Mentoring, Using School Buildings Outside School Hours The Goal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 20, 2008

STANTON – Jack Markell and Matt Denn, Democratic candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, on Monday announced a plan to partner Delaware businesses with schools.

The initiative, to be led by Denn as Lieutenant Governor, would boost both mentoring efforts in the schools and community use of school buildings during no-school hours.

“Delaware will not have a world-class economy without having a world-class school system. That’s why the Markell-Denn administration is committed to creating an education system where every child arrives ready to learn and every teenager graduates ready to succeed in the job market or in higher education. It’s not just teachers and administrators and parents who need to pitch in, we need the whole community to help out. My wife and I have seen firsthand how serving as a mentor can change a young person’s life and give a child a better future. I urge all Delawareans to take some time out of your day or week to help children in need. The rewards – for you and the child — can last a lifetime.”

“We will be asking businesses to encourage their employees to work with individual students, and where it is financially possible, to help schools keep their doors open after regular school hours so we can help kids with their homework and make sure they stay out of trouble,” Denn said.

The mentoring portion of the program is designed to revive efforts spearheaded by Sen. Tom Carper when he was Delaware’s Governor in the 1990s. Carper joined Markell and Denn for the announcement.

“I am proud of the many mentors that we recruited while I was governor and the many mentors who have continued or started since then. In fact, I just finished my weekly mentoring appointment before coming here,” Sen. Carper said Monday morning. “These efforts can only benefit from a renewed focus under a Markell-Denn administration.”

Denn said he would hope to have at least 10 business-school partnerships started in 2009. Representatives of Delaware Supermarkets, Inc., NKS Distributors and the Buccini-Pollin Group took part in Monday’s announcement and are interested in taking part in the new program.

“I would like to start with some of our schools where kids are facing the biggest challenges, where the achievement gap is largest and where after-school options are limited,” Denn said. “At a time when our state government is facing extraordinary budget challenges, this effort is one more way that we can use the basic decency of our citizens and our business community to help our kids without raising taxes or cutting important programs.”

Candidates for governor, lieutenant governor propose bold steps to make government do more with less, implement ‘state of the art’ budgeting process

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2008

WILMINGTON – Jack Markell and Matt Denn today laid out the steps a Markell-Denn administration would take to aggressively cut costs and make government more efficient.

Joined by legislative candidates and incumbents, the Democratic gubernatorial and lieutenant governor nominees stood outside the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington to release the details of their cost-savings strategy.

“I am proud that Matt and I are the only statewide candidates with a comprehensive plan to save taxpayer dollars, eliminate wasteful spending and ensure Delaware has the resources it needs to invest in its future,” Markell said. “We owe it to taxpayers to find innovative ways to save money. We cannot keep doing things the same old way if we want to address important issues like job creation, education and health care, and simply saying ‘no’ to everything is not going to take Delaware in a new direction toward a better future.”

This plan builds on the cost-savings plan Markell released this summer. Both candidates have a proven track record of doing finding ways to save taxpayers’ dollars.Denn cut travel costs, consultant fees, and unnecessary job positions at the Insurance Department. Markell reformed the state’s purchasing system to save $30 million, developed the Health Rewards program to improve employees’ health and cut medical costs, led efforts to make the state’s technology spending more efficient and switched to a modern computer accounting system to save taxpayer money.

“Jack Markell and I haven’t just talked about making government work better, we’ve done it,” Denn said. “Jack and I have each been the chief executives of large state agencies, and we have transformed those agencies into much more responsive and efficient agencies than the ones we inherited.”

Specifically, the Markell-Denn plan would:

Institute State-of-the-Art Budgeting Processes by limiting use of revenue from unpredictable sources, implement a ten-year Sunset Review system for all agencies, look at a five-year budget cycle and analyze long term economic and demographic trends and compare Delaware’s efficiencies against other state’s operations. For example, Delaware’s cost efficiency of child support collections is ranked 48th nationally, at $2.40 collected for every dollar of administrative expenses.

Make Sure Delaware Receives Its Fair Share of Federal Funding by working with the congressional delegation to ensure that the federal government is paying for all the services they can or should pay for. This means not cutting state funds that generate matching funds, maximizing our receipt of federal funds to which we are entitled by pursuing funds Delaware is eligible for and utilizing federal funds instead of state monies to pay for programs.

Crack Down on Waste and Fraud, especially in the Medicaid system. By investing in technologies designed to detect fraudulent patterns, such as billing, the state could recover millions of dollars. Even if Delaware reduced one tenth of Medicaid overpayments, the savings would range from just under $5 million to over $12 million.

Make Investments That Will Save Us Even More by making sound budget decisions to save the state money in the future. For example, investing in education and creating crime-fighting policies that reduce recidivism will save the state millions in prison costs while investing in healthier communities. A single prison bed costs over $24,000 a year in Delaware; long-term savings could be significant. If Delaware can reduce its incarceration rate to the national average, the state could reduce prison costs by $15 million.

Going Green Saves Green - Investing in green technology can reduce energy consumption, cut costs and reduce urban sprawl at the same time. In addition to the suggestions in his Blueprint for a Better Delaware book, Markell’s budget plan includes making new state buildings green buildings and retro-fitting and retro-commissioning state buildings. Following the lead of states like Colorado, Delaware’s pilot program to reduce utilities with new energy efficient technology and appliances reduced energy costs by 25% across four agencies. Applying conservative estimates statewide could save at least 5% on all utility costs across the remaining agencies.

Institute a Total State Government Performance Review to identify savings opportunities through improving customer services, eliminating unnecessary or redundant services or proposing new ways to perform essential services. States such as New Mexico and West Virginia – which are just double the size of Delaware – are projecting that their performance reviews will save taxpayers more than $300 million over four years.

Improve State Government’s Purchase of Goods and Services by expanding Markell’s Strategic Sourcing Initiative to include other services, such as state agencies and school districts. As treasurer, Markell reduced Delaware’s procurement costs by 13.5% across a range of categories. Other cost effective strategies include investing in contract management and implementing performance based contracting, investing in preventative maintenance first (before new projects are started) and working with other states to pool buying power in order to obtain better prices on a wide range of purchases.

Being Fair About Who Pays Taxes – Smarter Enforcement of Existing Tax Laws: To achieve this, Markell and Denn propose adopting the latest technology in tamper-proof cigarette tax stamps, using technology to detect tax deadbeats, crosschecking taxes owed the state against drivers’ license renewals and conducting a one-time tax amnesty to boost collections – something Delaware has not done in over 25 years.

Leverage Technology to Reduce Costs by implementing e-pay secure internet access for employees, encouraging broader use of combined telecommunications technology and conducting a review of state delivery, mail and fleet policies to identify cost saving and efficiency opportunities. Booking all employee travel online, and allowing Delawareans to renew their drivers licenses online will also save the state money.

Delaware Should “Raise The Bar” In Providing Education To Kids With Disabilities

Matt Denn, Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, said Thursday the state should “raise the bar” for education services provided to children with disabilities, and announced the steps needed to do so, with Delaware’s leading disability advocates endorsing Denn’s ideas.

One in every six children in public schools has a disability - from mild to severe - and the number in private schools is believed similar, Denn said. Yet, the official state standard for their education is shockingly low.

“We speak in bold strokes - as we should - about what we expect our education system to provide to all of our children, with talk about ‘world class’ schools or ‘demanding excellence.’ Well, our state does not use those words in describing how it will educate students with disabilities,” Denn said.

“Delaware has the benefit of outstanding teachers and other professionals who work with our disabled children every day. But Delaware uses the minimum federal standard in determining what those professionals are permitted to do to educate kids with disabilities. Here it is, word for word, from a federal court opinion: ‘Children with disabilities are not entitled to a Cadillac education, but they are entitled to the equivalent of a serviceable Chevrolet,’ ” Denn said. “We would never, ever, ever accept that standard for our kids who are not impacted by disabilities. We shouldn’t accept it for kids with disabilities.”

Delaware should do what six other states have done, Denn said, and officially define the educational goal for children with disabilities as allowing them to fulfill their potential, not just receive a “serviceable” education.

Once the standard is raised, Denn proposed the following steps to better serve children with disabilities:

- Increase efforts to identify disabilities early, requiring Medicaid and private insurance to cover an inexpensive developmental screening test;
- Provide guidance and legal advice to parents who are navigating the labyrinth of disability programs;
- Simplify the funding formula for education of children with disabilities, eliminating wasteful and ill-defined procedures; and
- Get permission to use current federal Medicaid dollars to better serve children with disabilities.

Matt’s proposals were endorsed Thursday by leaders of Delaware’s disability community.

“We need more comprehensive services for children with special needs. Matt has taken a leadership role in not just identifying the problems, but also working with the disabilities’ community to find solutions and create a system that truly works,” said Artie and Marcy Kempner. Artie is board member and past president and Marcy is secretary of the Autism Delaware.

“I certainly support enhancing resources and services where the overarching goal is to improve the health, education and welfare of all children with a stong emphasis being on children with disabilities,” said Wendy Strauss, director of the Governor’s Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens.

“Children with disabilities have historically been a segregated class within our educational systems in Delaware and nationally. To a certain extent, they remain segregated, including those children who are in the care of the State,” said Patricia Maichle, director of the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council. “Parents must be empowered to support and advocate appropriately for their children. The system must become more flexible and accommodating so that every child with a disability will receive a free and appropriate education.”

“I endorse a service delivery system for children with disabilities, including education services, which leverages potential funding, can be easily navigated, provides simplified access to entitlements by parents and children, encourages early detection, and promotes programs and policies that enable children with disabilities to reach their maximum potential,” said Kyle Hodges, director of the State Council for Persons with Disabilities.

“Children with disabilities face enormous challenges in their efforts to become independent adults and, beyond that, to live out their dreams. We as a state should actively support these kids to overcome those obstacles,” Denn said. “It is the smart thing to do for the state economically, but more important than that, it is simply the right thing to do.”

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 overcoming disabilities.

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

*** Please note: The advocates who took part in the Denn press conference Thursday did so as individuals and not on behalf of their non-partisan organizations. Titles are for identification purposes only. ***

All Children In State Would Be Eligible For Quality, Low-Cost Coverage

Wilmington - Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on Tuesday outlined a plan to make all children in Delaware eligible for health care coverage, as well as expand the rolls of children in existing health coverage programs.

Denn, who has worked in his term as Insurance Commissioner to sign children up for health coverage, said the expansion could happen with limited state dollars.

“The proposal I am announcing today is to provide, by January 1, 2010, affordable health insurance for the over 22,000 Delaware children lacking health insurance, as an important interim step toward universal coverage,” Denn said. “Kids with health insurance are more likely to get the routine preventative care that is critical to proper development, and are more likely to be screened for serious illnesses at an early age when those illnesses can be better treated.”

Denn’s plan includes:

Expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) To 300 Percent Of Poverty. Currently, families earning between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($21,200 to $42,400 for a family of four) are eligible for CHIP, which is health insurance funded in part by the federal and state governments. Denn said Delaware should follow the successful lead of other states and expand the eligibility level to 300 percent of poverty ($63,600 for family of four). Such a move would require a federal waiver.

Allowing Families Over 300 Percent Of Poverty To Buy In To CHIP. CHIP provides quality health care coverage. Allowing families with incomes over 300 percent of poverty ($63,600 for family of four) to buy in to the CHIP program — paying the full cost for their coverage rather than being subsidized by the state and federal governments as lower-income families are — would open a very affordable option for health coverage for middle class families. The buy-in cost is estimated at $150 per month.

Enrolling More Children Below 200 Percent of Poverty In CHIP. It is estimated that less than half of the Delaware children currently eligible for CHIP are actually enrolled in it, due largely to a lack of outreach by state government. Denn said the state should move from monthly premiums to co-pays, should quickly enroll families into CHIP rather than waiting months for their income to be verified, and should increase enrollment efforts using school nurses, hospital maternity wards and early childhood centers. Increased outreach has also been shown to bring more children onto Medicaid, which is for families under 100 percent of the poverty level ($21,200 for a family of four).

“We have a chance to become one of the first states in America to be able to say ‘we cover all kids.’ We should take that opportunity, as a benchmark on the way to covering all Delawareans,” Denn said.

Denn’s plan was endorsed by state Sen. Patricia Blevins and state Rep. Terry Schooley, who have worked with Denn since 2005 to expand health care coverage for children.

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 overcoming disabilities.

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

Lieutenant Governor Candidate Wants Social Agencies To Get Assistance With Grants And Available Federal Money

Wilmington – Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on Tuesday proposed dedicating state government staff to help faith-based organizations obtain grants and federal funds to deliver services to Delaware’s citizens.

The staff would assist organizations finding and getting funds already available, but of which Delaware may not be receiving a fair share, said Denn, who began his career as an attorney providing free legal aid out of church basements and community centers. Around the country, 35 states have offices to help faith-based organizations providing social services in a constitutionally appropriate way, but Delaware is not one of them.

“From 2002 through 2007, the federal government operated what it called a Compassion Capital Fund, that was designed to help faith-based and community organizations expand their capacity. During the life of the program, Congress funded it to the tune of $289 million,” Denn said. “Of that amount, Delaware programs received just $100,000.”

Denn said he would ask the next Governor to dedicate staff in the executive branch to helping faith-based organizations and, barring that, would do it himself as Lieutenant Governor.

“I will ask our new Governor to follow the lead of a number of other Governors and designate a person in his office to provide this assistance to faith-based and community organizations. If the Governor doesn’t think it is appropriate, I will assign one of the few staff people dedicated to the Lieutenant Governor to fill this role,” Denn said. “One way or another, we will make sure that faith-based organizations have the help they need.”

Denn was joined in his announcement Tuesday by Rev. Christopher Bullock of Canaan Baptist Church and Bishop Thomas W. Weeks of New Destiny Fellowship, two Wilmington churches that provide a number of services to residents.

Denn noted that while Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama recently pledged to support faith-based organizations around the country in a way that President Bush promised but never fulfilled.

“We in Delaware need to be positioned to take advantage of a renewed federal focus on faith-based initiatives,” Denn said. “And those organizations, in turn, will work with us to help us with the whole range of issues facing kids in Delaware: safe, educational after-school activities and mentoring, counseling and assistance to families in distress, the whole range of issues that are so critical to the welfare of kids in our state. Together, we will make this state one where every child can go as far as his talent and determination will take him.”

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.

Priority Should Be Clean, Affordable Energy And The Environment, Not The Interests Of The Oil Companies, Denn Says

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 7, 2008

Wilmington - Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor, made the following statement in response to the report in Thursday’s News Journal that his Republican opponent, Charles Copeland, would “not take off the table” the idea of allowing an oil platform to be built off the Delaware shore:

“I support limited oil drilling as part of a balanced national energy policy—but oil drilling off the coast of Delaware? We should not only take the idea off the table, we should throw it out of the house and lock the doors.

“Between his opposition to the Bluewater Wind project and his receptiveness to oil drilling off our beaches, Senator Copeland and I could not be further apart on the issues of renewable energy and the environment in Delaware. He has repeatedly sided with the power companies, at the expense of clean, affordable, renewable energy. Rather than doing the oil companies’ bidding and allowing them to drill everywhere, including off our coast, drilling should be limited to those areas that have already been identified.”

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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Campaign For Lieutenant Governor Focusing On Children’s Issues

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wilmington – Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor, on Wednesday announced a four-part plan to make sure more educational funding reaches students in school classrooms, where it belongs and where it can do the most good.

Denn’s proposal includes a state guarantee that a minimum percentage of public school funds will be used for education, not bureaucracy, as well as increased oversight of local district spending and implementation of a number of money-saving recommendations.

Many states currently devote a higher percentage of their public educational funds to instructional purposes than Delaware, Denn said, and Delaware schools spend 25% more on school administration than the nation’s average.

Denn said that a focus on responsible spending by public schools is important to better serve today’s students, and to rebuild the public’s confidence in the public schools.

“Spending wisely is the right thing to do today for our kids, and it is the right thing to do for the future in laying the groundwork to expand public support for our schools,” Denn said. “If Delawareans believe that our schools are using their money wisely, they will be much more likely to support those schools in the future.”

Denn said his proposal for a funding floor will not be an excuse to balance budgets by depriving schools of new funding, as some percentage proposals are.

“It is an idea that has been pursued in other states in a ham-handed, polarizing way that has doomed it almost from the start. In some states, it has been a tool of partisan politics. In others, it has been a back-door way of trying to starve public schools of much-needed funds,” Denn said.

The centerpiece of Denn’s plan is a State Educational Funding Floor – a mandate that local school districts spend a given percentage of their total educational funds on people who provide direct services to kids and the materials those people need to do their jobs. Denn said the exact percentage should only be set after serious consideration as to what should count as contributing to learning and what should not.

“Teachers are clearly part of the equation. People sitting at desks in the school district central offices clearly are not,” Denn said “But there are some difficult decisions to make in the middle, and those decisions have to be made in a smart, inclusive way. Teachers, parents, principals, people who have studied public schools systems, they all need to be at the table.”

In addition to the State Educational Funding Floor, Denn also proposed:

- State Auditing of Local School District Contracts. The state should routinely audit the terms of and performance upon contracts that local school districts enter into with private parties.

- Creation and Training of Local District Financial Oversight Committees. Committees of parents, teachers, and financial professionals from each local school district should be created to monitor the spending decisions made by local district school boards. Those committee members should be trained in local school district finance by state Department of Education officials.

- Formal Consideration of LEAD Committee Recommendations. A committee of experts has made recommendations to the state that could save tens of millions of dollars—money which could be redirected into classroom instruction. Some of those recommendations are feasible, others probably are not. But to date, no formal consideration has been given to the LEAD Committee’s recommendations. In early 2009, the state should make some hard decisions about which recommendations are achievable and which are not, Denn said, and start the process of implementing those that can be achieved.

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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Campaign To Focus On Children’s Issues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, June 7, 2008

Millsboro/Dover/New Castle – Declaring that he will “stand up for Delaware’s children,” Matt Denn on Saturday formally kicked off his campaign to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor.

Denn, a Democrat and the state’s current insurance commissioner, said he would continue to take on the powerful interests on behalf of the state’s children, just as he has taken on big insurance companies on behalf of consumers since 2005. Speaking in Millsboro, Dover and New Castle, he was introduced at each stop by a Delawareans who he had personally helped with a health insurance problem.

“My goal as Lieutenant Governor will be to ensure that each child in our state goes as far in life as his talent and determination will take him,” Denn said. “Every morning when I get up, the first thought on my mind will be ‘what can I do to help this state’s children succeed?’ ”

Denn said he would work for health care coverage for every child, to improve schools, to reduce pollution and toxins that affect children and to improve services to children who face special challenges—children who are abused, neglected, living in foster care, or fighting to overcome disabilities.

“We need to provide health insurance for each child in this state, as a benchmark on the way to universal coverage,” said Denn, who has spent much of this time as insurance commissioner fighting to expand health coverage for Delaware children and families. “Coverage for every child is not a bumper sticker slogan, it is something we can do by the year 2010, and for less money than you would think.”

In schools, Denn said, the state needs results, not in 15 years, but right now.

“We need to bring the best new teachers into Delaware’s public schools, keep them here, and create an environment where they can excel and want to excel,” he said. “Part of that involves restoring faith in the financing of our public schools, by setting strict state controls on the percentage of funds that must go into the classroom and on the ways in which districts manage their money.”

In Millsboro, Denn was introduced by Loriann White of Millsboro, who received cancer treatment at Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York after she was initially denied by her insurance company and Denn intervened. In Dover, Julie Harris of Milton told how he helped get her two children health coverage through the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). And in New Castle, Mike Logue thanked Denn for helping his daughter get 24-hour nursing coverage she needed to deal with a number of medical conditions. White and Harris are registered Republicans and Logue is an independent.

Denn concluded his announcement relating the thoughts he sometimes has about his own children and those of our state as he rocks one of his 3-year-old twin boys to sleep.

“In the quiet darkness of their bedroom, I think to myself about what will become of them. Will they be ok? Will they be happy? Will they have the chances I have had?” Denn said. “I know that across our state, in thousands of homes, rich and poor, other parents are hoping and worrying, too, whether their kids are toddlers or teenagers. And not just worrying about some distant future, but about tomorrow, about next week. The challenges to this generation of children are too great, the cost of failure too high, for us to wait.”

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2008

Strict and unyielding regulation of air pollutants and a focus on cleaning up lead paint are the environmental issues affecting children that Matt Denn will take on as Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor, Denn announced Monday.

Denn, a Democrat, said that controlling nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury in the air means reducing the amount of those hazardous substances emitted by the state’s three major power plants in Millsboro, Dover and Wilmington. Particularly, he said, the state must refuse to negotiate down its air emission standards with Conectiv’s Wilmington power plant, and strictly hold the Dover and Millsboro plants to agreements to reduce their pollution emissions in future years.

“NRG’s agreement allows it to petition the courts to revise the pollution limits it agreed to if it thinks that circumstances prevent it from complying,” Denn said. “If I am elected Lieutenant Governor, I will urge the executive branch of government to enforce the state’s new emission regulations as written against Conectiv’s Wilmington power plant, and to enforce the agreements with the Indian River and Dover plants as written even if those plants seek to get out of them. Going forward, we need to draw a line in the sand when it comes to these dangerous emissions that have such a devastating impact on our kids, and if that means going to court to defend our stance then so be it.”

Denn, the current Insurance Commissioner, cited as an example of his tough approach his willingness to go to court with insurance companies that objected to a 2005 regulation protecting homeowners from having their policies cancelled.

Also Monday, Denn said he would target lead-based paint, which can affect the brain, kidneys, and bone marrow in children and result in learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Denn said he would encourage stricter enforcement of laws requiring property owners to eliminate lead-based paint.

“Our goal, very simply, should be to eliminate lead paint on exposed surfaces in Delaware homes,” Denn said.

Denn’s environmental goals were endorsed Monday by Bill Zak, a member of Citizens for Clean Power, and Mark Brunswick of the A. Philip Randolph Institute of Delaware.

“The kind of tight regulation and oversight that Matt Denn is advocating is greatly needed and long overdue. I applaud his focus on this critical issue,” Zak said.

“Matt Denn has put forth proposals which will make a cleaner environment for all Delawareans, demonstrate an understanding between some elements of our environment and health conditions and, most importantly, further ensure the safety of our children” Brunswick said.

“These measures to improve the health of Delaware children by protecting their environment are the smart thing to do, because they will save enormous health costs down the road,” Denn said. “ But more importantly, they are the right thing to do, because we have a moral obligation to care for our children.”