Six More Years of Pat Heffernan On DE State Board of Education

This one slipped under the radar!  We have six more years of the Heff Show during the State Board of Education monthly meetings.  I have to admit, I have no clue what Heff is talking about half the time.  His voting is very crazy on education issues.  I was shocked when he voted no for Gateway’s renewal.  Delaware legislators, isn’t it past time one of you got a bill going for election of these board members?

148th General Assembly
Nominee Information
Gerald Heffernan

Nomination Title:    State Board of Education (Board/Commission Name)

Status: Passed

Title: First Name: Gerald Middle Intial: Last Name: Heffernan Designation:

Date Read In: 01/15/2015 Hearing Date: Length of Term: 6 years Term Expiration Date:

Comments:

Markell Makes Sure Rodel Buddy Gets $10 Million In Budget Funds But No Special Education Funding & Cuts To Seniors?

Governor Jack Markell, you really don’t care what happens in your last two years in office.  But you did make sure your Rodel buddy got confirmed by the Delaware Senate:

148th General Assembly
Nominee Information
Frederick Sears,II

Nomination Title:    Director of the Diamond State Port Corporation (Board/Commission Name)

Status: Confirmed

Title: First Name: Frederick Middle Intial: Last Name: Sears Designation: II

Date Read In: 01/08/2015 Hearing Date: Length of Term: 3 years Term Expiration Date:

And then in your 2016 budget speech, you announced you were cutting tax breaks to senior citizens, but you are giving $10 million to the company your Rodel buddy is now leading?  For a  crane and “infrastructure spending”?  And yet the priority schools will only get $5 million in funding over three years? How about using that $10 million for the elderly, or for the special education funding through House Bill 30 which is needed much more than a crane.  Corruption abounds in this state…

Delaware DOE Is Completely Out Of Touch With Reality & Needs To Be Held Accountable

Below are the minutes from the January 21st, 2015 Delaware House Education Committee meeting.  The Delaware DOE presented the latest round of Elementary Secondary Education Act flexibility waivers to the House Education Committee.

They were grilled by legislators with very hard questions.  Some of them were either not answered or given superficial answers without much detail.  State Rep. Kim Williams asked the hardest questions:

Vice-Chair Williams commented that the Operating Budget for the previous year was amended (Sec. 154 and 155, c.1) and removed statutory authority from the legislature and allowed DDOE to “override Delaware law” and provide regulation. She questioned as to why legislators were “kept in the dark” regarding the amended Operating Budget and why was it necessary to “have chapter one removed without” the knowledge of the legislature.  DDOE was unable to answer the questions due to a lack of representation from those who made the decision. Chair Jaques asked that the question be taken to Secretary Murphy and an answer will be brought back to the committee. DDOE agreed.

Vice-Chair Williams continued that she was disappointed to know she voted on the Operating Budget which gave away her authority. She asked that, in the future, the agency explain why an addition or deletion is necessary prior to voting.

The full minutes with fascinating material can be read below.

Special Education in Delaware Is Still Failing Miserably Based On Annual Performance Report

The Delaware Department of Education Exceptional Children Resources Group gave a presentation to the Governors Advisory Council for Exceptional Children (GACEC) on January 20th.  This was led by the Director of the DOE group, Mary Ann Mieczkowski, also a member of GACEC, as well as another member of this DOE Group, Barb Mazza.

The presentation dealt with the indicators all states are judged on by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the US Department of Education.  There are 17 indicators, and this presentation showed how Delaware did for 16 of them for Fiscal Year 2013.  Last June, OSEP labeled Delaware as one of three states needing federal intervention for special education.

Did they improve for FY 2013?  Read the below file and judge for yourself.