Delaware GOP on Education

I think it's fair to say that last spring, parents got quite an education about education in Delaware. Suddenly, many parents had a picture of what their child's education was like, what they were learning and how they were learning. Many parents were greatly dissatisfied with the quality and the quantity of the education their children were receiving in the last half of the school year. Now this fall, we're opening under very similar circumstances. Schools are shut for the most part or open on a part-time basis, and learning is a part-time function. I give credit to the teachers who have, since the spring, done a tremendous job in learning how to teach remotely and adopting new techniques to help them teach. If learning remotely was full-time, it might actually be an effective way to teach. But right now, in most public schools, learning is a part-time job. This is not true for most of the parochial and private schools, however. Many of them are teaching full-time. Parents are looking for choices for their children's education, and the Republican Party is proposing a menu of choices for parents and the public school students. We live in a complicated time where the lives of Delaware families have been turned upside down by the COVID pandemic and the chaotic response to it by Delaware government. This pandemic will not be here forever, but the impact of diminished access to education on our students can be lifelong, and we must act quickly. These challenging times call for creativity and initiative, and offer us opportunities to improve our children's learning. Our proposals are intended to improve access to a great education and provide choices for parents to select the education model that works best for their child. Our list is not exhaustive, but it is achievable, and we should make these goals our benchmark for how well we care for our children's future. Of course, first, we must open our schools. The critics of all that has been done in this pandemic say, listen to the experts, follow the science. Well, if we do that, we'll open our schools. Let the children learn five days a week. Let them ask questions and explore the issues their teachers are posing. Let them have hands-on experience with biology and chemistry and technology classes. Open our schools. Next, let's learn from this experiment and not leave behind what it can teach us. Remote learning may be one of the best options for some students, including students with health or mobility challenges or whose family issues take them away from school for an extended period. We propose a statewide remote learning school that can meet the needs or best fit some students' learning styles. Let the parents and the students choose their option, and to be sure that everyone who wants it has access, the state should ensure that broadband is available to every student everywhere. We have seen great success in charter schools, and Ron Russo, who I call the father of charter schools, will speak more on their benefits in a moment. But we need to provide the regulations to allow more, not fewer, charter schools. There is resistance to that in this administration, but we should embrace them as a positive addition to a student's learning experience. We should allow parents of students to choose their child's school, and if too poor to attend, get scholarships for the school of their choice. It is no mistake that we are here today at Bancroft School. This school has a very poor rating for the performance of its students. Ironically, it was my father's first school. He died last year at 94. It was also my son's first school. He is now 13. When my son attended here, I met talented young people who had hopes, aspirations, and dreams of success. Their parents wanted the best for them. I met teachers who cared. But sometime between entering and leaving this building, something happened. They did not learn, they did not achieve, and they did not stay on track to graduation and success. We should offer the students who want to learn and the parents who want their children to succeed the opportunity to exit this path and take a new one, even if they cannot pay for it. There is no place more liberal than the city of Washington, D.C. But they offer education scholarships to poor children who want to go to private school. A brave single-parent mother fought for that right. She battled for her son to have a future. He actually was able to attend private school for a short period. She saw him walk taller and work harder, but she couldn't afford to keep him there. Ultimately, her son was killed in the streets, having fallen into a bad lifestyle. But she persevered, and today other sons have the chance to escape her son's fate. Miss Virginia is memorialized in the movie by that name, and I commend it to anyone who thinks education scholarships are not a positive addition to our choices in education. For nearly a year, parents have been filling the gaps and meeting the needs of their children as they learn, even if not formally homeschooling them. Many have considered or chosen to homeschool their children. The State Department of Education should consider this a valid option for students and parents and support their efforts by allowing a share of their allocation to go for books, other materials, and tutoring. Give poor parents the ability to choose to educate their children at home or in their church with a group of other parents. Allow them to make choices that are best for their children. B.B. King, probably not who you thought I would quote on the issue of education, once said, The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away. Let us give our children a precious gift, a fair and equal opportunity to learn. I'm now going to introduce Ron Russo. I mentioned him earlier. He started the Millington Charter School as an initiative to provide a model. I'm going to talk more about his efforts and a little bit about the value of charter schools within the menu of options for parents in Delaware.