DL Open Thread: Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Redding Consortium Proposes Merging Four NCC School Districts Into One Mega-District:
The state task force charged with drawing plans to redistrict Wilmington schools recommended combining Delaware’s four northernmost school districts – representing a seismic shift in public education in Delaware that could have far-reaching effects, if ultimately approved.
The affected districts would include the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated school districts.
The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity, a 6-year-old group formed unanimously by statehouse legislators to seek solutions to decades-long educational inequality for Wilmington students, had three options on the table ahead of Tuesday night’s highly watched vote.
It ultimately chose the most radical option, which would create a school district with more than 45,000 students.
The final vote of Redding members was 19-2, with Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson and Christina Superintendent Deirdra Joyner in opposition. Red Clay Superintendent Dorrell Green and Colonial Superintendent Jeffrey Menzer voted for the plan, but did express support for a less drastic model too.
The recommendation will now move to the Delaware State Board of Education – a group that rarely sparks public controversy – and finally the Delaware General Assembly and Gov. Matt Meyer, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting and supported the plan known as the Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District.
Whether state legislators would be willing to approve such a radical shake-up of Wilmington’s school districts – especially in an election year – is unclear.
Redding Consortium co-chair State Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington) said she and the Consortium would not have passed the vote if they did not think it would pass through the General Assembly.
“I would have had a harder time if I truly believed that we did not have the capacity to seriously consider and pass such a plan,” she said.
How Did Jeffrey Epstein Get His Money? He was a scam artist from the very beginning, and was enabled by people who now regret enabling him:
Epstein was about to lose his teaching job at Manhattan’s prestigious Dalton School when he was invited by a student’s parent to an event at an art gallery, according to a document prepared by his lawyers and a recording of Epstein that we obtained. At the gallery, he met another Dalton parent, who connected him to Ace Greenberg, the future chief executive of Bear Stearns. This earliest part of Epstein’s rise has not previously been reported.
Greenberg took him under his wing and even seated Epstein next to his 20-year-old daughter at a dinner party, in what the daughter told us was probably a setup. Soon, Epstein was caught committing a series of flagrant offenses — falsely claiming he had graduated from college, abusing his expense account and giving a girlfriend privileged access to investment deals — which we are reporting in full for the first time. Yet the firm repeatedly gave him second chances.
Articles like this are why I keep my NYTimes subscription.
Mike Johnson: No Health Care Insurance For You! Rethugs in his caucus panic:
An infuriated Rep. Mike Lawler left a closed-door House Republican meeting Tuesday and sounded off on GOP leaders who are planning to allow key Obamacare subsidies to expire in two weeks.
“This is absolute bullshit,” the New York Republican said.
Lawler’s outburst came after Speaker Mike Johnson told his members in the closed-door meeting that he’s moving forward with a Wednesday vote on a GOP health care bill that would not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies, according to four people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the closed-door comments.
Lawler stood up in the meeting, two of the people said, to call Republican leaders’ decision to allow the expiration “a mistake.”
Johnson pushed back on the criticism from Lawler and allies such as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) at a Tuesday news conference.
“Fitzpatrick and Lawler and the others are fighting tooth-an-nail for their constituents — I understand that as well as anyone, because I’m the one in their districts campaigning with them,” Johnson told reporters, adding that “the solution that is being sought by Democrats would further harm the system.”
‘Further harm the system’. What Johnson proposes, of course, won’t. Obamacare is exceedingly more popular than what people face come the New Year. This is cruelty, pure and simple. It’s also electoral suicide.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Tuesday, the highest level since September 2021 when the economy was still recovering from massive COVID-19 job losses.
“The US economy is in a hiring recession,” Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a post on X. “Almost no jobs have been added since April. Wage gains are slowing. 710,000 more people are unemployed now versus November 2024.”
Long blamed the hiring recession on “a combination of tariff impacts, AI, and cost cutting.Americans are feeling it.”
Even worse is that the BLS said nearly 1 million people are underemployed, working part-time jobs for economic reasons because they cannot find full-time work.
Layoffs have picked up in recent months, as companies contract due in part to Trump’s tariffs and the economic uncertainty they’ve unleashed. And prices are continuing to trend up, no matter how much Trump wants to claim that he’s brought costs down.
No More Confirmations For You–About damn time:
Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, who both sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said in a statement on Tuesday that “there can be no business as usual until justice is delivered for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes”.
Earlier this month, a group of lawmakers from both parties, including Luján and Merkley, called on Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to provide a briefing and status update on the department’s efforts to comply with the act , which requires it to release files related to disgraced financier by 19 December.
Guess What Else Is Being Withheld. Betcha you can:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not release the full, unedited video of the U.S. military’s September strike on an alleged drug boat, which killed 11 “narco-terrorists,” including two survivors in a follow-up strike.
“In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy … Department of Defense policy (I like that), of course, we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters after briefing senators on the U.S. military’s ongoing, lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Senators were not shown the video during the Tuesday closed-door briefing.
Even Chris Coons made a modicum of sense here:
“It is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every strike with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who attended the briefing, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Ay-yup.
No State Contracts For Avelo? Yes, please:
Delaware lawmakers announced Tuesday legislation aimed at discouraging state airport contracts with companies that work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sen. Ray Seigfried and Rep. Mara Gorman said the bills respond to recent contracts between Avelo Airlines, which operates out of Wilmington Airport, and ICE for charter flights transporting detainees.
“Week after week, headlines from across our country show families being torn apart and individuals denied due process before deportation,” Seigfried said. “Withholding the fuel tax exemption from companies involved in these deportations is one way we can hold them accountable.”
The legislation includes two measures: Senate Concurrent Resolution 123, which urges the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) to avoid agreements with businesses contracting with ICE, and Senate Bill 207, which would:
Prohibit the state Department of Transportation from contracting with airlines that transport ICE detainees without a valid judicial warrant or due process.
Remove the aviation jet fuel tax exemption for airlines that violate these standards.
“Delaware is a state where we support our neighbors, and real neighbors don’t look the other way when people’s rights are ignored,” Gorman said. “Our public dollars should reflect our values, and this legislation ensures they do.”
What do you want to talk about?
Yo Coons, why say “it is hard to square” when you can just say “bullshit”?
A Final Call–I have my tentative list of Top 10 MVP’s done.
If you haven’t submitted a name that you think deserves inclusion, you have until tomorrow evening to submit it. I like my list, but I’m not wedded to it.
BREAKING: From Politico:
“Four House Republicans joined Democrats Wednesday to force a House vote on a straight three-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare tax credits that will expire Dec. 31, delivering a sharp rebuke to Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania signed the discharge petition filed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — hours after House GOP leaders rejected attempts by Fitzpatrick and other Republican moderates to seek a floor vote on extending the subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans.”
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/12/17/congress/brian-fitzpatrick-joins-house-democrats-health-care-discharge-petition-00694688
I respect where Tizzy’s heart is, but merging the districts isn’t going effect real change in terms of student outcomes. There will be demonstrable improvements in resource distribution and the demographics will look more balanced, but we should continue to expect an aggregate decline in traditional student performance or the following reasons:
1) those with means will continue to move their kids into charter or non-public schools
2) demographic trends suggest an overall decline in middle income birthrates, leading to a concentration of lower-income/higher need school students entering the K-12 system
3) Socio/cultural factors that devalue or undermine existing educational systems remain unaddressed.
If the Redding Plan is approved Charter School of Wilmington’s and Delaware Military Academy’s charter authorization held by Red Clay will have to be transfered to the Delaware Department of Education. Also, the 5 mile attendance radius preference Newark Charter uses will be not more. They’ll have to let city in Wilmington kids in.
Back during the deseg years the was the White Flight to private schools.
I am sure there will be a moratorium on new charter school apllications.
I don’t know why there isn’t preferenital choice transportation and guarantee first choice for Wilmigton’s middle and high school students living in Red Clay boundries whereas there are no Red Clay traditonal and middle schools within city limits.
I suspect that the existing charters will be grandfathered. There are too many entrenched interests, especially in real estate. For reference, I remember looking are homes in the Newark area where their inclusion within the newark charter radius was a major point raised by the realtor. If you don’t think home values are
If NCCO gets a uni-district, it should be all of NCCO and not just the section above the canal. We don’t want to reward all those people who moved to middle town in the aughts to get into Appo.
Couple of points here:
1. If this plan moves forward, charters and vo-tech schools should be under the jurisdiction of the new district’s board of ed. If the new district is going to work, a la the European Union, it can’t have dozens of charters acting like mini Vaticans and Andorras and vo-techs as little Luxemburgs and Liechtensteins. State oversight of the charters is a joke anyway.
2. Don’t drag Appo into this. The larger the district, the lower the proportion of Wilmington students/parents, which would mean less attention to addressing the issues that are at the core of the Redding Consortium’s mission. (One side note here: if we’re talking about tweaking district lines, give the portion of Colonial that’s below the canal to Appo, and put the portion of Appo that’s above the canal in the new district.)
3. My prediction: this is a classic Delaware Way example of “think big, settle for small.” Redding will fine-tune its recommendations, State Board will pick some holes in it, Redding will shrink its proposal, then the General Assembly will do the same. We might wind up with a merged Brandywine-Red Clay district, which would make some sense, but I wouldn’t bet against the so-called river plan, splitting Wilmington between Brandywine and Red Clay, with those two little rivers in the city serving as the primary boundaries.
I agree with #3. If they had asked for anything less, nothing would change.
I absolutely think Appo needs to be part of the NCCO Unified school district. Appo is a white flight district and if NCCO merges without it you will see a surge of students enrolling in southern NCCO. Parents that don’t have the ability to get their kids into private school, but who are engaged enough to move their kid into a new district, are the kind of parents you want in any district. If they don’t have an option to go elsewhere, they will be a force for change.
Votech’s have their own districts and will not be part of the consolidation.
The five mile radius preference for charters must be removed and have open lotteries. Charter School of Wilmington and DMA are the only two charter schools in the state that in authorized by a school district. Kind of interesting the racist Red Clay Godfathers helped craft the charter school legislation.
Appo is not part of the consolidation and shouldn’t be.
The real solution for fair and equitable education in this case is, preferential transportation for city of Wilmington children to Choice school. Meaning parents don have to take them to and from the Choice school or to a bus stop with in the Choice school.
Also, city of Wilmington children should get “first” choice to any school they want is there is seats open after feeder kids.
The Choice school law and Neighborhood Schools Act short changed these students because many lack adequate transportation to participate. It made de’facto segregation the norm.
Nothing is being done to address Social Promotion.
Redding is going beyond moving the chairs on the Titanic. They are building a new Titanic with the same blueprint.
And finally, we just went through the property tax BS and when they consolidate these districts the entire local school tax base changes with new boundaries. Also, let’s no forget the new law requires property reassessments every 5 year and will allow the district boards to tack on another 10% by ” board vote ” not referendum.