Good news/bad news:
The good news: One of this session's best bills was introduced.
HB 331(Kowalko) 'removes the exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and thus fully applies FOIA to the University of Delaware and Delaware State University'. Delaware
may now be the only holdout when it comes to requiring academic institutions receiving state funds to open their books.
The bad news: The bill has been assigned to the House Administration Committee, where Pete Schwartzkopf and Valerie Longhurst are likely to keep it buried. I also wonder why this bill wasn't introduced earlier in session. It would have given proponents the chance to push for the release of this bill.
The Senate also passed
SB 209(Townsend), a good first step in considering the potential impact of granting additional charters on existing schools. The bill '
requires the Department of Education to promulgate regulations to further define the meaning and process for consideration of impact in the charter school application review process, to be considered and approved by the State Board
no later than its October 2014 meeting. It also clarifies the conditions that an authorizer may place on an approved application, and provides that the State Board of Education may place or modify conditions to address considerations of impact'.
I think that people are finally seeing that public education is endangered by the worst elements/excesses of the charter movement. Based on the broad sponsorship here, let's hope that this can be brought under control before it's too late.
