Senate & House Education Committees To Hear Controversial School Voucher & School Board Election Bills This Week!!!! And A Big Vote On Thursday!!!!

After a two-week recess, the Delaware General Assembly returns tomorrow  Both the Delaware Senate and House Education Committee meetings have some controversy coming on Wednesday in the form of two bills.  Both of these bills may draw a crowd, so get there early!  And two very popular bills will finally get a vote this week.

In the House, the Education Committee will meet at 2:30pm to discuss State Rep. Hudson’s school voucher bill.  House Bill 161, introduced a year ago, would take the state funding allocated to a particular student and put it in a “Parent Empowerment Education Savings Account”.  So, as an example, say a student gets $11,000 in state funding from Lake Forest School District.  If the student goes to a private school, those funds would be deposited into the savings account and it would go towards the tuition at the private school (which can also include books, tests, and more).  The bill does specify this would only be used for “exceptional children” as defined by state code.  When this bill first came out, many thought it would not just mean a child with a disability, but also talented and gifted students.  An amendment, added to the bill last June, eliminates that option.  This bill is just for students with disabilities.

The problem with school vouchers is it is more funds disappearing from the local education district.  The referendums are bad enough, but this would just add fuel to the fire.  Many folks who are anti-referendum want school vouchers and they don’t want their local taxes paying for public education.  In my opinion, if a parent makes a choice to send their child to a private school, you should still have to pay school taxes.  Every state has school taxes, and Delaware is no exception.  School vouchers are very popular with Republicans, but the results from other states have been very mixed.

At 3pm, the Senate Education Committee will hear Senate Bill 165.  After the controversial Red Clay referendum last year, Delaware Senator Karen Peterson introduced Senate Bill 165.  This legislation would cut polling places in school board elections and referendums, and all voting would be done through the U.S. mail.  As well, all voters would have to be registered to vote.  To add more heat, all school board elections AND referenda would be on the second Tuesday of May.  For districts that don’t have a referendum pass, they would have to wait another year to have another one.

A lot of folks do not like this bill at all.  Ironically, First State Liberty, the organization in Delaware that makes robo-calls during Christina referenda, is vehemently against this bill.  To be honest, I haven’t talked to anyone who supports this bill.  This one will draw a crowd.  I imagine some folks may want to attend both meetings, so I could see a mad rush to get through the House Education Committee meeting and then folks literally running upstairs to get to the Senate meeting half an hour later.

The Senate meeting will also have a presentation from the Parent Advocacy Council for Education (PACE).  Another bill which will be heard in the House meeting will be State Rep. Kim Williams very awesome House Bill 232.  This bill would allow public comment on any action item, be it a resolution, a charter school action, or anything else the State Board of Education votes on.  Currently, the State Board does not allow public comment at any of their meetings on any action item unless they give explicit permission (as they recently did with the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission redistricting plan).  As well, the House Education Committee will hear Senate Joint Resolution #8, which honors Delaware State University for their 125th Anniversary.

School vouchers, referenda, and school board elections.  While I don’t expect any of these drawing a crowd like House Bill 50 (the opt out legislation) did last year, I already know people who will be there.  The votes from the committee members will be very interesting on these bills.

Two bills released from the Senate Education Committee last June will be given a full Senate vote on Thursday.  Senate Bills 92 and 93, both dealing with Autism (see the Education Legislation tab at the top of the page).  April is also Autism Awareness Month, so it is fitting these bills will get a vote this month.

Delaware’s Special Education Plan To Prevent IEPs & Improve Smarter Balanced Scores

Ever since Delaware received the label of “needs intervention” with special education in June of 2014 from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the United States Department of Education, the Delaware Department of Education made every effort to do everything but tackle the number one problem of special education: making sure IEPs are implemented with fidelity.

Their solution to the problem: make sure children can read by 3rd grade so they can score proficient on the Smarter Balanced Assessment.  Every state in America has a checklist of items, dictated by the US DOE, that they are monitored on by OSEP.  One of them, Indicator 17, is a plan each state must come up with to improve special education outcomes.  The Exceptional Children Resources Group, the special education area at the Delaware DOE, chose the Delaware Early Literacy Initiative as their project for Indicator 17.

To say this is a confusing mess would be an understatement of epic proportions.  I find it even more troubling they would pick Kindergarten to 3rd Grade as their test subjects when they know children in those grades don’t receive basic special education funding.  The students who are considered intense or complex do, but the bulk of the students with disabilities in those grades fall under “Basic Special Education”.  As a result, some schools in Delaware are hesitant to grant IEPs for these students since they know the cost will fall on the district or charter school without any extra money from the state.

The Delaware DOE relies on Response to Intervention as a way of determining if a child needs special education services or not.  It is a faulty system, mandated by the feds, that can take years before a child is fully identified for special education.  As a result, these children become lost in a system while their neurological disabilities manifest.  An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is designed for that particular student.  The IEP team, consisting of the school Special Education director, a Principal or Vice-Principal, the primary teachers, the school nurse, the school psychologist, and the parent or parents of the child.

Judith Canty Graves and Carson Graves, of the website Make Special Education Work, recently wrote an article about why RTI isn’t working.  In the article, they wrote:

Even though RTI instruction may be high quality and research-based, can it meet your child’s unique needs? Meeting these needs through an individualized education program is your child’s right under IDEA.

While the Delaware DOE’s Early Literacy Initiative is certainly a long read, it is chock full of errors and omissions that fail to adequately address the unique and individual attention a child with disabilities truly needs.

 

Kowalko Talks House Bill 50, Opt Out, & The Will Of The People On Delaware Way With Larry Mendte

Delaware State Rep. John Kowalko appeared on “The Delaware Way” with host Larry Mendte last week to discuss parent opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment and  the veto override of House Bill 50 and the bill’s chances.  Citing the bill sits on the House Ready List, Kowalko blamed State Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, the Delaware Speaker of the House, for letting the bill just sit there.  Even Mendte said polling in the state suggests the people overwhelmingly want this bill.  Kowalko felt it wasn’t right for the Governor to usurp the will of the people and the General Assembly with his veto.