Embracing the spirit of its name (The Green in Dover and the New Castle Green), The Green will provide an open-air meeting place for Delawareans to discuss events, consider issues and share ideas. This radio and online magazine will present the highest quality Delaware news and information. Through informed reporting, nuanced storytelling and in-depth interviews, The Green reaches past stereotypes and knee-jerk reactions to encourage a fuller, more robust discovery of Delaware, today.
A Conversation with Sen. Chris Coons
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Congress is on break this week, but a number of issues are percolating while lawmakers are back home, including an upcoming debate over a use of force authorization to fight the Islamic State or ISIS and the battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security and connecting that funding to the ongoing debate over immigration.
This week, Delaware’s junior senator, Chris Coons stopped by our studio to discuss those issues and more. (More)
U.S. Education Sec. offers support for First State education efforts
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Education has increasingly moved center stage in the First State recently. The battle over Priority Schools, questions about closing troubled charter schools or opening new ones and continued funding initiatives started with federal Race to the Top funds are among the issues currently on the table.
With that landscape as a backdrop, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited the First State Thursday to discuss education policy – and Delaware Public Media’s Tom Byrne had opportunity to chat with him about some of these issues. This is a portion of that conversation. (More)
Christina and Red Clay put referendums before district residents
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Usually when school districts offer tax increase referendums to bolster their budgets or fund capital projects they become the fiscal point of attention as school officials try to sell their plans to district residents - whether they have kids in school or not.
But next week’s referendum votes in Christina and Red Clay school districts have garnered little attention, overshadowed in large part by the ongoing Priority Schools debate in each district, as well as other issues.
So, what are the districts seeking, how will they spend it, and how can they get voters on board? Those are questions Delaware Public Media contributor Larry Nagengast sought to answer for us and visited The Green this week to discuss what he learned. (More)
Enlighten Me: Indian River School District offers pioneering program for immigrant students
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Southern Delaware has long been a popular destination for Guatemalan immigrants seeking a better life, often in the chicken industry. But last year, officials at Indian River School District saw the number of recently arrived immigrant teenagers swell because of the wave of unaccompanied kids who crossed the U.S. border in 2014.
They soon discovered traditional ESL programs were not effectively serving that group of kids, most of whom had little to no schooling back in Central America.
So they decided to create a new curriculum that meets these kids where they are academically. It’s called the APELL program, which stands for Accelerating Preliterate English Language Learners, and it serves over seventy kids. In this week’s Enlighten Me - Delaware Public Media’s Anne Hoffman pays a visit to the program. (More)
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