I heard about this one last week. Tony Allen, the Chair of the Wilmington Education Committee, warned about this a year ago. Now the Delaware American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans For Educational Opportunity, filed a lawsuit against the State of Delaware over education funding. Unbeknownst to most Delawareans, however, another Delaware ACLU complaint disappeared.
According to The News Journal, the Delaware Dept. of Education released the following statement about the suit:
The Delaware Department of Education has not seen any complaint from these groups and will respond to any litigation against it in court. It is the goal of the Department to assist Delaware’s schools in preparing every student to succeed in college or career and life.
Yeah, pretty much the same thing the DOE said back in 2014 when a complaint against them and Red Clay was filed with the Office of Civil Rights over discrimination in Delaware charter schools.
Who is named in the lawsuit? Governor Carney, Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting, State Treasurer Ken Simpler, and the heads of each county finance office.
To read the complaint, please see below with some exclusive news appearing shortly after.
Jessica Bies at the News Journal wrote in the above article:
According to the lawsuit, the state is failing students from low-income families, students with disabilities and students who are learning English. Test scores for these disadvantaged students are far below state standards set by the Delaware Department of Education in its new plan, the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA.
What the lawsuit wants seems to contradict with what Delaware Governor John Carney wants:
But Gov. John Carney, listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, has said he is not in favor of needs-based funding, in part because it gives extra money to school districts serving at-risk kids without holding them accountable for how they use it. He has also said there is neither the financial nor political support for such a measure.
Yeah, okay Carney. Whatever. We both know how you exert pressure on the General Assembly to do YOUR bidding.
But whatever happened to that old complaint filed in December, 2014? The one the Delaware ACLU filed with the Office of Civil Rights alleging discrimination in certain Delaware charter schools? The Office of Civil Rights rejected that complaint. This never made the press and the Delaware ACLU never released anything on it. Nothing can be found on the Delaware ACLU or OCR websites. But it happened. I reached out to the Delaware ACLU early last week to get information on this. They directed me to Richard Morse, who is now with Delaware Community Legal Aid. Mr. Morse did not return my call. I guess someone wanted that complaint to die a quick and painful death.
This lawsuit cannot be ignored though. It was filed with the Delaware Chancery Court today. This could be a game-changer folks!
On Facebook last week, I wrote about knowing some things coming up but I couldn’t write about them yet. This was two of them.
The Season Of Myths 
WEIC is at it again. An old adage, “it is never to late to turn around, if you are indeed on the wrong road”, would seem to apply here. If their true goal is to provide a quality education for students residing in Wilmington, there is a reason to re-establish the Wilmington School District. The State of Delaware can then use tax money based on income to treat this homogenous “low income” population to a first rate education based on the latest in Ed theory.
The Community could rally and imbue the necessary pride in the outcome. There are two first rate High Schools in Wilmington ready to be repurposed. Howard VoTec can be the example of immediate results due to commitment by the State.
Vast amounts of money are being wasted in the false hope that one community can pull up another by edict, a PC concept right out of the 80’s. In the latest farce, Red Clay’s referendum, many millions have been spent to defend their questionable tactics to obtain a Yes vote. This year alone the District paid Young Conaway Stargate and Taylor $870,000, the preceeding year probably as much or more, plus using their Liability insurance to the limit. Little 1/3 acre lots have had their taxes doubled as if they were the villianous “land owners”. Class warfare is being directed at the little guy. Come up with a tax on stock ownership. Capital that has a current valuation.
WEIC is pushing for re-assessment of the entire State (ready for this Sussex?) over 1983 valuations. Whether the motivations are class warfare or racial, it insists the State to give Wilmington schools more tax money, so do it, but drop the idea that students have to travel away from their homes to be educated. Create a desire to learn and facilitate it, in Wilmington!
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The State has dropped out of the “busing” business. Transportation costs for moving Wilmington students to far away suburban schools will be picked up by the “land owners”, in new taxes. Meanwhile, to escape forced busing, other students are bused to Charter schools, wow, time to END the busing concept!
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