The Delaware Millionaires Funding The DelawareCAN PAC

DelawareCAN, the offshoot of 50CAN, came to Delaware in 2017.  Headed up by a former Delaware Department of Education employee, Atnre Alleyne, there is now a Political Action Committee (PAC).  They released their campaign finance report two days ago and some big Delaware millionaires are donating big bucks!

The man behind Delaware Business Media and Delaware Today, Robert Martinelli, donated $5,000.00 to the DelawareCAN  PAC.

James Stewart III, one of the co-founders of Barclays and past President and currently the man behind Epic Research, donated $5,000 to the DelawareCAN PAC.

The husband and wife team of Rodman and Gina Ward each donated $5,000 to the DelawareCAN PAC.  Rodman Ward III is the President of Corporation Services Company.  He also sits on the DelawareCAN board.

For PACs, an individual can donate as much as they want.  But this is crazy.  Why are these folks donating so much to DelawareCAN?

The Board of DelawareCAN is very interesting.  Along with Ward III, other board members include former State Rep. Darryl Scott and Diane Donohue, the former DSEA President back in the first year of Race To The Top.  Donohue is an interesting woman.  She is considered by many to be the Delaware Teacher Traitor of Delaware for her role in getting Delaware’s Race To The Top application approved.  Last August, she publicly slammed DSEA in a Facebook post and praised Chris Ruszkowski.  Chris, along with Alleyne, were in charge of the Race To The Top created Delaware DOE area called the Teacher/Leader Effectiveness Unit.

Both Rodman Ward and James Stewart III serve on the board of the Rodel Foundation.  Ward is the co-chair of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership.  Delaware Today frequently writes articles praising charter schools.  All of these folks are tied closely to corporate education reform movements in Delaware.

So what is 50CAN, the parent organization of DelawareCAN?  Blogger deutsch29 wrote about them last year:

50CAN is a corporate reform organization that wants to expand many facets of education reform including increasing the number of charter schools (as well as the money they receive); promote the grading of schools using test scores, and passing state-level legislation for “achievement school districts” (state-run districts).

Say, wasn’t that last bit something State Rep. Earl Jaques talked about at one of the School District Consolidation Task Force meetings earlier this year?

I’m not going to sit here and say Alleyne doesn’t do some good things.  I liked his “get out the vote” effort for school board elections in May.  I think his heart is on the right place but I question this alliance with 50CAN.  Alleyne and I are miles apart on policy most of the time.  His work at the Delaware DOE was very intrusive for teachers.

The DelawareCAN PAC has not donated any money to any candidates yet.  Are they waiting until after the primary?  It will be interesting to see who this money goes to.  I will surmise if one candidate wins the primary, this PAC will share tons of money with that campaign.  And I have a sneaky feeling they will back a certain Republican candidate for statewide office.

The Delaware State Education Association has a PAC as well, but they do not take money from union dues.  These are all donations by DSEA members.  None of the donations come anywhere close to the four donations for DelawareCAN.

To see these donations, please see below.

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