which Democrat would be Delaware’s best governor.

So the Delaware State Education Association, which claims 11,500 members statewide, announced Monday that it endorsed both Lt. Gov. John Carney Jr. and state Treasurer Jack Markell — the first time the association has endorsed two people in the same party’s primary.

The vote of the 26-member board was not unanimous, DSEA spokeswoman Pam Nichols said, and “it was very difficult for people.”

In the end, she said, “the majority felt they could show real leadership by telling people that on these education issues we have two outstanding candidates.”

Board members were sure, though, that they want a Democrat to be governor and either candidate, they decided, is better than the Republican options — retired Superior Court Judge Bill Lee and Hockessin pilot Mike Protack. They were decisive in the lieutenant governor’s race, giving Democratic Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn their nod over Republican Senate Minority Leader Charles Copeland.

The DSEA board found that Carney and Markell both have “outstanding ideas and excellent records when it comes to public education,” President Barbara Grogg said in a prepared release.

Protack was strong on collective bargaining, the board decided, but his understanding of education issues was shallower than either of the Democrats’. And Lee was unable to persuade the board that he had any understanding, offering no specifics and promising only to “start a revolution,” including a reorganization and greater efficiency, according to Grogg’s statement.

“DSEA just declared war on me by making an asinine statement and we’ll go from there,” Lee said. “I am shocked by the tone of their statement. That was not the sense of the meeting I had. But it tells me their attitude. I answered every question they had. To make a statement like that is insulting and asinine.”

Protack was not surprised that DSEA endorsed the Democrats.

“That’s business as usual for them,” he said. “They were receptive to about 90 percent of what I had to say. Consolidation of school districts and support for charter schools probably were not the answers they were looking for, but they are answers most of Delaware is looking for.”

The Democrats were pleased by their endorsements:

“Establishing a world-class school system will be my top priority as governor,” Markell said, “and I’m proud of the tremendous support I enjoy from many teachers. What’s really important in the end is the fact that people throughout the state are looking for a change in direction. It’s going to be up to tens of thousands of individual voters and I will keep doing everything I can to get my message out to them.”

Carney also was pleased to be on the union’s list.

“I grew up in a household with two teachers — my Mom and Dad — and I learned from them the importance of a good education,” he said. “In order to make improvements in our schools, we’re going to have to work with teachers. They are the most important component of a student’s education.”

In the lieutenant governor’s race, the board decided Copeland’s view of education reform was focused on a belief that competition from private and public schools would improve community schools. Denn, they said, had concrete goals and a sound education agenda.

“Matt Denn understands public education from the classroom to the school board conference room like few public officials,” Grogg said in the statement.

Denn said the announcement reaffirms his platform, which has been focused on children’s issues.

“People who are concerned about children’s issues will look at the people who work every day with kids,” Denn said. “I view it as unequivocal good news.”

Copeland said he was not surprised by the announcement, and attributed the decision to his support of school choice and partisan politics.

“For the six years I’ve been in the General Assembly, I have been a constant supporter of school choice, and that sometimes puts me on the opposite side of special interests,” Copeland said.

Copeland voted against Senate Joint Resolution 11, a measure that placed a one-year moratorium on new charter school applications with the exception of five planned schools. DSEA had lobbied heavily for the legislation, which eventually passed.

The News Journal, July 9, 2008

WILMINGTON - Community leaders gathered at a rally Tuesday at Brandywine Park to voice their concern about the lack of health care for needy people

Members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and other community groups participated in the national launch of the $40 million Health Care for America Now campaign that will air television commercials across the country to raise awareness about the lack of accessibility to affordable health care.

Angela Walker, president of the Delaware ACORN, said the campaign will highlight the problems people have getting health insurance and the need for a public health system. Walker said the campaign focuses on the ability to make change by electing officials who will support health care initiatives, but said the organization is not officially endorsing any specific candidates.

The Health Care for America Now campaign will spend about $1.5 million on cable advertisements in the coming weeks and about $25 million in the next five months.

“This is the year America decides,” Walker said. “One thing is crystal clear, if we want affordable health care, we cannot trust private health care companies.”

Walker and members of ACORN were joined by health care professionals, church leaders and elected officials.

Lavaida Owens-White, a nurse who works to establish health ministries, said a better health care system is needed to allow medical professionals to assist those in the most need.

“We need a system in place to support us in forms of acute care and long-term care,” Owens-White said.

Owens-White said people can take the first steps to improving the quality of health care in the state simply by taking the initiative to monitor their own health. People should stay on top of annual health screenings, such as monitoring cholesterol and blood pressure, and can do so at the Wilmington Health Fair in September.

The Rev. Ty Johnson, who represented the Interdenominational Ministers Action Council of Delaware, spoke about the need to organize on a church-level to promote better health care initiatives.

Johnson said accessibility issues are more important for those who can’t afford health care, particularly the elderly and young people just starting careers.

Johnson said IMAC is working to organize churches to catalog problems their members face regarding health care accessibility, specifically working with private insurance companies and Medicare. They are then going to take the records to elected officials to try to encourage changes in the law

Johnson said churches also can work to help members organize letter-writing campaigns to inform elected officials about their concerns.

Some of the elected officials who Johnson hopes to reach were present at the rally.

Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn, who is running for lieutenant governor, attended the rally and said the biggest impact people can have on changing health care policies is to elect officials willing to change them.

“People need to get organized for the election,” Denn said. “It hinges on the outcome of the election in November, both the national and state level.”

Denn said his department supported several pieces of legislation that would have addressed the cost of health care coverage, but they did not have enough support in both chambers to pass.

As the Delaware State Fair winds to a close this weekend, I have had a great time seeing all the friends that I made in past years and making a lot of new ones. I have also pretty much checked off every item on the Delaware Political Candidate’s State Fair To-Do List.  Let’s review:

1. Wander through grandstand and gaze longingly at cool stuff that other campaigns are giving away which you wish you had thought of.  Check.  This year, though, I had no tchatchke envy.  Nobody was giving away anything too exciting.

2. Shake hands with at least 300 people who then blurt out “I’m from Maryland” and laugh hysterically as if they had just qualified for “America’s Top Comic.”  Check.

3. Eat corn dog.  Check.  Still the emotional high point of the fair. 

4. Serve drinks to diners in The Grange.  Check.  I always serve drinks on Thursday instead of attending the Governor’s Day banquet that is sponsored by Blue Cross, because every time I ate a bite of steak at the banquet I would know that it was paid for by overcharging someone for health insurance.  This year, they have a new requirement for serving drinks in The Grange: you must wear a hair net or a hat.  In spite of my vague recollection that one of the hip rap stars has popularized wearing hair nets, I went with a Rapa Scrapple hat.

5. Lose car in giant State Fair parking field.  Check.  Twice.

6. Shake hands with concertgoers who think that I work for the Fair and insist that I direct them to their seats. Check.

You can see photos from my visit to the State Fair Thursday here. The boys and I will be back this weekend for one more visit with the baby chickens.

Last weekend, we lost one of the magnetic “Matt Denn for Lieutenant Governor” signs from the side of Mrs. Denn’s Pacifica as we were zipping away from the end of Delaware City’s Delaware Days parade.  Kathy Beck saw it lying on Route 9 and picked it up for me.  After thanking her a thousand times, I asked her where I could come get it from her.  She said she would be helping with the monthly pancake breakfast at the Hockessin Fire Hall, and I could get it from her there.

I make breakfast for the boys a lot—waffles, pancakes, nothing complicated, but it had been an accepted fact of life for the first three years of their lives that daddy makes the best pancakes, daddy makes the best waffles, etc.  Any time we ate breakfast out, I would ask Adam if the pancakes or waffles he was eating were as good as daddy’s.  My waffles lost out recently to some giant Belgian waffles that State Senate candidate Harold Stafford’s friend made at a breakfast fundraiser several months ago.  But those waffles had a Roger Maris style asterisk next to the award, because I don’t have a Belgian waffle-maker.   Last Sunday, however, my pancakes bit the dust fair and square: Adam announced that Kathy’s buttermilk pancakes from the Hockessin Fire Hall breakfast were “a tie” with mine, and when I asked about the sweet potato pancakes, he simply declined to respond.  The good news for the Hockessin Fire Hall is that we will be back, Adam is already asking when the next pancake breakfast is.  The bad news is that I am no longer the undisputed pancake champion.  Soon the boys will be asking for the car keys and telling me they will be home “whenever.”