The three districts in the Wilmington Learning Collaborative will meet Aug. 30.

Learning Collab, school boards make joint meeting public

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The  joint meeting of the Red Clay, Brandywine and Christina school districts to discuss concerns about the Wilmington Learning Collaborative will be public.  The meeting is set for Tuesday, Aug. 30, at 6:30 p.m. at the Neighborhood House at 1218 B St. in Wilmington.  All three district boards have pushed off ratifying or refusing the 16-page draft agreement they received …

Delaware has contracted a consultant to evaluate their complex and historic funding formula for school funding.

Here’s why state wants advice on school funding

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The Delaware Department of Education announced last week it has hired a Virginia consultant to study the state’s public education funding system. As today’s wisecracker would say: Good luck with that. How the money trickles down to the classroom is complex, and it follows a funding system established in the 1940s. The state’s population then was 286,000, compared to today’s …

The three districts in the Wilmington Learning Collaborative will meet Aug. 30.

Ed. officials field community’s Learning Collaborative questions

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Delaware Live, Education

A Wilmington Learning Collaborative official said Tuesday that the boards of the three participating districts may not approve the operating agreement until September. Jon Sheehan, chief of policy and senior advisor to Gov. John Carney, made the comment while describing how the state expects the project to unfold as it tries to create a new agency to oversee city students …

EOSM

A tale of two bills: Paid leave and pot

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

One became the law of the land. The other went up in smoke.  Both involved years of planning, hundreds of meetings, thousands of stakeholder discussions and countless compromises.  The difference? One bill had the support of Gov. John Carney — the other didn’t.  With his signature, the Healthy Delaware Families Act became the 151st General Assembly’s big winner, while his …

McG Schwartz

House speaker refuses to consider McGuiness removal

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

The Delaware Senate on Monday passed a resolution to begin a process Democratic leadership hopes will result in the removal of one of their own: State Auditor Kathleen McGuiness. Every Republican voted against the measure, putting them in line with House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, who said he has “no intention of calling the House into session to consider this …

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GOP chair sues Department of Elections over new voting laws

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

The chairwoman of the Republican Party of Delaware has filed suit against the state’s Department of Elections over two new laws legalizing mail-in voting and same-day voter registration. GOP chair Jane Brady, who was Delaware’s attorney general from 1995 until 2005, said the new laws violate the state Constitution. “The Constitution provides you must vote in person on election day …

Vote by mail

Delaware governor signs vote by mail, same-day registration

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

In a private ceremony Friday, Gov. John Carney signed two Democrat-backed bills to allow voters to request mail-in ballots and register to vote on election day.  In response, Delaware Republican Party chairwoman Jane Brady said she’d be holding a press conference Friday afternoon to announce a legal challenge aimed at stopping the laws from taking effect. “When [the bill] first …

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Carney to sign mail-in voting bill Friday, GOP to sue

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

Gov. John Carney will sign a bill Friday to allow voters to send their ballots through the mail in all future elections, according to his communications director. The Republican Party of Delaware promised to respond swiftly in the form of a lawsuit. “When [the bill] first passed the General Assembly, we expressed concerns about its constitutionality,” said Jane Brady, chairwoman …

Vote by mail

Vote by mail bill heads to Delaware governor

Charlie MegginsonGovernment, Headlines

Gov. John Carney has taken possession of a bill to allow Delawareans to vote by mail in all future elections. Carney has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to either sign or veto the bill. Senate Bill 320 creates an opt-in vote-by-mail system wherein voters will have to request a ballot before one is sent. Ballots and ballot applications will not be …

Delaware considering mileage-based user fee

Drivers, get ready for a mileage-based user fee

Ken MammarellaGovernment, Headlines

As state and federal leaders push to get more electric vehicles on the road and lower the consumption of fossil fuels, a reckoning will come about how to pay for roads if nobody is buying gasoline at the pump. Taxes on the sale of gasoline fund a huge portion of roadwork, including repaving and safety concerns, and the push is …