to make classrooms more conducive to learning for students. mr. meyer: every child in the state should be able to go to a school where they have an excellent opportunity to get an amazing education and every parent should know when they send their son or daughter off to a delaware public school they are sending them to a safe place. it is among our most important and urgent responsibilities in leading the state. today there are all of these issues you can't see that cause problems. we are putting the burden on the teacher. in addition to compensation, another large reason why we have such challenges retaining teachers is they aren't equipped

or supported to handle the behavioral issues that come before them. we are the only local government in new castle county to ever invest to create wellness centers in elementary schools in our state. we invest in services. schools, more and more, need to become like community centers. often when there is a problem in society the first place you see it is in a classroom and the first person to see it may be a teacher. we need to equip them. housing, health care, mental health, violence, they have a wealth of services to support them so they can stay laser focused on teaching. tom: mr. ramone what do you propose to make classrooms more conducive to learning? rep. ramone: i accept the accolades from my opponent. we were involved in sros to keep schools safer and expanding health centers to different

levels of education working with a bipartisan republican and democrat house. we addressed needs requested from the educational community to make our schools better. but, when you have a flawed funding mechanisms that say you fall into this category that category. when you have money going into a school that a principal has dictated has to go here, but i need this teacher over here and you can't do flexibility. in business you learn to give people the ability to be successful. in politics, it seems like we keep tightening it up and tightening it up until they can't go any longer. a perfect example is 19 school districts, superintendent of education, secretary of education, each with their divisions, each with their secretaries, their offices. then, then, you have the buildings that are filled up paying for all of the energy, all of the electricity, the paving, whatnot, enormous

amounts of money that could be used for children is not. my job is to not only solve the crises we developed over the last 32 years of one-party leadership. my other job is to spend taxpayer money responsibly. we can't keep taxing our community to death. tom: i want to discuss wilmington schools specifically. the wilmington learning collaborative is up and running. the first new school building in the decade opened it this fall. the reading consortium is looking at a redistricting plan that would take the christina school district out of wilmington. do you support that planet from their reading consortium and concurrently the work of the wilmington learning collaborative or do you envision a different approach to addressing education in wilmington? rep. ramone: i'm not the person that will keep developing babysitting sessions. i don't think we have enough commissions. people can manipulate whatever

they want to get the results they want. i will bring the governor that brings the people into the room that are most formative in being able to make a difference for a child's education. i believe that if you can set up an environment where you don't have another reading consortium, guess what? taking money out of education because we have to pay for the reading distortion or wilmington learning collaborative, let's just solve problems. what was it? 2020 when we started? two thousand? whatever the vision is. i am not critiquing them. i'm saying we got 32 years of nothingness and it has been a consistent downside on our children's results. some think we might have a super majority and we can take over the world. delaware does not run that way. we need balance. balance enhances communication. communication enhances results. what happened with these two collaboratives trying to solve the same problem?

people did not agree so they made another one. is it smart to say children can't read in the city but put them on a bus and then an hour back and complain the parents don't go to the parent teacher meetings because it is an hour away? this is chaos. it isn't a tough problem to solve. if we say we have a problem and we will solve it. tom: mr. meyer what are your thoughts to redistrict christina and would you go forward with the wilmington learning collaborative? mr. meyer: the challenges in our state are not challenges of idea or strategy but challenges of execution and implementation. there is an established way of doing things. the status quo hasn't been changed. 10 years ago i was a sixth grade and 17 -- seventh grade math

teacher who ran for county executive since i was ticked off and ever since then i have been challenging the establishment to get real things done. i can't tell you the number of elective -- elected officials that told me don't buy a hotel and use it as a shelter for the homeless. i believe low income kids should learn height income skills, how to program computers from the youngest age. we had no money, no resources, but i called around and put pieces together and executed. today over 1001 delaware students have gone through the summer school and afterschool program. we will work on getting a district in the city of wilmington. we will work on getting community schools in the city of wilmington. we will pay teachers to have incentives to stay in wilmington schools and get resources directly to the classroom like never before in state history. tom: we will move onto a new topic, affordable housing. sarah will pick up with our next

question going to mr. meyer. sarah: during the pandemic the state used american rescue plan funding on the pandemic shelter program giving vouchers to those facing homelessness for motels for two years. are there lessons the state can take from that program towards a strategy for mitigating the homelessness crisis in the coming years, particularly for those facing immediate homelessness or housing insecurity? mr. meyer: housing is a basic right. every family in america in 2024 should have shelter over their head. it is hard with interest rates rising, with the shortage of housing units, it's very challenging. five years ago there was a crisis of homelessness not just in new castle county or delaware, but that communities across the country saw. we acted. we stood up against an establishment that was just status quo.

we said let's create a facility in the middle of covid developing a 90 day program with over 4200 delwarian that --delwarians that have gone through the program. check out the pathway program. we made a documentary about it that won an emmy. there need to be at systems of care for those living on the margins that are barely able to pay rent. there needs to be assistance for those chronically homeless or short term homeless to go into facilities across the state like the hope center. there need to be systems so that when they leave the center they can be successful like over 550 families coming out of the center have been. we have a $10 million grant application out of the federal government that we believe will eliminate functional childhood homelessness in new castle

county. we want to do it statewide working with schools and facilities like the hope center. let's end the travesty on delaware. sarah: mr. ramone what are the strategies for mitigating the homelessness crisis and those facing immediate homelessness. rep. ramone: we have to go back to the core. why do we have homelessness? because we lost opportunity. when we lost opportunity we had despair. when you have despair it keeps getting worse and worse. i suggest let's look at the problem. we have counties and municipalities that have created so many regulatory hurdles to build a community in a way that is affordable. if you are making them have all of these regulatory byproducts, and they will never be able to produce affordable homes. they will only produce what

makes money. that's the way businessmen work. i suggest in order to incur the path towards the direction we would rather, let's talk about smart proof that i was talking about 20 years ago when i ran for county counsel. i ran with chris coons and we spoke about it a lot. there were good practices and things we digested. what happened? it was forgotten. now one beauty of a politician is they create a problem that they went on to get reelected. i don't agree with that. the problem is we need affordable housing and we needed to create cluster home areas where people can live in an affordable house. maybe some commercial, may be some office, in an area where a builder can afford to put affordable homes in because a secondary income is coming from other sectors. ; another question about affordable housing. with rising real estate prices in delaware becoming the first

time home buyer is a challenge. while the delaware state housing authority has several first-time buyers support programs last year less than 750 families used the programs to purchase a home. the programs have limited funds and expire at the end of the current administration. do you support rehabbing programs such as these and would you look to other methods of supporting first-time homebuyers? rep. ramone: i don't think the government should have her pick winners and losers. i think we need to create incentives for growth and movement but not underwrite winners or losers. if you want to enhance people buying homes with the real estate transfer tax back to 3% rather than 4%. well, we need it at 4% because we need another $800 million you are there and it keeps going on. you need a person that runs companies, not governments. governments need money. they raise taxes and take it from you. businesses need money and become

customer oriented and try to do the best they can. using people's desires. i want to enhance people's desires to be delwarians, to bring fen tech, biotech, to delaware. a place where we are bringing in high-paying jobs. this will eventually eliminate homelessness. mr. meyer: i don't think tax cuts are the solution to a crisis of affordability. delwarians out there are really struggling. the rent is too high and as leaders we have to get things done. we have to do things to make sure that people really struggling can pay rent. in new castle county we partnered with habitat for humanity. to offer low-cost rentals for a period of years while somebody

rehabbed their credit so then they could purchase their home. on average we would send $1 million, $3 million, two million dollars to new castle county on affordable housing. a larger fund for affordability than has ever been created in county history. there needs to be additional investment. there needs to be opportunities for first-time homebuying including possibly reducing taxes but only for working people who truly need it. sarah: both of you discussed controlling construction costs to boost affordable housing production in the state. what are specific regulations or building code reforms you intend to change? rep. ramone: i have met with the business roundtable and many of the business sectors. the biggest hurdles to them being able to produce housing at an affordable rate in a fast fashion. they have given 6-10 really good

points that not everybody agrees with. but i won't install here. guess what? then people get in the game. this is better for me. matt probably knows a lot about what those who wish to build wish to do working in the county but in the state our job is not to write up regulatory zoning. our job is to create a business cycle that goes faster. i want to build a community rather than have to go to the county, state, and municipality. we have been talking about this for 10 years. we bought new technology. by the time we get it in it is five years too old. we need to catch up and prioritize things that are crisis. we have crises building affordable housing. we need to partnership with those best suited to build affordable housing in a fast fashion at a fair rate of pay. the state of delaware has partnered with new castle county in many development packages, whether it was the mission of

carrying or habitat for humanity, several in which we have enhance investments by six -- significant numbers to help all these environments but they aren't solving the problem. those that have to solve the problem are those with the resources and ability to quickly address multiple housing units at affordable prices in environments that can still be profitable. sarah: same question for you, mr. meyer. mr. meyer: our administration day one will have more experience dealing with building inspection code, and zoning than anyone who has served as governor of delaware in my lifetime. when i started in new castle county january 2017 all we heard was it was impossible to build here. there were huge projects we were losing opportunities on. we created a program called jobs now that has created over 13,000 jobs for delwarians streamlining

policies and regulatory regimes so investors interested in creating a lot of jobs can do so and it did so quickly. now we need to do that for housing. mr. ramone is correct. local jurisdictions primarily regulate -- be it at the state level we will provide incentives for local jurisdictions to create legislation that incentivizes affordable housing. in addition what we would do, that i saw in leading the county when an investor comes that wants to invest in affordable housing you have local jurisdictions pointing to the department of transportation of the state, the department of environment in the state, the fire marshal. we will create a single office data business people can go to, that housing developers can go to that will streamline the process. in philadelphia 1.6 million people a single government. in delaware a million people 50, 60 governments.

we need to make sure they can all work together. that will be the job of my administration. problem: the next question will come from our -- tom: the next question will come from our student television executive producer. >> there are tons of costs we have to think about, bills, groceries, insurance, car payments. if we had more time to list could go on. as governor, how would you help alleviate the transition for young people about to go start their lives in delaware. mr. meyer: that the great question. the university of delaware has among the highest percentage of students in the country that go to a state university that they leave the state to start working. one reason why it's exactly what casey expressed. housing is a key part of that. i imagine, casey, not many of

your classmates want to go back and live with mom and dad after college. we have to make sure that housing is affordable and create effective pathways. there are those under the university of delaware that want to start companies. they have an amazing idea. unfortunately those ideas and the start of those companies is it too often relegated to just the wealthy. if you have a rich uncle that can support your start up you get an opportunity to do it. we will look at the edge grant program and the variety of opportunities to grow small business. reducing cost is one issue and we also have to increase wages. this is vitally important with students coming out of university. and we are collaborating with retailers and restaurants to make sure cost structures are low, doing what we can to make sure dental continues to be a low-cost state. tom: mr. ramone same question.

rep. ramone: i find it intriguing that often when you have all of the answers, but then you don't understand they all have expenses to them. when you have all of the expenses in place the issue then becomes inflation and very desperate areas where you can't afford to do anything to live. what i was first starting my business, 20 years old at the university of delaware is a junior i went to a flower shop -- opened a flower shop, went to a bank, spoke to people. my parents did not have money. i had to borrow money. i opened the first ramon's flower shop. it became seven. then we bought wholesale. then my entrepreneurial career took off. but the point is those startup opportunities aren't available today. these technology jobs, thin tech, biotech, all of this

beautiful growth in new castle county, most of it was the start project, the university of delaware which explodes having to go through the county for regulatory behavior. we can talk all we want to talk. but we have to understand what we need to do. we have to simplify the path for people to be able to open a business, build a business and build a staff to work the business. if we bring in fintech and biotech and partner with the university of delaware and work with counties and states in one of the global environment rather than an office here or there we can use technology to communicate with each other and together we can solve the problems. no one governor or person will solve it. it has to be a team approach. tom: another major issue on the minds of delaware voters is climate change and its impact. the indian river inlet has seen dune breaches twice and in the past few months causing closures on route one highlighting delaware's vulnerability. given this issue and severe

flooding in wilmington three years ago in the wake of hurricane ida, how confident are you now that delaware is prepared for a major storm event ? are there more immediate resiliency steps that should be taking now? rep. ramone: we need to be careful when we talk about the environment. absolutely we have an issue. there are clearly flooding issues coming. it storms are getting worst i get that. science you can argue. some say it is scientific. some say it is man-made. it does not matter. mandating everybody has to buy an ev car and now we have to build these ev's and take them around. having them parked next to people's houses with radios

blurring. a nightmare. toyota had the answer. i got three of them for my family at our company. they were gas powered disease. you get the battery and gas. you go from 20 miles for 18 miles to 40 or 50 miles to the gallon. when that governor tries and enforced speed thing it normally does not work. maryland is trying to force windmills. we are getting everything out of it. new jersey put a nuclear plant next to our state. we don't get anything out of it. we need to think about what works for delaware and enhance its opportunities to get it done such as the new concept coming with the nuclear plant. there is a nuclear environment you can build within a city or town that can maintain the whole town in less than 5-10 years. the other is the hub we just passed, a collaborative between us, new jersey, and pennsylvania, but an out of time.

tom: about immediate resiliency issues in the state can the state withstand a major storm riding -- storm like helene or milton? mr. meyer: the challenge of living in a state with on average the lowest sea level in the country protecting that i was areas and my opponent says the solution is to eliminate an electric vehicle mandate. we need to invest in resiliency. we need to invest in infrastructure. climate change is real and we need to act with urgency. it is a true existential crisis. the number of days where we see 90 or higher feet across our state -- 90 degrees or higher heat across our state, higher than it has been in centuries. we need to make sure that the less fortunate among us have

safe places to go during the hardest hit storms. we need to make sure when tornadoes sweep through we are prepared. a quick story. a kid in my 18 years going through up until i graduated high school and went to college i believe there was one tornado in delaware. we have had like five in new castle county in the last three years. they are devastating homes. they are devastating neighborhoods. i'm not -- i don't believe we can take action as it delaware governor to prevent the tornadoes and hurricanes. but, we need to invest with urgency to make sure we protect against them. rep. ramone: i will be brief. i think we have done a phenomenal job with resiliency. i think if you talk to governor markel or governor carney we have been excellent at resolving issues. versus anyone else we are one of the best. what i did say -- i don't appreciate when political practices put words in people's

mouths. i clearly said yes. there is climate change. is it man-made. or 100%. i don't think so. we have to put strong, big solutions not put sandbags up or whatever. we have to use our money so that when we have a void at the indian river inlet we don't babysit it for three years. tom: we will talk about some of this now. we want to look at more long-term resiliency. a recent study found based on economic benefit, local and county governments should be picking up a larger percentage of the costs necessary to conduct beach nourishment projects. what long-term fixes would you propose to address delaware flooding at ocean beaches and you think local government should have more responsibility

in those efforts? we will start with you, mr. meyer. mr. meyer: i entered this career as a ticked off teacher and i will enter government as a ticked off government leader. it is our shared interest to sit in the room as leaders and figure out how to invest in this for our future, our collective environmental future to make sure the state can exist for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and immediate economic needs. when the indian river inlet is flooding roads a couple times a year based on brainstorms that are bad but not 100 year storms we need to act and act with urgency. i know there has been a disagreement with the state environment of -- department of environment will be sources about who should pay, we will sit down and get an agreement because it is in delaware's

interests. we will make sure that the business economically are booming now, doing very well. we need to make sure the revenue, we trace where it goes and invest it to keep the community sustainable. that is what we will do. it will be unprecedented collaboration between state and local government. tom: looking at long-term resiliency should local governments be paying more share? rep. ramone: you have to look at the problem. the problem is not being angry and then saying state and local government will work together. the problem is problem resolution. let's figure out what is wrong. when we have a $4 billion over four years and a failed a pumping system, we already had it fixed and working well. when it broke we never prioritized the money being spent there. why? because, the money does not get justified being spent there until something happens. now we can say this happened. now we will get both. that's the problem with politics, politicians.

you want to be this and do that. it doesn't work. when you are a public servant and you want to be in the state of delaware to help delaware be smarter and better as it addresses business things you become a representative. when you learn for 41 different districts what it is like to be a representative and learn the problems and issues of those 41 districts you want to solve problems again but you want to work it in a bipartisan way. we have a one party. something great. we should have even more power to take over the world. i default to the mike castle harper years. that is where i grew up and it worked for me. i will say this. delaware could be the most environmentally friendly state in the nation because of our size. we have the highest energy cost in the nation. we could be the best. if we digested a balanced initiative to develop nuclear and hydrogen energy in areas. the president of the u.s. just

said we are the perfect place. tom: we will head back to student journalist casey. casey: later this month we will host a series of community engagement events to get insight about what changes should be made to the 2025 climate action plan. if elected your administration will be in charge of the updates. what changes do you think should be made? rep. ramone: for me it's fairly simple. most of you heard me as the champion fighting against the ev mandate. i can't perceive how the government feels the secretary of the department can go override the legislature and tell our community they have to switch to ev cars in an extremely reduced way even when we -- it is the california teen air car initiative two and california delayed the clean air initiative two but we did not.

it's preposterous. we need to go back to doing things that will actually solve problems. putting a bunch of evs in a little tiny state -- remember, delaware is one of the smallest state in the nation -- but we are geographically located between boston and virginia to an incredible percentage of the population. we need to take advantage of that. we need to speed in the market. we need efficiency. we need to work together. we do not need to be partisan. we don't need to say a couple more votes and we can control super majorities everywhere in every state. people in delaware don't want that. they want delwarians working together -- we are delaware. every problem it comes to our state needs to be solved in the best interest of the people that live in our state. we have a nuclear plant here and we might have windmills and we might have