Rearranging The Deck Chairs On The Titanic? Yes, we’re talking about the latest Delaware school accountability program:
The Delaware Department of Education’s plan to improve low-performing schools is drawing scrutiny from some educators, civil rights groups and state lawmakers.
Education Secretary Cindy Marten’s draft proposal includes a five-tiered system where schools would receive increasing levels of state support, and education officials could take over a low-performing school by Delaware as a last resort.
It comes as the state is working to revamp the current school funding formula to try to boost student performances, especially targeting low-income students, multilingual learners and students with disabilities.
Perhaps it’s just me, but the term ‘five-tiered system’ sounds unduly bureaucratic. But, I digress:
The plan lays out statewide goals for 2028, including increasing third grade reading proficiency from 38% to 53%, raising eighth grade math proficiency from 26% to 35% and decreasing chronic absenteeism from 15% to 13%.
Mike Brinkner, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, said he questions rolling out an accountability plan before all the money that is needed to make access to a quality education equitable across the state has been invested.
“Right now, we are just not at a place where these schools have gotten the resources that they need, and then it becomes a situation where people who don’t have shoelaces are told, ‘Well, why didn’t you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps?’” he said. “They don’t have the resources to actually do that and we as a state have not followed through and held ourselves accountable to providing those school districts with those resources.”
The ACLU was one of several groups who sued the state in 2018, alleging the state was persistently underfunding low-income students, multilingual learners and children with disabilities. The parties settled in 2020.
A report issued as part of the court settlement found that Delaware needed to add $600 million to $1 billion to achieve educational equity. The state committed $100 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget.
Been there, done that:
Some educators have slammed the state’s draft plan by pointing out the similarities to a failed effort more than a decade ago to turnaround six low-performing Wilmington schools within the Red Clay and Christina school districts.
Former Gov. Jack Markell’s administration used $119 million in federal funding from the federal accountability program Race to the Top for the priority schools initiative. As part of that push, state officials demanded that the Christina and Red Clay Consolidated school districts fire principals and teachers to reapply for their jobs.
Maureen McGurk has taught in the Brandywine School District for 18 years. She said much of the money never found its way into classrooms and instead went to outside consultants while teachers were blamed for a lack of progress.
“We can’t go down the same path that we’ve tried before that hasn’t worked,” she said. “Test scores started going down when we started using those kinds of accountability measures to evaluate how students were doing and the decisions were taken away from districts locally and teachers at their buildings.”
Delaware Secures $950 Mill In Settlement With Nemours Foundation. Money will go to improving children’s health in Delaware:
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced on Friday that her office secured a $950 million settlement with the Nemours Foundation and the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust following decades of litigation that spanned seven attorneys general.
At the center of the settlement are claims the foundation had improperly spent a charitable trust left behind by one of Delaware’s most prominent businessmen – Alfred I. du Pont. In his will, du Pont requested the remainder of his wealth go to supporting children and elderly couples “who are residents of Delaware.”
And while the trust has for decades helped to bankroll Delaware’s sole pediatric hospital, Wilmington’s Nemours Children’s Health, generations of Delaware attorneys general also have challenged trustees of du Pont’s will, saying they spent large chunks of the funds on ventures outside of Delaware.
The settlement sets aside “at least $237.5 million” for Delaware’s Nemours campus, and state officials said those funds won’t be used for operating budgets. It also ties up a nearly 50-year legal fight over the management of du Pont’s trust, and its impact in Delaware.
The $950 million award would be dedicated primarily to funding initiatives to improve the health of children in Delaware. Neither Jennings nor spokespeople for Nemours and the trust outlined any immediate spending priorities for the settlement funds on Friday other than that they would go toward supporting children.
However, Jennings and the DOJ outlined how the funds will be governed over the next decade.
They will be managed by a five-member committee, three of whom would be selected by the du Pont trust, another would be selected by the governor, and a fifth independent member would be selected by the other four.
During a press conference on Friday, Owen Lefkon, who leads the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division at the DOJ, said it would not be a public body since it’s a private trust.
Oh. A slush fund dominated by three designees of the duPont trust. FOIA-exempt, of course. I will simply say, that bears watching.
We Can’t Defend Our Military Aircraft In The UK? Looks like it:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has brought home its bombers stationed at a U.S.-run military air base in England used to strike Iran following an investigation into a planned terror attack at the RAF Fairford base.
The bombers were redeployed to their home bases in the United States, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.
Aviation watchers such as the Military Air Tracking Alliance have observed dozens of B-52 and B-1 bombers operating out of RAF Fairford since the opening days of the Iran war. Observers noticed a host of B-1 bombers fly out of the base on Sunday.
The move comes as President Donald Trump weighs options for his war on Iran — including new strikes — despite his initial promises to Americans that the campaign would last a matter of weeks.
What good is having worldwide military superiority if ‘the pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the handles’?
Another Expansion Of Trump’s War Of Choice:
Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement on Sunday: “I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.”
The announcement sets an ambitious goal for the embattled government, which recently lost swathes of the country’s Red Sea coastline and areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait – a chokepoint for international shipping – after a lightning offensive by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government has struggled to roll back the surge, even with the military support of Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have increasingly targeted Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, and on Sunday said they had attacked oil infrastructure in the capital again.
To quote Root Boy Slim:
“Lookin’ for a place to plug in my TV
when I suddenly realized it was World War Three.”
What do you want to talk about?
