Search Results for 'charter schools'
We don’t need no education
As a former public school teacher, I loved nothing more than having an administrator, with NO teaching experience, come into my classroom with a clipboard and a checklist to tell me how to do my job better. I mean—if it’s on the checklist, it must be easy to implement in a classroom with 25+ students […]
When Opinions Get It Wrong (Again)
When a Board of Education approves the request for an operating tax increase that specifies exactly what the new revenue will be used for within the District and voters approve it, that revenue shall only be used for the purposes described on the ballot as approved by the voters.
A specific example would be the operating tax increase request from Brandywine School District earlier this year to renovate 3 of their athletic fields with a new artificial turf surface. If it were approved, the revenue generated from the tax increase would only be used to renovate those 3 fields. No portion of the revenue would be included in the ‘local cost per student’ formula that determines the funding sent to charters for each student. Why? Because voters would have approved ballot language that stated an exact use for the money which, in this case, was for 3 of Brandywine School District’s athletic fields. This money, though local operating revenue, would have been a district specific exclusion, as mandated by voters.
PDD suggest several planks to the Del Dem Platform
The Delaware Democratic Party has been holding Platform meetings up and down the state over the last two months, as part of the process of drafting a new platform that will be presented and hopefully approved of at the 2017 Democratic State Convention. You can submit platform ideas yourself by emailing proposals and suggestions to Platform@deldems.org, so long as you are a registered Democrat of course (if you are a Green or an Independent and want to take part in this process in order to make the Democratic Party more liberal, how about you, oh I don’t know, join the Democratic Party in order to make it more liberal). The public comment period will remain open until October 31, 2016.
The Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD) have submitted their suggestions….
Is Meredith Chapman the face of the new DEGOP?
With the utter domination of Lacey Lafferty by Colin Bonini, and now that Charlie Copeland has kicked the Party’s downstate garbage unceremoniously to he curb with his claims that the DEGOP is no longer in the business of shitting on gay people, it is worth asking, what’s next?
Delaware Department of Education Pulls a Fast One
A rising tide lifts all boats. With Christina slashing $9 million last year, this new formula applied retroactively would have increased Christina’s cost per student by roughly 3% resulting in a net increase payout this year for Charters that receive Christina resident students…despite the District having to decimate its budget last year.
Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 14, 2016.
Today’s House Agenda leads off with a bill that increases penalties for talking or texting on a hand-held device while driving. I support the bill, although I question the assertion that ‘novice drivers’ are most likely to ignore the law. Based on my observations, virtually everybody ignores the law. The bill also adds points for a second offense and thereafter. Good.
The agenda is highlighted by two anti-discrimination bills. HB 316 (Heffernan) ‘makes it clear that an employer is expressly prohibited from taking adverse employment action against an individual based on his or her reproductive health care decisions. HB 317 (Rep. K. Williams) ‘prohibits discrimination in employment based upon an individual’s caregiving responsibilities’.
HB 400 (Baumbach) incrementally, and I mean incrementally, expands the use of marijuana oils for minors. This time, by ‘by classifying pain, anxiety, or depression, if related to a terminal illness, as a qualifying condition in the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act for patients under the age 18, who will still be restricted to using CBD and oil products.’ The only thing objectionable about this bill is that it accepts the notion that any minor who could incidentally ‘get high’ via governmental imprimatur must be prevented at all costs.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., May 17, 2016
I’m back from Oregon, and I see that I didn’t miss much.
The General Assembly is currently in collective thumbs-twiddling mode. I now understand why they took a week off recently. It’s not like they have nothing to address (like minimum wage), it’s just that they’ve chosen not to address much of consequence. Cowardice in an election year, who’dathunkit?
Can we just talk about minimum wage? Please? While places across the country are passing $15 an hour minimum, idiot/legislators like Andria Bennett and Quin Johnson turn up their noses at a far less ambitious proposal by accepting Chamber talking points w/o even looking on their own at how higher minimum wages have impacted communities that have implemented them. Plus, if one of them should ‘falter’ and eventually go against the Chamber, there is always the no-longer-running-for-Congress business lackey Bryon Short waiting to deep-six the proposal. When it comes to minimum wage, Delawareans did better when the R’s controlled the House than they do now.
As to the notion of raising taxes on Delaware’s wealthiest, I wrote about this last year. If it wasn’t even gonna be considered in an off-year (thanks, Pete), it certainly isn’t gonna be passed in an election year. The General Assembly made the decision to give more to the 1%, hence the corporate bailouts that were rushed through in January. More and better Democrats are few and far between in Dover.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 22, 2016
Another week down, another 8-figure payout of taxpayer money transferred to the corporate giants. We’re told that we have to do it, otherwise someone else will. You see, the people who keep getting their pittance of health care cut, the state workers who have to beg for a pittance of a raise, they don’t count. We don’t have to do anything for them, they’re lucky they get what we give them. No, we need the big-paying jobs, or, to be accurate, the tiny fraction of those jobs that will remain, more than we need a more equitable and humane system. Oh, and to go ever-so-slightly off-topic, our sleazy County Executive is gonna throw yet millions more of taxpayers’ money at these extortionists. $7.5 mill for starters. Our money going to pay the big corporations and their biggest earners. That is what’s known as a transfer of wealth. BTW, all those Rethugs who publicly rended their garments in outrage over Gov. Markell’s efforts to at least bring new industries to Delaware? They all voted for both (so far) of these corporate bailouts. They don’t object to transfer of wealth, they just object to it not going to the usual suspects. What this Governor and this General Assembly just did is pretty much similar to throwing money at the casinos…except that these jobs pay more. More money for ever-diminishing returns. Our money.
Yes, SB 200 (Blevins) passed the House and was immediately signed into law by the Governor Thursday. Nobody even had to be late for their St. Patty’s Celebrations. Betcha there was some passin’ ‘o the green to go along with the wearin’ o’ the green that night. Only people who got screwed? Delaware taxpayers. And maybe an inebriated legislator and an appreciative lobbyist or two.
Before I move on, I have a question for my County Council member. These companies are staying, at least for now, whether or not the County hands them $7.5 mill of our money. Could you at least please vote no against this unnecessary and unwarranted giveaway? Thanks for reading. You, the reader, may want to call your Council member to express similar sentiments.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 15, 2016
This entire session has been one giveaway after another to the corporate behemoths. Thursday’s session continued the trend with the Senate voting unanimously to fatten the corporate coffers (at the expense of the state’s coffers) by $10.6 mill by FY 2019. Look, I understand that we don’t want to lose any more jobs, but the state has essentially become a one-trick pony in recent years. And, for all that we’ve doled out in corporate welfare, we’ve only retained a small fraction of the jobs that once were the backbone of our economy. And now the county is jumping on the bandwagon. And all the public officials are praising each other for moving so swiftly to ‘save’ the paltry number of DuPont jobs that were ‘saved’. What is lacking is the ‘vision thing’, to quote Bush the Elder. Plus, a thoughtful discussion as to whether the millions we’re tossing to the companies extorting us would be better spent elsewhere. Thankfully, we’ve got John Carney bringing his inspiring vision to–uh, never mind.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., March 9, 2016
In the Senate Executive Committee is yet another giveaway to business, this one the so-called (is Frank Luntz coming up with names for these bills?) “Delaware Commitment to Innovation Act”. The bill basically is yet another $10 mill or so annual giveaway to corporations in addition to all the other giveaways that have taken place in less than three months. Hey, I’ve got some time, let’s see how many of these giveaways I can list:
1. Right out of the box, THIS bill, aka the ‘Delaware Competes Act of 2016’ was specifically designed to keep Chemours, you know, the company that DuPont spun off specifically to avoid liability for its environmental wreckage, here. Passed and signed. Loss of revenue to state’s coffers? About $50 mill over three years, according to this fiscal note. Requirements that Chemours clean up its mess? Zero.
2. Then we’ve had the Council on Development Finance scurry to throw yet more $$’s at the new behemoth, which may well reward the CEO’s who carved out this merger dual CEO’s with an $80 mill payoff. A relatively paltry $9.6 mill of taxpayer money.
3. In the same article, we read that:
New Castle County officials are in the process of approving their own five-year, $7.5 million commitment to DuPont. The plans, which still must pass the County Council, would create a strategic economic development fund for the first time in county history and commit tax reserves to that fund.
Once again, that’s taxpayer money.
4. But that’s not enough for the would-be chemical conglom-o:
County Executive Thomas P. Gordon last month said DuPont officials also have asked him to use his authority to lower its property tax bills.
5. We’re even acting as their real estate agent. (I know I’m missing some more. Isn’t Wilmington being extorted as well?)
6. Which brings us back to this $10 mill annual giveaway.
Practically everybody is on the bill as sponsors, so it will sail right through. Delaware and its local governments have been reduced to paying extortion in order to salvage jobs here. We used to bribe companies (the banks) to come here by throwing people who need credit under the 18.6% bus. We’re now reduced to paying any and all kinds of extortion to get giant corporations to stay here, at least until someone bribes them with even more. Guess it beats providing living wages for people who live and work here. Except, the extortion never stops, and the wages never go up. Pretty much defines ‘The Delaware Way’.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 27, 2016
We could still have an epic week in store–or it could turn into a nothingburger. The minimum wage bill still awaits Senate action, and death penalty repeal maybe gets considered in the House. Or not. Probably depends on whether the respective sponsors think they have the votes. If you haven’t contacted YOUR legislators, what are you waiting for?
The minimum wage bill has already been amended primarily to reflect the fact it wasn’t considered last year. Senate Amendment 3, which passed by a 13-8 vote, adjusts the effective dates for the increases, and accordingly delays the implementation of the COLA increase until 2021. Pure party line vote. The bill appears to need at least one more D vote to pass. DINO Brian Bushweller is one of the holdouts. Who are the others? BTW, check out Colin Bonini’s amendment to the bill. The guy is a joke.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 14, 2016
ALERT!! MARKELL, CHAMBER AND LONGHURST GIVE MIDDLE FINGER TO DELAWAREANS:
HB 235, the so-called Delaware Competes Bill, is the first bill the House will consider this year. What’s amazing, well, not amazing, but typical of the primordial ooze behind this, is that the bill will be considered under Motion to Suspend Rules. Here’s why. Even though the bill cleared the House Revenue & Taxation Committee, the bill was reassigned to the House Appropriations Committee (the committee is comprised of the House members of the Joint Finance Committee). That’s because the bill has a significant cost. Such bills are typically not considered until/unless JFC does the fiscal legerdemain. In this case, even though the bill will have a significant annual cost, the House will try to bypass the budgetary process. Since the bill wouldn’t even take effect until January of 2017, rushing this through serves no purpose other than to satisfy the Chamber and its millionaire minions. This is a transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens to the politically-connected corporate overlords, pure and simple. We’ll pay somehow, just wait. Last days of June when they hope that no one is watching. Hey, whaddayawant from Markell, Longhurst and their (wait for it) ilk? Call your state reps!
What’s not on the House Agenda under Motion to Suspend Rules is HB 50–the Opt-Out Bill. As opposed to HB 235, doing this under MTSR is legit. The bill has been through the committee process, was passed (twice) by the House, and it’s a veto override, not consideration of new legislation. Now, maybe the House will entertain a motion from the floor, maybe Speaker Pete won’t, but it sure as hell should be considered. Has the cynicism of Pistol Pete and Vindictive Val become so great that they can ignore the will of the members of the chamber? We’ll see.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 13, 2016
We have two bills that somebody wants fast-tracked in January:
HB 240 (Longhurst) ‘establishes the Statewide Afterschool Initiative Learning Program. The Program will provide grants to public schools, that qualify as Title I schools, to develop afterschool engagement of students that will provide extended learning, homework assistance, enrichment, and nutrition.’ Sounds good. There is, however, no funding mechanism mentioned in the bill. Nor does the bill, for reasons I cannot understand, require a fiscal note. So, how are they gonna pay for the program? Will it be paid for from the Mortgage Settlement Funds? If not, what are you defunding in order to fund this? We may or may not find out sooner rather than later. Bill’s scheduled to be considered during today’s House Education Committee. BTW, here’s my uninformed guess as to what’s happening here: Sponsors can claim that this is merely ‘enabling’ legislation and that the funding mechanism will be determined by JFC. Which, of course, is totally disingenuous. You don’t need enabling legislation if the JFC funds such a program and establishes the criteria in the epilog language. But that would bypass touchy-feely brochure fluff. Someone, please prove me wrong.
HB 235 (Longhurst), the ‘Delaware Competes Act‘, allegedly ‘reforms Delaware’s business tax code to incentivize job creation and investment in Delaware, to make Delaware’s tax structure more competitive with other states, and to support small businesses by making tax compliance less burdensome. The principal change in the Act is to remove disincentives for companies to create Delaware jobs and invest in Delaware property that currently exists in how income is apportioned to Delaware for purposes of the corporate income tax’. In other words, tweaking the formula to remove inequities that create disincentives to job creation. Fine. Here’s what they didn’t tell you. This is not some revenue-neutral tweaking. Nope. There is a fiscal note attached to this bill, and here are the projected costs to the state’s coffers:
Fiscal Year 2017 $ 8,200,000
Fiscal Year 2018 $17,600,000
Fiscal Year 2019 $22,900,000
So, let’s be honest here. It’s yet another sop to business with not even a projection as to how many jobs will be created due to the removal of alleged disincentives. And this is annual revenue loss.
Recent Comments