Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee raised objections last week to the proposed $94 million appropriation for Delaware Technical Community College, arguing a decline in the school's enrollment last year should curtail plans to increase the school’s budget.
Gov. Carney’s proposed 2024 appropriation for the school increases funding for staff salaries; that proposed appropriation has not increased since the Joint Finance Committee's last budget discussions earlier this spring.
Committee co-chair State Sen. Trey Paradee says those adjustments are necessary to improve educator retention at DelTech.
“The idea is that if they are professors who are teaching at a higher education level, they should be compensated at a level that is at least competitive with our public high school teachers," he said.
But state Sen. Dave Lawson argues the school’s retention challenges are the result of leadership failures, alluding to a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit but offering no additional details on the complaints against DelTech leaders.
And State Sen. Eric Buckson challenged the goal of providing pay parity between DelTech instructors and public school teachers, arguing that Deltech's faculty have a lighter workload than their primary and secondary school counterparts.
“To compare them to a seventh-grade math instructor and say that the work and pay should be equal – that isn’t accurate and shouldn’t be accurate," he said.
The Committee delayed its vote on DelTech’s budget until it receives information on the school’s enrollment trends; a presentation by DelTech later revealed that the school's summer 2023 enrollment rate has rebounded relative to summer 2022, trending toward and 8.8 percent increase. DelTech's retention rate has also returned to pre-pandemic levels after a decline in 2020.
The Committee ultimately approved the school's proposed appropriation.
