Small Town News

This is the wrong place to try and save money

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GOTTA LOVE IT

The all-important decennial blood sport known as legislative redistricting is upon us. Delaware is spared the congressional version by virtue of its size, but the redrawing of Delaware General Assembly and Senate districts already promises great entertainment value.

Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf of Rehoboth Beach has apparently decided to unilaterally ignore a state law that mandates that census data reflect where inmates actually reside, and not where they are incarcerated. This is because a software update in the mapping program called Maptitude would cost the state $70,000. That's less than a dime per person to accurately reflect the residence of Delaware's citizen-ry....a modest outlay, and quite justifiable when compared with some of the specious folly our politicos have been known to waste tax dollars on. Let's look

at some history.

In 2001, the Republicans controlled the process in Legislative Hall and followed a time-honored tradition dating back to 1812 when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts to benefit his Democratic-Republican Party.

One particularly contorted district that year resembled the outline of a salamander, thus giving us the sobriquet "gerrymander" to describe similarly egregious map drawing.

Although remapping is ideally supposed to acknowledge existing municipal boundaries, the 2001 remapping split both Georgetown and Lewes among differing legislators as population growth in Sussex County gave rise to the Rehoboth area 14th District, currently represented by Schwartzkopf.

The 2010 census again showed a significant population shift in Delaware favoring Sussex County and other points south of the canal with the likelihood the coastal and capital regions will gain districts at the expense of New Castle County.

But this time, the Democrats hold sway in Dover, and Schwartzkopf is leading the re-districting process. He has promised to consider public input in the process, but he also promised public input regarding casinos and pursued his own agenda anyway, so reconciliation of his words and deeds remains to be seen.

Both Lewes and Georgetown are pushing to be unified in a single district each; community organizers point out that the Hispanic population in Delaware doubled in the decade since 2000 and including all of Georgetown in a single legislative district would allow a stronger voice for this group.

This brings us back to Pete

and his lack of intestinal fortitude to fix Maptitude. The ger-rymandering/redistricting this year is being crafted as we said at the start by a computer program called Maptitude which has issues that would cost 10 cents per person to fix, assuring accurate population data that complies with state law.

Pete, this is the wrong place to save money. Take some of the $70 million the revenue gurus just found and get the software right. Make sure people are placed in contiguous districts with similar interests and needs. When you're talking about the basic structure for our representative system of government, this is no time to pinch pennies.

Fix Maptitude and do the job right.

"Money often costs too much." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many thanks to the Christiana board of education for reminding us that you can stand on principle, But you can't spend it. Facing complaints from teachers who were being forced to transfer out of Glasgow High School and Stubbs Elementary to comply with transformation requirements under Race to the Top, the board opted to opt out of the Race memorandum of understanding, saying the process was flawed.

Wasting no time, Education Secretary Lillian Lowery and Gov. Jack Markell announced that the state would rescind the $11 million in federal funding that Christiana was due to receive under the Race to the Top funding formula. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, also chimed in to chastise the board's decision.

Having received 11 million reasons to rethink its position, as well as state and federal scolding, the Christiana board unanimously reversed itself and issued a stirring reaffirmation of its faith in the Race to the Top program objectives. When money talks, everything else walks.

Redistricting is one of the purest actions a legislative body can take.

- John Engler





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