[caption id="attachment_4781" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Debra Heffernan (D)"]
Democrat Debra Heffernan says she can "hit the ground running" if she is elected to the state House of Representatives—“especially in the areas of education and the environment.” Heffernan, who is challenging Republican incumbent Tom Kovach in the 6th District, points to her experience on the Brandywine school board and her professional credentials in environmental policy as key strengths.
“My commitment to education is very strong,”she says. Doing volunteer work to support education in her community led Heffernan to become involved more seriously, and in 2005 she won a seat on the Brandywine school board, becoming president in 2008. She serves on the finance committee that oversees the district’s budget, which exceeds $140 million. The percentage of the district’s funds that goes to direct student instruction is higher than the state average, Heffernan says.
If elected, Heffernan hopes to use her “deep understanding of the school finance system in Delaware” to work collaboratively with school officials and legislators “to tweak the finance system so that it works better.”
One of her goals is to give schools greater freedom in managing their finances. “Many of the state funding streams are very prescribed. There’s not a lot of flexibility for school districts to use the money where they think it will work best for the districts—to get the money into the classroom,” Heffernan says. She advocates creating a pilot program to give a few districts more financial flexibility.
In knocking on some 6,000 doors during her campaign, Heffernan says, she has heard three main concerns: the environment, education, and the economy. Education and the economy are closely related, she stresses. A well-educated work force and high quality schools for employees' children are two factors that “encourage companies to relocate to Delaware,” she says.
Heffernan hopes to put her environmental expertise to work in the legislature. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Delaware, a master’s in environmental toxicology from Duke University, and more than 20 years of experience as an environmental toxicologist in private industry and as a consultant for the state.
Protecting the environment can boost the economy, Heffernan notes. For example, she favors redevelopment of former industrial areas in her district, which will help to preserve green space in undeveloped areas. “You don’t have to pave paradise to put in a parking lot,” she says.
“We need to work on cleaning up these areas to protect the environment and to help economically revitalize these areas,” she says—areas such as the Philadelphia Pike corridor, where she would like the state to “help small businesses relocate and thrive.”
Heffernan says her main hope is to build on her work with the school board and “continue my community service as a legislator.” Although Delaware has a part-time legislature, “I am pledging to make that a full-time commitment,” she says.