Campaign For Lieutenant Governor Focusing On Children’s Issues

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wilmington – Matt Denn, the Democratic candidate to be Delaware’s next Lieutenant Governor, on Wednesday announced a four-part plan to make sure more educational funding reaches students in school classrooms, where it belongs and where it can do the most good.

Denn’s proposal includes a state guarantee that a minimum percentage of public school funds will be used for education, not bureaucracy, as well as increased oversight of local district spending and implementation of a number of money-saving recommendations.

Many states currently devote a higher percentage of their public educational funds to instructional purposes than Delaware, Denn said, and Delaware schools spend 25% more on school administration than the nation’s average.

Denn said that a focus on responsible spending by public schools is important to better serve today’s students, and to rebuild the public’s confidence in the public schools.

“Spending wisely is the right thing to do today for our kids, and it is the right thing to do for the future in laying the groundwork to expand public support for our schools,” Denn said. “If Delawareans believe that our schools are using their money wisely, they will be much more likely to support those schools in the future.”

Denn said his proposal for a funding floor will not be an excuse to balance budgets by depriving schools of new funding, as some percentage proposals are.

“It is an idea that has been pursued in other states in a ham-handed, polarizing way that has doomed it almost from the start. In some states, it has been a tool of partisan politics. In others, it has been a back-door way of trying to starve public schools of much-needed funds,” Denn said.

The centerpiece of Denn’s plan is a State Educational Funding Floor – a mandate that local school districts spend a given percentage of their total educational funds on people who provide direct services to kids and the materials those people need to do their jobs. Denn said the exact percentage should only be set after serious consideration as to what should count as contributing to learning and what should not.

“Teachers are clearly part of the equation. People sitting at desks in the school district central offices clearly are not,” Denn said “But there are some difficult decisions to make in the middle, and those decisions have to be made in a smart, inclusive way. Teachers, parents, principals, people who have studied public schools systems, they all need to be at the table.”

In addition to the State Educational Funding Floor, Denn also proposed:

- State Auditing of Local School District Contracts. The state should routinely audit the terms of and performance upon contracts that local school districts enter into with private parties.

- Creation and Training of Local District Financial Oversight Committees. Committees of parents, teachers, and financial professionals from each local school district should be created to monitor the spending decisions made by local district school boards. Those committee members should be trained in local school district finance by state Department of Education officials.

- Formal Consideration of LEAD Committee Recommendations. A committee of experts has made recommendations to the state that could save tens of millions of dollars—money which could be redirected into classroom instruction. Some of those recommendations are feasible, others probably are not. But to date, no formal consideration has been given to the LEAD Committee’s recommendations. In early 2009, the state should make some hard decisions about which recommendations are achievable and which are not, Denn said, and start the process of implementing those that can be achieved.

Denn has centered his campaign – and will focus in his term as Lieutenant Governor – on issues affecting children, including education, health care, environmental issues and improving services to children who are abused, neglected, living in foster care, or fighting to overcome disabilities.

To learn more about Matt Denn and his campaign, go to www.MattDenn.com.

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