Two major questions haunt our country this Friday: what will Madonna wear for the Super Bowl halftime show, and when will we see the second half of Matt’s list of thoughts about January (when the blog went dark)? The answer to the first question: we don’t know but it would have been grossly inappropriate even 25 years ago. The answer to the second question is “right now.”
6. Important Work Being Done on Bullying Prevention. As I tour middle and high schools in Delaware, I hear more and more about bullying. We are working on several different projects to try to address this problem, one of which is an effort with Attorney General Biden to step up the reporting that schools do of bullying. When bullying occurs in a Delaware school, the school is required to notify the parent of the victim and the parent of the student who did the bullying. That is an extremely important part of the law – if we want parents to help discipline their children, we have to let them know when they are acting inappropriately. Yet, a lot of these required reports aren’t happening. The Attorney General and I spent part of January working on legislation to address this problem, we will be unveiling it soon.
7. The Denn Boys Turned Seven Years Old. Mrs. Denn, who normally handles every last detail of … well… everything, was very sick and under doctor’s orders to stay in bed on the day of the boys’ birthday party. So I got to host 16 of their friends, jacked up on pizza and cake, at a place with moonbounces and video games (but not a giant singing rat). Fortunately, my mom stepped in to ride shotgun and several kind parents — probably unsettled by the sight of me in charge — stuck around for the festivities, so I had plenty of back-up. I am placing my wife in quarantine for a few weeks before the 8th birthday.
8. Delaware to Offer Low Cost Health Insurance for Kids. We still have thousands of kids in Delaware without health insurance. Most of them are the children of working parents – our Medicaid and CHIP programs provide either free or very low cost health insurance for the children of families up to 200% of the poverty level. So we have a tragic situation where kids of the parents who are working hard, bringing home a paycheck, and struggling with bills are falling through the cracks. Some relief is coming this summer. As a result of legislation that I wrote with Senator Blevins and Representative Schooley, one condition of the recently-approved Blue Cross merger is that the company will be required to offer and subsidize a low-cost health insurance program for the children of families whose parents earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. The premiums will start at less than $100 per month for families just over the eligibility cut-offs, and will go up based on income. Thanks to Senator Blevins and Representative Schooley for their help in making this happen, it is our hope that thousands of Delaware kids will get basic health insurance as a result.
9. Treme is Good. Treme is the HBO series about post-Katrina New Orleans from David Simon, the creator of The Wire (the best tv show of all time). When Treme came out, it got a lukewarm reception from many critics. I didn’t see the first season, because HBO is not in the Denn household budget. But the good people at the New Castle County libraries just got the whole first season on DVD, I watched the first three episodes in January, and it is terrific. It’s not The Wire, but it wasn’t meant to be The Wire. Highly recommended.
10. Tom Baker’s World History Class at Appoquinimink High School. I dropped in on Mr. Baker’s AP History class earlier this week, and was absolutely dazzled by how ambitious, articulate, and thoughtful his 11th and 12th graders were. If a Lieutenant Governor had come to visit my 11th grade history class in California, he would have primarily heard complaints from students about wanting to be able to go off campus to buy snacks. (He also might have been rolled for his lunch money in the hallway – 1983 was a rough year at Berkeley High School.) But Mr. Baker’s Appoquinimink students wanted to know how we could allow high school students to take more AP classes, how they could have better opportunities to prepare for the SATs, and whether there were ways for them to graduate early if they doubled down on classes in 10th and 11th grade. I had met one of Mr. Baker’s students, Mankaprr Conteh, a few months earlier. A first generation American, she was part of a delegation of Appo students who attended a Special Olympics conference where I spoke. And it turns out that the Special Olympics project is just part of her portfolio. Mankaprr has also started a charity, and in the meantime has been busy stockpiling AP credits and receiving acceptance letters from colleges around the country. I wish everyone in Delaware had an opportunity to spend time with these young people. They are a great example of what can happen when motivated students get great support from adults. A fantastic way to finish off the month.
