General Assembly acts boldly to limit education cuts to $30 million

Devil now in the details

Unexpected and welcomed action by the General Assembly and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner late on April 24 will limit FY09 cuts to public education to $30 million. House Joint Resolution 14, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Cook (D-Kenton) and Rep. Bill Oberle (R-Beecher’s Lot), passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 39-0 (two not voting:  Rep. Greg Lavelle/R and Rep. Bob Valihura/R) and the state Senate by a vote of 18-0 (two not voting:  Sen. Bob Marshall/D and Sen. Karen Peterson/D).

  “Legislators clearly were reacting to the tremendous outpouring of emails and calls they received from DSEA members and parents up and down the state,” said Barbara Grogg, DSEA president. “And we are grateful for this action sufficiently in advance of the May 15th layoff notice and hope that school superintendents will act in the spirit of the resolution, ‘to minimize employee reduction in force notifications and minimize employee layoffs’”.

  Please email Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and state legislators and thank them for their decisive action.

  The following passage from the resolution explains  “…that a strategy to address the current state financial situation must incorporate comprehensive strategies including but not limited to base budget cuts, revenue enhancements and government re-engineering.”

  Moving forward, two points are worth the attention of DSEA members: (1) the implementation of the agreed-upon $30 million budget reduction amount; and (2) the remaining necessity for the General Assembly and Governor to agree upon a new revenue package. The latter point is especially true for a number of other state services that affect children and working families.

  “We will very closely monitor discussions and proposals for the remaining $30 million in cuts to ensure that they are educationally sound,” said DSEA Executive Director Howard Weinberg.

 The budget deficit for FY09 remains at $225 million. With $30 million coming from public education, that still leaves a $195 million gap to be made up from a combination of further budget cuts and revenue increases. And….that presumes no worsening of state revenues between now and the June official state revenue forecast from DEFAC (Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Committee).  

Thus, $30 million actual cut in the Governor’s proposed budget, when combined with the effect of inflation, poses a serious budgetary challenge for our local school districts.

 The official press release issued from Legislative Hall added that, “School officials from around the state sat in meetings with the legislative-administration finance team and said they were pleased with the accord. ‘We are still gong to have to make cuts,’ said Colonial School Superintendent George H. Meney. ‘But we’re looking at operational cuts that we hope won’t be too noticeable in the classroom.’

“Woodbridge School Superintendent Kevin Carson said districts were going to look at making uniform cuts to avoid a patchwork of cuts around the state. Both superintendents praised the group for its effort on behalf of teachers and students.

“’These leaders stepped up and worked hard on behalf of our schools,’ Carson said. ‘They really came through and helped a lot of kids by doing this.’”

Single-Gender School bill signed by Governor, with critical DSEA amendments re: equity and accountability

April 22, 2008...HB 285 (sponsored by Rep. Deborah Hudson - R and Sen. Margaret Rose Henry - D) amends the state's charter school law to allow for single gender charter schools. It includes six DSEA-supported amendments, and was signed on April 21, 2008 by Governor Minner.

• The State Dept. of Education will now oversee Prestige Academy Charter School instead of the Red Clay School District, and that the Dept. of Education will be the sole authorizer for all future same-gender charter schools.

• The State Dept. of Education will provide a written report to the Governor and Education Committees of the General Assembly with a proposal for a third-party study/evaluation of single-gender charter schools in Delaware to examine many factors including academic, social and psychological factors.

• The Dept. of Education shall work with the education community to recruit and provide technical assistance for applicants of same-gender charter schools of the opposite gender (i.e., girls), matching in grade-level and marketed towards similar demographics of the Prestige Academy in Wilmington.

• Every single-gender charter school will report annually their efforts to rrecruit and retain economically-disadvantaged students, regardless of race.

• Any same-gender charter school will "sunset" in five years (June 30, 2013) unless the General Assembly has otherwise acted to extend such date prior to its expiration. The Sunset Committee and General Assembly will have the study available to make their decisions.

To read a review of the research on charter schools, click here.

Delaware's charter school law had prohibited discrimination based on gender. This bill is intended to benefit the Prestige Academy, a charter school authorized last May by the Red Clay School Distrcit. Passage of this bill was a critical step in Prestige Academy's quest to open as an all-boys Grade 5-8 charter school in Wilmington this fall.

The five senators voting against the bill were: Sen. Patricia Blevins (D), Sen. Nancy Cook (D), Sen. Karen Peterson (D), Sen. George Bunting (D), and Sen. David Sokola (D). All eight Republican senators voted for the bill.

DSEA took no position on the bill after securing five amendments described above.

Opposition in the Senate to the bill centered on concerns about the re-creation of gender stereotyping in education as well as whether the bill, once enacted into Delaware law, would violate either Title IX of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or the U.S. Constitution.

Sen. Sokola also referenced the supposed deadlines that Prestige Academy founders claimed to be facing back in January. With legislators subsequently learning that this was not the case, Sokola mentioned that this "…left a poor taste in peoples’ mouths." Despite his own stated misgivings about the bill, Sen. Sokola noted that he worked to release it from the Senate Education Committee because it was "…an important issue and important issues should come to the floor and be debated."

Both Sen. Blevins and Sen. Peterson expressed their deep misgivings about the bill’s effect on girls, particularly in light of the absence of academic literature establishing the proven efficacy of single gender educational environments.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans consistently offered the rationale that "parental choice" should be the overriding governing principle in the Senate’s decision to change the law, with Sen. Colin Bonini (R) bellowing: "Discrimination is telling families that they must go to the failed public schools where they live. … Stop discriminating against them by forcing them into the failed public schools."

Governor signs contract arbitration bill (HB283) 

House Bill 283, a bill that will allow public education unions to utilize binding interest arbitration to settle contract negotiations that have reached impasse, is now law.

DSEA wishes to offer profuse thanks to Gov. Minner and the sponsors of the bill:  House Speaker Terry Spence (R- New Castle), Rep. Michael Mulrooney (D- New Castle), Sen. Bob Marshall (D- Wilmington), and Sen. Dori Connor (R- New Castle) for their leadership and advocacy. A total of 40 members of the General Assembly (out of a total of 62) --- 29 Democrats and 11 Republicans --- served as either prime or co-sponsors of the legislation  

DSEA also wishes to recognize the support of the Delaware Chief School Officers (i.e., superintendents of schools) who placed their support for this bill on the legislative record.

Most of all, we want to thank all DSEA members who took the time to send emails and make calls to their state legislators. Your support of the bill was mentioned on numerous occasions by members of the General Assembly. This is a major legislative achievement for which our entire union can take credit.

Representatives Spence (R), Mulrooney (D), Carson (D), and Senators Marshall (D) and Connor (R) are all members of their respective Labor Committees, and Spence and Marshall are the Labor Committee chairs.

Revocation of licenses clarified in HB259

Right now, if you are a teacher or specialist, and your district moves to revoke your license, the Secretary of Education has only two choices: revoke or not revoke. A new bill recently introduced, HB259, gives him/her a third option: suspend. If suspended, the license may not be suspended for more than five years and you have the right to apply for license renewal if all the requirements have been satisfied.

This bill also allows the Secretary to deny an application for licensure on the same grounds as for revocation.

License holders are entitled to notice and hearing before the Professional Standards Board.

DSEA worked on this bill in order to clarify the law regarding grounds for suspension, revocation and reinstatement; give the Secretary some leniency where warranted; and to make sure that due process righ ts are protected.

To read the entire bill, click here.

It is sponsored by Representatives Miro and Lofink; and Senator Dave Sokola. It is now in the House Education Committee.

Governor submits FY 09 budget: no raise, but "steps" are funded, and health insurance premiums remain same

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner’s budget proposes a 3.81% increase, which amounts to $286 million. In light of the looming economic recession and expected dismal growth in state revenues, the Governor’s budget once again prioritizes the needs of working families and economically-disadvantaged citizens.

While it contains no proposed across-the-board pay raise for public education or state employees, the Governor noted that her first priority will be to find money for public education and state employees:  “I especially want to ensure that we continue to work toward providing a living wage for our lowest paid employees.”

Regarding public education, Gov. Minner’s budged proposes :

• To include funding for all public education employee step increases;
• To freeze employee contribution rates for health insurance for the third consecutive year (A decision in February is expected regarding co-payments and deductibles.);
• To increase the state’s annual contribution into the newly-established, single-purpose trust fund to pay for post-retirement health insurance of retired public education and state employees;
• An additional $2.6 million for the continued implementation of full-day kindergarten;
• An additional $9.8 million for projected unit growth in student enrollment in public schools;
• An additional $2.0 million for Skills, Knowledge and Responsibilities Pay Supplements for completion  of professional development clusters; and
• An additional $689,000 to fund expansion of the SEED scholarship program for Delaware high school graduates to attend Delaware Tech.

The overall increases for public education total 3.76% more than was budgeted for this year.Public education's share of the total proposed budget is $1.154 million out of a total state budget of $3.41 billion, or 34% of the state’s operating budget.

In addition, Minner is recommending $132.7 million for public education construction projects in the following districts: Colonial, Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, Capital, Smyrna, Lake Forest, Milford, and Brandywine, as well as renovations to the water system at Sussex Tech, and construction of a new Sterck School for the Deaf in Christina.

President Barbara Grogg will present DSEA’s priorities for the budget at the public education hearing of the Joint Finance Commitee, slated for February 20th at 1:00 p.m.

Major Court ruling on No Child Left Behind:
States and school districts not required to spend own funds to comply with law

Victory announced on the eve of the controversial law’s sixth anniversary

WASHINGTON - January 7, 2008.... On the same day President George W. Bush held a press conference in Chicago to defend the failing No Child Left Behind, and on the eve of NCLB’s sixth anniversary, a federal appeals court delivered yet another major blow to the controversial law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled today that Secretary Spellings is violating the Spending Clause of the Constitution by requiring states and school districts to spend their own funds to comply with the law.

"The court’s message couldn’t be more clear: If the president is sincere about continuing No Child Left Behind, he needs to put his money where his mouth is,” said NEA President Reg Weaver. “The president refuses to budge on NCLB, his flagship domestic policy, but unless he takes action it is clearly a sinking ship.”

Six years ago, President Bush promised to fully fund NCLB. But the president has consistently refused to make good on his promises. Due to Bush’s recent veto of the FY 2008 education appropriations bill, there will be a $14.8 billion gap in funding for NCLB programs. That is on top of the previous cumulative gap of $56.1 billion.

The ruling is a major victory for the National Education Association and the other plaintiffs – including nine school districts and nine NEA state affiliates – which brought the lawsuit in April 2005 to oppose costly federal regulations that divert money from children and classrooms to paperwork and bureaucracy. Today’s ruling by the appeals court reverses the lower court’s November 2005 summary judgment dismissing the lawsuit.  

At issue is Section 9527(a) of the law that says, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to …. mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act.”

NEA and the other plaintiffs had argued in their complaint that this section of the law prevents the federal government from requiring states and school districts to spend their own funds to comply with the law’s mandates.

The lawsuit does not challenge the laudable goals of the law or call for its dismantling. Instead, it simply argues that any federal mandates in this law must come with tools and resources to get the job done. Otherwise, educators can’t be expected to do more with less. The court agreed, holding that the Education Department’s interpretations of NCLB, requiring that states and school districts devote their own funds to NCLB compliance, “violate the Spending Clause.”

“It’s time for the Secretary to comply with the law and the Constitution,” Weaver said. “If the administration won’t ensure that states and schools have the federal funds needed to implement the law, then they must cease with threats to punish states and districts who cannot comply due to lack of federal funds.”

The lack of funding at issue in the lawsuit is just one aspect of NCLB that has come under increased fire recently. Parents, teachers and lawmakers have called for reform because of the law’s obsessive focus on standardized testing, heavy-handed punishments and bureaucratic protocols.

For more information, please visit the NEA web site.
The decision is available here.

Quick Links