Markell Expands Corporate Welfare, Says No To Education
If there is one type of welfare the rich love, it is corporate welfare and Gov. Jack Markell is getting ready to dole some money out. Specifically Markell is asking for a replenishment of the Strategic Fund — which has virtually been wiped out in bringing Fisker Automotive and PBF Energy to Delaware —, an investment in transportation and another investment in small capital projects. All of this is due to a $100 million dollar projected increased in revenue for Delaware in 2011.
While Markell kowtows to the business community, education in Delaware is getting short-changed. Specifically, let’s look at Brandywine School District which is losing $2.7 million in monies from the state, an increase of 25% of the transportation costs and $5 million less in stimulus funds. What does this mean to Brandywine School District after many cost-cutting measures already implemented by the school district? Layoffs. Sixty-seven educators will be losing their jobs.
So while Markell pumps money into the coffers of the rich to “create” jobs, have we seen one Fisker Automotive job in Delaware yet? No, but what we have seen is $14 million dollars coming from the US government to pay for cleanup of the GM Plant. For all the hoopla concerning creating jobs in Delaware, losing 67 jobs seems to be a much bigger deal.
There are education jobs being lost state wide because of the budget constrictions. DSEA would be foolhearted to endorse this man. I understand budget crises, but when there ARE alternatives and he chooses not to take them because of political caluclations, he is not deserving of an endorsement.
“Sixty-seven educators will be losing their jobs”
How many administrators will be let go?
Read the freaking link P.Schwartz. I’m not doing your work for you.
it doesn’t say, crankypants.
but then it doesn’t say 67 teachers either.
it’s says 67 staff members
Good post. I am hearing from school employees of all stripes across the county who are grumbling about Jack Markell’s priorities. The honeymoon is definately over.
Kilroy has been consitently damning this deaf ear and wondering why the governor is forcing school referendums and/or classroom worker layoffs to cover his budget cuts – the answer seems to be that this is a cowardly attempt to hide behind school boards and make them take the heat for necessary tax increases that neither he nor the General Assembly have the guts to implement.
Corporate Welfare always promises a big payoff in jobs and revenue and rarely delivers, especially in the long run when they leave the state for the next “sweet” deal.
Let me add to bamboozer’s comment, … and education ALWAYS pays off in the long run.
One reason would be because the cuts weren’t made at the state level. School administrators asked that the money for reading specialists be given in block grants instead, because some districts didn’t believe the specialists were the right use for the money. The administration went along. The only “cut” in funding is the transportation funding, from 100% to 75%.
Don’t let that interfere with your narrative, though. Carry on.
Also, they aren’t layoffs, they’re Reductions in Force. Just as the city government deals with every budget shortage by saying (threatening) “Well, we’ll just have to lay off cops” to drum up support for higher taxes, so the school districts say, “Well, we’ll just have to lay off teachers.” They could be laying off administrators, but then nobody would feel inclined to vote for higher taxes.
Superintendent Holodick’s letter is a bit confusing. He mentions the two schools that closed last year and said the district had cut 11 custodial and two principal positions. What about all of the teachers, secretaries, librarians and others in those buildings. Did they all get transferred?
He mentioned supervisor positions being left vacant. Are they assistant superintendents/administrator types?
He also talks about paraprofessionals having been hard hit, specifically the elimination of reading specialists at the elementary level. Those are not necessary because every school now has a dean of students or assistant principal. Why would you replace a reading specialist’s salary with another administrator level salary?
Don’t take my criticism or questioning of BSD as a blanket endorsement of the governor. He’s made his share of missteps.
Geezer, I personally know one teacher being laid off. Trying to find out more specifics right now.
Please take a look at the PDF regarding the positions left unfulfilled.
Geezer, semantics doesn’t change the effect that teachers are really losing their jobs. The state squeezes the districts and makes them decide what to cut. Still, can’t help but think if Markell would just take the political hit and raise the taxes on the top 1% or so (and actually give Delaware a more progressive tax structure) that these funding cuts could be prevented.
Are they *really* losing their jobs? I think that it is something of a habit for the districts to do this RIF thing because they have some contractual obligations for notifications in the spring, and then recind or rehire folks in the summer after the GA has finished their budgets.
Which isn’t to say that there won’t be real layoffs this round, but some of this I think is a crazy artifact of the budgeting process. Where schools need to make staff decisions well before the GA finishes their budget.
If that’s your definition of “semantics,” you’re dumber than I thought.
Generally this is the case, but I do know of people who have been put out of work. Apparently back in the mid 70s the RIFed everyone in the state and then rehired them. You would think, given the importance of the postion, that they would offer EITHER job security OR higher pay. Teachers get neither.
Nemski: I look at that organizational chart and see way too many people supervising at six-figure salaries. Private industry flattened those multiple levels of administration almost 20 years ago.
I would suggest, and I don’t know, but many times job titles are associated to salaries. So, supervisors might not be managing people, but the title is need to hire the right people. This does happen quite often in the private sector — just look at the number of Vice Presidents at credit card banks.
i remember when i asked what has Jack done a few months ago. be careful over here dude. funny how i’m ahead of the curve
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http://delawareliberal.net//2009/10/14/serious-qotd-3/
look at those comments back then
Geezer, it’s just all part and parcel of how we view the relative importance of people who work with children. The farther away you are from actual interaction with children, the more you get paid.
But really, how can we hand over nearly 1/2 a mil to Orlando George and talk about “cost cutting” in education? Doesn’t scan.
Nemski: Bad example. At most banks, there are almost no steps between “teller” and “vice president.”
Geezer, I’m talking about credit card “banks” which we know are NOT really banks.
I have never met a full-time male bank employee over the age of 30 who wasn’t a “vice president.” No other industry over-inflates titles like banking. Once upon a time, VP was what you got in lieu of a raise.
How can we hand even a penny to Orlando George and pretend it has anything to do with education?
Don’t let that interfere with your narrative, though. Carry on.
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Jack Markell wants the school districts to transform themselves but he is going to try to make them do it “by the backdoor” by cutting their funds. The cuts in transportation and energy are exactly what is driving the referendums and layoffs, Geezer. We all read OMB’s “shock” that these cuts were resulting in teachers being laid off, or did you miss that WNJ article. I heard Jack justify his cuts at one meeting: he was at a high school at the end of a school day and saw empty buses leaving the grounds and decided that there was a lot of waste and inefficiency in district spending on buses.
This is from a Milford District Board member – Spring letdown in Milford February 26, 2010
“the state has placed such as high priority on equity in education, but yet it has largely ignored the disparities in funding education. The data presented showed how districts like Milford, Laurel, Woodbridge, and Seaford were struggling with equalization funding which has led to staffing issues as teachers and staffs are moving from poorer to richer districts at greater rates! One thing we think surprised the Governor was how much the tax rates of Milford were higher then say Cape, but they operate on $59k per classroom to Milford’s $33k! This is because their tax base plus equalization from the state does not get equally divided, and yet the state calls the education each child is given to be equal?
The Governor was given some suggestions on how to correct this error, such as, collecting property taxes at county level and dividing them equal; provide targeted funding to poorer districts; and finally modifying the equalization formula. The last piece that was laid out for the Governor was how the current proposed 2011 state budget recommendations for 25% cost of transportation costs, and other reductions will impact Milford’s students to the tune of $1,934,581! That equates to $ 42.60 per $200,000 market value increase in property taxes for Milford taxpayers! Something taxpayers like me and the rest of Milford can not continue to shoulder!
What brought the meeting to end finally were comments which did not sit well with me as Mr. Markell told us we should basically quit whining and get with other districts to offer solutions to the states money problems. He did let us know that consolidation is large in his mind as he sees cutting administrative positions as the ways to an end, and yet he does not know how the issue of teacher leveling will help the budget. My personal thoughts were that the folks in Dover are looking at Educators to cut back on our budgets while still providing the same level of education for all the students of Delaware. They called the fantasy land these folks must live in Shangri La!”
http://viewsfromlowerdel.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/spring-letdown-in-milford/
I’m waiting for DD, LG and Cass to fire your ass. It should be the pattern as i recall a post just like this from me in Oct upset several folks. You are criticizing your own side this is entirely unacceptable over here.
what do i know though…I’m just a bitter drunk with the best fucking podcast in Delaware
geezer,
you need to get out more. i work in software…there’s ton’s of vp’s out here too. and based on what experience in your genre would you even be able to comment with a degree of knowledge?
what do i know though…I’m just a bitter drunk with the best fucking podcast in Delaware
If anyone is listening to this podcast.
But it’s fun to watch the victimology still at work, dv. Apparently some lessons never get learned. Because certainly the people following at home know that nemski isn’t going to be here pretending that new heights of assholery is a decent substitute for actual blog *content*.
oh they are don’t worry, it has more edge than this blog does
Victimology of the misplaced rage type usually does.
you are as predictable as your posts.
i’ll wait for you to fire nemski behind the scenes for criticizing wonderboy.
If I get fired for anything it will be my never-ending insistence for having Drinking Liberally at The Jackson Inn. That and pantsing liberalgeek at every DL function.
The fact that you are waiting for anybody to be fired, DV, tells us that you still haven’t come to terms with your separation from here. But you’ve still got the assholery down pat, so congrats on that bit of consistency.
Somebody block DV’s Ip please. My life is already too full of regrets to have to endure threads like this.
Damn Jason330, I thought we blocked yours. 😉
I’ve got a sister who has taught Art since1980 in another state. The first 9 years she taught every April she got a RIF (reduction in force) notice. Non-teachers would say she was laid off, or got a pink slip. The law in the state she teaches requires teachers to be notified their contract won’t be renewed by April something if their position isn’t renewed. As more senior teachers retired RIF’d teachers in that subject, with the most seniority would be rehired. With the exception of one year my sister almost always knew before the end of the school year that she had a position for the next year. Because the pool of Art teachers with more seniority was less than for a K-6, or 6-12 certified teacher, she often didn’t know her teaching status for the next year as soon as non-specials teacher. One year she didn’t learn she had a position until 10 days before the start of school.
Mary E, May 15th is the deadline for Delaware.
“That equates to $ 42.60 per $200,000 market value increase in property taxes for Milford taxpayers! Something taxpayers like me and the rest of Milford can not continue to shoulder!”
No, of course not. It’s something that taxpayers like me and the rest of Delaware should shoulder instead, apparently.
The day you come up with a solution to a problem instead of citing another problem for somebody else to solve will be a banner day for Delaware.
The day you come up with a solution to a problem instead of citing another problem for somebody else to solve will be a banner day for Delaware.
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Don’t bother responding to post comments you don’t read, why don’t cha?
That was the Milford blogger Wolfe Gary, Geezer. Not me. And Wolfe did come up with several ‘solutions’ to the problem if you bothered to READ the quotation’s 3rd paragraph.
Actually, Markell is thinking that he has solutions to the problems: also defined by his own citation in this quotation’s 4th paragraph.
Markell just doesn’t have to guts to try to implement the ideas and force some political will to consolidate the districts and cut administrative positions (could say the same about his DDOE).
I knew who wrote it. You quoted it, I thought approvingly. The solutions you cite have nothing to do with most districts in the state. Milford has a particular problem because it straddles two counties. Every other district down there measures itself by the two that have resort property taxes flowing in, and naturally they feel they have the short end.
“Force some political will…”
Think about that phrase for a while and you’ll see what’s wrong with it.
“and based on what experience in your genre would you even be able to comment with a degree of knowledge”
Can I borrow somebody’s DonViti to English dictionary?
“Force some political will…”
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Take a few of your legis friends aside and ask them how they have been treated by Jack Markell when he is in a mood to try and force some political will from out of them. He tries it all the time but, yeah, I couldn’t say how much success he’s had.
Cape is eliminating 12 positions, and 8 contractual including 4 Chinese language instructors (tough shit about the language instructors… everyone should be learning Spanish anyway)
“…the district has eliminated one middle school band teacher, two middle school librarians, two high school business teachers, two Helping One Student To Succeed (HOSTS) program coordinators, two elementary school program coordinators, one high school science teacher and one high school technology teacher.”
http://capegazette.com/storiescurrent/201005/14000-cape-cuts.html
Program coordinator — is this really a full-time job?
It might be a very full-time job, depends on the job description.
moooohhhoahahahahaaaaaa