The state GOP is taking the Department of Education to task for continuing to fund high-paying Race to the Top positions.
Federal funding that expired in 2014 had paid for 10 of those positions, which state Sen. Dave Lawson calls "temporary" in the GOP's weekly message.
After that, he says lawmakers wanted the Department to stop funding the jobs. Instead, he says eight of the 10 positions were sustained.
"The department shuffled funds from one place to another so they could say they 'didn't use that money.' I don't care how you move the shell around -- it's still a shell game," said Lawson.
Lawson says too many of those positions earn more than $100,000, which he calls "unacceptable" in the state's current tight budget climate.
He adds that the Department of Education is "over-funded and under-performing" and its directors "arrogant."
Full text of GOP weekly message:
Hello, this is Senator Dave Lawson.
Last spring the Delaware Department of Education asked for $7.5 million to, among other things, continue funding 10 Race to the Top positions. The Joint Finance Committee was quite clear on the subject when we told DOE, "No." Race to the Top was a $119 million federal grant to Delaware that ran for three years, ending in 2014. The idea was to use the money to create sustainable programs and concepts to further the education of Delaware's children.
What it often turned into was a hiring frenzy, even though it was clear the money was finite. The people who took the positions with the Race to the Top funds knew they were in temporary federally funded roles. They knew the jobs probably would be eliminated once the federal funds ran out. Having the Joint Finance Committee say the state wasn't going to pick up the tab shouldn't have been a shock.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that 8 of the 10 positions were still being funded.
The department shuffled funds from one place to another so they could say they didn't use "that" money. I don't care how you move the shell around, it's still a shell game.
Of these eight positions, six of them have salaries well over $100,000*. The other two salaries are just under $100,000. This is in a department of more than 270 people where 30-percent of the employees make more than $100,000 a year. It's a department that added more than 34 positions in the last three years and already had a budget of $1.3 billion. These actions are unacceptable. They are directly against the intent of the money budgeted to the department.
In such a tight financial time for Delaware, the arrogance of the directors of the department is unbelievable. The Department of Education is over-funded and under-performing.