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EVA 8 - FEBRUARY 8 2007
SUPERBOWL CONGRATULATIONS!!!
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INCOMING MESSAGES
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February 2, 2007
House Increases Education Funding for Current Fiscal Year. Tell Senate to Do the Same!
The pro-public education House of Representatives you helped elect has passed an NEA-supported long-term continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of fiscal year 2007 (through 9/30/07) that provides a $1 billion increase for education programs. The CR is necessary because the previous Congress failed to pass an education funding bill for this year.
The House-passed CR:
Raises the maximum Pell Grant award from $4,050 to $4,310 — the first increase in four years;
Increases Title I funding by $125 million (from $12.7 to $12.8 billion), reversing the decline in Title I funding in effect since 2005 and allowing additional reading and math services for some 38,000 eligible children;
Provides $125 million for the Title I School Improvement Fund, targeted to schools with the greatest needs to implement improvements designed to raise student achievement;
Increases special education funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by $200 million (from $10.6 to $10.8 billion).
The Senate will begin debate on a continuing resolution in the coming weeks.
Contact Your Senators Today
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY UPDATE: WEEKS 2 & 3
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January work concluded; Governor submits state budget; Joint Finance Committee starts six weeks of hearings. General Assembly reconvenes on March 13.
· Gov. Ruth Ann Minner’s proposed state budget (HB 25) once again contains healthy increases for public K-12 education. At her Jan. 25th press conference, Gov. Minner pointed out that she was awaiting the report of the salary compensation task force that is due by May 1, 2007 and noted further that she was particularly concerned about the needs of lower paid employees – DSEA’s top legislative priority.
Wage and benefit highlights include:
o A two percent across-the-board increase for all Title 14 (public education employee) salary schedules and full funding for all public education salary schedule step increases.
o An additional $1.5 million for “skills & knowledge” pay supplements, bringing total funding to $5.0 million.
o Continued state contributions --- totaling $40.5 million --- to the post-retirement health insurance trust fund to meet the future health insurance costs of retired state and public education employees (See below)
Program highlights include:
o Another $5.97 million for complete funding for full-day Kindergarten to eleven districts and eight charter schools and piloting of full-day Kindergarten in two more school districts, bringing total funding to $13.6 million. Only one more year remains to bring this program to all school districts.
o New school construction funding totaling $98.2 million (SB 15).
o Another $1.0 million (totaling $2.4 million) for the new and highly-acclaimed SEED scholarship program (free two years of tuition at Del Tech). To take this program a step further, the STAR program has been proposed to provide qualifying SEED graduates scholarships at one of Delaware’s four-year institutions.
o Funding to provide a mathematics specialist at each of the state’s public middle schools.
o An increase of $2.64 million in the Academic Excellence Block Grant Program.
o An increase of $366,000 (to a total of $17.8 million) in the Student Discipline Program.
o An additional $250,000 (to a total of $1.25 million) to help meet the needs of the state’s Limited English Proficient students.
· The General Assembly closed January with a key anti-bullying bill…
o House passes School Bullying Prevention Act (HB 7): This bill, sponsored by Speaker Terry Spence (R-New Castle) will cause school districts to adopt a policy that prohibits school bullying; it requires that school staff be provided with a minimum of a one-hour training program each year. It passed the House unanimously and now awaits action in the Senate.
· Other bills of interest to DSEA members that have been filed and await action by various committees when the General Assembly returns in March…
o HB 8 – Rep. William Oberle (R-Beecher’s Lot): This bill will allow a taxpayer to subtract up to $5,000 from her/his Federal adjusted gross income for contributions made into the Delaware College Investment Plan. It already has been reported favorably by the House Appropriations Committee and the Revenue and Taxation Committee. It is awaiting action by the House.
o HB 13 – Rep. Nancy Wagner (R-Dover) and Sen. David Sokola (D-Newark): Will provide up to a $200 state income tax credit for a Delaware public, private, or charter school for the purchase of school supplies (unless it has already been itemized on her/his Federal income tax return).
o HB 21 – Rep. Nancy Wagner (R-Dover): Will require the state department of education to develop a standardized format for the reporting of the local school district or charter school budget to the public.
o SB 16 – Sen. David McBride (D-New Castle), Sen. Nancy Cook (D-Kenton), Speaker Terry Spence (R-New Castle), Rep. Joe Miro (R-Newark), Rep. Nancy Wagner (R-Dover), and Rep. Ben Ewing (R-Bridgeville): This bill would reduce from 30 to 25 years the length of creditable service need to retire without a reduction in one’s pension benefit. A new Fiscal Note on the cost of this bill is expected from the Comptroller General’s Office in the next two weeks.
· DSEA-Retired Legislative Chairman, Jim Testerman, testified before the Joint Finance Committee at its first day of budget hearing to urge the JFC to include in this year’s budget another cost-of-living increase for retired state and public education employees.
o Testerman also commended the Minner Administration and the JFC for its continued allocation of funds to pay for future retired state and public education employee health insurance costs.
o Budget Director Jennifer Davis offered that the Minner Administration has advised Wall St. bond rating agencies that the state would like to allocate $40 million for each of the succeeding five years to meet this important future cost of employee benefits. She told the JFC that Delaware was in the forefront of states and local governments across the country in dealing with this pressing financial issue.
· DSEA President Barbara Grogg is scheduled to testify before the JFC at its hearing on public education, scheduled for Wednesday, February 21, 2007, at 1:00 p.m. in the Senate Chamber at Legislative Hall in Dover.
