Yesterday, Red Clay Superintendent Dr. Merv Daugherty sent a letter to parents advising them of all the education cuts since 2008. He also urged them to attend the Delaware PTA rally outside Legislative Hall next week to support basic special education funding for students in Kindergarten to 3rd grade.
I agree with a lot of what Merv said but then again I have to wonder about some of his logic. After all, Red Clay did purchase one-to-one devices for all their students which costs a pretty penny. As well, they are one of the few districts that still has Race To The Top administrators even though the funding for that horrible federal initiative ended years ago.
His language in the letter confused me a bit though because he asks parents to vote with public education funding in mind. Yes, the General Assembly decides the budget. But who is Merv asking these parents to vote for? State legislators? School board candidates? Should a school Superintendent be pushing parents toward certain votes? And that’s what happens when I don’t have my morning coffee before I write!
In terms of special education, I have supported any bill that gives that funding. This is the foundation of special education for these kids. It baffles me that our legislators will fund pre-school as much as they do but not provide this necessary and vital funding. They really don’t have any more excuses to justify their cowardice with special education funding. I highly salute the legislators who consistently support State Rep. Kim William’s bills to get this going. If you have the means, come down to Legislative Hall next Wednesday, May 9th, at 1:30pm, on the East steps.
I fully support public education funding but I also support the ability to properly audit those funds if need be. Last year, the State Auditor’s office released a report on education funds but since so many school districts code expenditures different the auditor couldn’t make heads or tails of the funding. So perhaps we should be making sure our vote for State Auditor is a sound one and not based on a popularity contest among certain legislators. If you are going to vote for a Kathy in September, make sure it is for Davies!
Things I like that are going on? Senator Dave Sokola’s bill for education funding transparency which could go a bit further than what it has in it now. I love the fact that people are waking up to education issues and speaking out. We may not always agree, but the discussion is healthy.
To read Merv’s letter to parents, please see below:
The Season Of Myths 
Not sure what is meant by “declining tax assessments in NCC” since the State sets the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RTT) rate that NCC gets, and the State legislature took an additional 1/2% back. Also, with the amount of money the 19 school districts get, there should be 100% transparency on every damned penny being spent so that all taxpayers can see exactly where the money goes. The time for a serious look at District consolidation is long overdue for such a small state with less than 230k public school students in a State of less than 1 million total population. Money saved is money that can be used to fund special ed programs and increase teacher pay and get the needed resources into the classrooms. Time to upend the budgeting process and start from the Classroom level and work up to the top level administration. I’d say that all the districts should at the minimum advocate that every district reduce their local purchasing departments and instead create just one for the entire state. That is just one thought to stem the waste and help get our tax dollars to the teachers and students pronto!
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