By Doug Denison, Staff Writer
Dover Post
Posted Jan 19, 2011 @ 07:29 AM
Dover, Del. —
A forcefully worded resolution calling on Sussex Tech High School to revise its admission requirements has caught the attention of several downstate lawmakers.
Some legislators say the resolution, adopted so far by the Milford, Seaford, Cape Henlopen, Indian River and Delmar school boards, makes sense given the challenges public school districts are facing. Others in the General Assembly say Sussex Tech is an outstanding institution that other districts should look to as a model.
The language passed by the school districts is an indictment of the tech school’s recruitment practices, which supporters of the resolution say are designed to favor well-behaved, high-scoring, college-bound students and have the effect of excluding other students who could benefit from an education focused on learning a trade or vocation.
Rep. Ruth Briggs-King, R-Georgetown, said the viewpoint articulated in the school boards’ resolution is understandable.
“I do have a concern, maybe [Sussex Tech has] gotten away from some of the roots of the school in the vocational technical area,” she said. “Maybe we need to redirect back to the technical focus of the school to begin with.”
In recent years, the percentage of Sussex Tech grads that go on to college has been among the highest in the state, while the average number of college-bound graduates from non-technical high schools has lagged some 10 points behind Tech.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. F. Gary Simpson, R-Milford, praised Sussex Tech, and its mid-state counterpart Polytech High School, for their ability to adapt their educational programs to suit changing times.
Years ago, Simpson said, an aspiring auto mechanic would learn how to turn a wrench and troubleshoot a sputtering engine, but now a student who wants to work on cars needs more advanced math classes and a comprehensive knowledge of computers.
“I was a little disappointed in the districts. Sussex Tech and Polytech are doing a good job of educating students,” he said. “When tech schools were first established in Delaware, it was to provide technical education. The world has changed a lot in the last 20 years, especially the last 10 years, in that students need to be higher-educated.”
In Simpson’s opinion, Delaware’s school choice rules prevail, and if more top students want to get their education at a tech school, good for those tech schools. Other districts, he said, should try to catch up.
“I think some of it has gotten to the point of a little jealousy,” he said. “When you’ve got a successful school you’re going to have successful kids wanting to come there. So, build your own district up and you won’t have kids wanting to go anywhere.”
Funding
School districts say they would love to be able to offer the kinds of vocational education programs students who don’t go to Sussex Tech need, but they’re unable to come up with the kind of money necessary to make them a reality.
Sussex Tech not only gets money from the school districts when one of their students enrolls, they also aren’t restricted by the one thing that often handcuffs districts that want more public funds: the district-wide referendum.
Each of the state’s three tech districts gets its funding directly from the state’s annual budget, a fact some lawmakers said could easily be seen as an inequity.
“The [non-technical] schools just feel like it’s an unfair advantage, [tech districts’] budgets are higher because they get money from everybody,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth. “They feel like they’re stealing away some of their best teachers, they’re paying them more.”
Briggs-King said the funding for tech schools might need to be addressed by the legislature, as well as the way in which their school boards are selected — by gubernatorial appointment, not by election within the district.
“When it was first established I think it met the needs very well, but I would say it’s time to revisit how the funding and how the leadership is selected,” she said. “It is difficult with the other school districts that have to go to referendum to increase teacher salaries and those things, and the tech school doesn’t. There’s a bit of an unlevel playing field there.”
Simpson also said he agreed that tech schools shouldn’t be playing by different rules than other districts.
“I think the legislature made it too easy for the vocational technical schools to get their funding by coming to the legislature. I think that’s a reasonable complaint,” he said. “The voters in every other school district decide what their tax rate is going to be, I think that should happen with our tech schools.”
Possible reforms
Some lawmakers are talking about other ways to address the concerns they’ve heard articulated by school officials and constituents in their districts.
Rep. Darryl Scott, D-Dover, said he recently asked all the tech schools — Sussex, Polytech and the three institutions in the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District — to provide him with their admissions and recruitment policies.
“I’ve had some constituents ask the question. I’m researching the issue to say, ‘Is it an open and transparent process and do I agree with the process?’” he said.
Scott said his chief concern is the available capacity of vocational programs, and if some students are being deprived of the opportunity to enroll in those programs because of high demand.
If the high demand has caused tech schools to raise their admissions requirements, Scott said he wants to see changes.
“Fundamentally, the issue is we don’t have enough vocational capacity in the system. I think people would say they’ve evolved beyond a vocation and technical school,” he said. “We still have kids who would benefit from vocational and technical classes and they can’t get in.”
Schwartzkopf said the frustration over admissions requirements is deeper than that.
“Where is the equity in this thing if we’re paying into a school our kids aren’t allowed to go to?” he said. “It’s almost like a private school. They get to pick and choose who comes and who goes. They get the better students, the better athletes and the better teachers.”
With the rhetoric heating up and possible reforms on the table, Sen. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, warned lawmakers to reserve judgment until they’ve heard everything.
Booth, who last year took a $76,000-per-year job as a public relations liaison for Sussex Tech, said the issue has been circulating for years.
“I was on the Indian River school board 10 years ago and the issue was front-burner there, too,” he said. “It sounds like people have already decided. There’s two sides to every debate, I think you’re hearing one side of the debate.”
Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.
Copyright 2011 Dover Post. Some rights reserved
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