As voters head to the polls, I’m thankful we have an opportunity to choose an experienced and dedicated public servant in Kim Stevenson as our new state senator. Kim is exactly the type of conscientious and competent person needed to realign and refocus legislative priorities so that resources, which were in previous years directed toward protecting our environment, standing by our local hospitals and building capacity for new schools, return to our district.
The starkest need for a change at the ballot box is due to the staggering loss in state school construction appropriations for Cape children and teachers. As recently as fiscal year 2021, 21.5% of the state’s total education capital budget was directed toward Cape Henlopen School District. The amount was over $36 million. In fiscal year 2022, the total amount for our local schools was over $21 million.
Compare those two amounts with the appropriations at barely over $1 million in fiscal year 2024 and just over $1.3 million for the current fiscal year 2025. Those two anemic amounts total less than 2% of the entire education capital budget of all Delaware schools the last two years combined. This free fall in appropriations of state capital funds is not only shocking, but also a complete abandonment of the collaborative and diligent work of our previous bipartisan delegation to the General Assembly from the Cape Region.
While much campaign fodder and blame has been made regarding a possible voluntary school assessment vote by Sussex County Council, the dismal amount of state funding returned to eastern Sussex County from Dover these last two years shows a far greater loss in return and leaves a clear picture that Russ Huxtable was absent and unaccounted for in Legislative Hall when hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were being divided and sent to school districts all over the state except ours. While there was indeed a failure to compromise amongst current local officials regarding VSA, there was also an obvious inability on Huxtable’s part to deliver already set-aside taxpayer dollars from Dover back home to Cape students and teachers.
I respect anyone who takes time away from their families and the people they love to serve in public office. While I share no personal ill will toward our current senator, I do share, as we all should, a tremendous amount of disappointment and discouragement concerning the lack of effort, energy and bipartisan collaboration in his failure to get our Cape kids and teachers their fair share from Dover.
In the words of President Joe Biden, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” Sadly, public education has been tossed to the back heap of local issues in this election, and Kim Hoey Stevenson has been the only candidate for the state Senate who has a plan to turn the focus and value back to bipartisan solutions, which is why she had earned my vote.
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