Del. governor delivers State of the State speech

In his State of the State speech, Markell said improving Delaware schools is important to helping Delaware meet the demands of "the world we now live in."

He called for strengthening standards for entering the teaching profession, raising starting teacher pay, and improving pay for teachers in high-need schools and critical subjects.

"If we're to have the best education system in the country, we can't continue to have the lowest starting and average teacher salaries in our region," Markell said. "We can change this without substantial new resources by re-examining our pay structure, which hasn't been substantively changed in decades."

In a speech short on specifics, Markell also called for more mental health workers in middle schools, noting that only three middle schools in Delaware have full-time professionals responsible for the mental health needs of students.

"That's a huge gap in our care for adolescents," said Markell, who proposed a tenfold increase in the number of trained mental health personnel in middle schools.

In the wake of last month's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the governor also proposed speeding up implementation of a law passed last year that requires every Delaware public school to have a state-of-the-art safety plan in place within five years. Markell said the timetable should be reduced to two years.

Markell, who warned about unsustainable growth in Medicaid costs in his two previous State of the State speeches but supports expansion of Delaware's Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act, barely mentioned health care this year. He called for "new payment models" that reward great outcomes, encourage healthy behavior and reduce costs.