By Brooke Schultz

DOVER — In September 2006, the funding was already in the state’s budget. All that was left was for Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to sign her name on the program for which she’d been advocating: full-day kindergarten.

“It is important that a child receive a good start to their education,” Gov. Minner said at the time. “Full-day kindergarten provides a solid foundation for them to be successful later in life.”

All-day kindergarten was one of the educational initiatives outlined in the same 2005 State of the State address that included placing math specialists in middle schools in the upcoming school year — following a similar program that assigned reading specialists to elementary schools — and the Student Excellence Equals Degree Scholarship, known as SEED.

It has been about 16 years since those programs first matriculated through the legislative cycle. In remembrances of Gov. Minner since her death at age 86 on Nov. 4, the initiatives have been described as “critical,” “necessary” and “visionary.”

“She saw education, I believe, as the real game changer for people and as a way to give everyone access to a better life,” said Dr. Mark Brainard, who served as the governor’s chief of staff. “And if you worked and persevered and put in the time and the energy you could, you can make your life and the life of your family better by accessing educational opportunities.”

‘Critical to their success’

Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting was superintendent for Indian River School District when full-day kindergarten passed the legislature. Senate Bill 251 stipulated that districts would have to offer the option for full-day by the 2008-09 school year.

Under the bill, the state was to pay $35.5 million for one-time capital costs between fiscal 2007 and 2008 and $22.2 million for ongoing operating costs in fiscal 2009 to make the all-day-K happen.

The year before, in 2005, full-day kindergarten pilot programs were part of a study comparing the curriculum to part-day scheduling. The study found that full-day offered almost 2 1/2 times the amount of literacy instruction than part-day programs did and more than two times the amount of writing and science instruction. The study also found that 98% of parents with children in full-day kindergarten preferred it, while 72% of parents with children attending part time would favor a full-day curriculum.

But still, Dr. Bunting’s school board said it wouldn’t approve the program until the district took it to the voters.

“Our voters immediately said, yes, we need it throughout the district,” she said, which finally brought the campaign to fruition there. “It was really essential to our students in Indian River, getting them to the point that they needed to reach as they went on up through the educational system. I firmly believe that it has been, honestly, a gift to our students in the state of Delaware, to have that full-day care provided for them.”

The research tells us that if students aren’t reading at grade-level proficiency by third grade, they’ll never get back on track, said Capital School District Superintendent Dr. Vilicia Cade.

“The foundation of what we do in education starts in kindergarten,” she said. “Full-day kindergarten opportunity changes lives; it changes the trajectory of so many of our students’ lives and the outcome.”

Unexpectedly, this was put to the test in March 2020, when COVID-19 started causing major disruptions to in-person schooling. Students didn’t finish their academic years at their desks. And when the following term began, many started remotely.

“Now, they’re finding students who might be, for example, in our classrooms as first graders, but they never had a really solid year last year as kindergartners, and so they’re not as ready in many ways. And it’s not just the academic skills,” Dr. Bunting said. “It’s the social skills, the acclimation to school and so forth. They just didn’t have that opportunity.”

Dr. Cade shared an example she learned from a colleague, about a student who came to kindergarten this year behind on letter recognition.

“The child does not learn well online, and the child is benefiting now from in-person learning,” she said. “Teaching children to read is a very technical skill, and certainly, we as educators partner with parents, who are their children’s first teachers, but being in school and being out of school certainly has implications for where we are currently in terms of the work that we have ahead of us with our students.”

Looking back, Dr. Bunting said full-day-K was “critical” to student success. While Delaware was behind other states on implementing the program, she called it necessary.

“It was the right thing to do for our students to give them the best path forward,” she said.

‘Minner math teachers’

Math is a hurdle, said Dr. Cade, who previously served in Christina School District as an administrator who benefited from the government policies that placed math specialists in schools. Finding certified math teachers to staff the middle schools in under-resourced communities in Wilmington was a challenge, she said.

“Math is a huge gatekeeping subject,” she said. “Though we offer algebra in ninth grade, eighth grade proficiency in algebra is significantly important. And having math people support that work at the middle school level makes the difference in a child who’s going to be prepared and on track to enter into college or not. So I absolutely saw the benefits of that policy when I was in Christina School District.”

When she was working as a director of instruction, Dr. Bunting said she was so grateful to see that program begin. They had seen the benefits of reading specialists at the elementary level. And the math specialists — which they termed the “Minner math teachers,” she said — were also able to supplement and complement the work of classroom teachers.

“I saw them as invaluable to help our staff members deliver on instruction that was really, really meaningful and to help, in addition, in small-group situations, for example, those kids who might be struggling with certain portions of their math development,” she said.

While the reading specialist program remains in place, the funding for the Minner math teachers has not. Recently, though, Dr. Bunting said the state Department of Education has again started to put math specialists or coaches back into schools that have shown the greatest need.

“Since Gov. (John) Carney was lieutenant governor at the time, you could still see some of the same beliefs,” Dr. Bunting said. “Case in point is the resurrection of that middle school math position. That was something that, when money became available, the governor was very much in support of. It was our privilege to put those back in, as I mentioned, into the schools that needed the most.”

Not just a promise, but a law

When she gave her 2005 State of the State address, Gov. Minner said SEED would build on concepts that Sen. Harris McDowell and Rep. Nancy Wagner had advocated for over many years. The governor earmarked $1 million for it.

“I propose the creation of a program to guarantee a college education for those who want it and work for it,” she said. “Our promise to our children should be this: If you do well in school, we will pay for you to obtain a college degree.”

At the time, then-Delaware Technical Community College president Dr. Orlando George lauded her proposal, noting that the one action would accomplish three things: provide an opportunity for high school students, enhance the quality of the workforce and keep people in Delaware to work and contribute to the state’s economy.

“This is truly going to be part of her legacy,” said Dr. George, a former legislator. “It’s truly visionary.”

Dr. Brainard is a graduate of DelTech himself, and he would go on to be named its president in 2014, a role he continues today.

“It’s great to see a program like that fulfill the expectations of those who supported it the most,” he said. “Sen. McDowell and Gov. Minner worked very, very hard and very closely together to get that legislation passed, and it was no secret: They wanted to make sure that every young person in Delaware knew that if they wanted to go to college, all they had to do is to work hard, stay out of trouble and get good grades, and they could go to college, no matter what their financial situation was.”

He recalled a study that made the rounds at that time that showed as much as 50% of the country’s youth didn’t have a meaningful adult speak with them about college.

“The theory was that if a family doesn’t think they can afford it, they won’t talk to their children about it,” he said.

Once the legislation passed, Dr. Brainard recalled that, in her last few years in office, Gov. Minner would visit an elementary school every month to talk to fifth graders about doing their homework.

“She made it very clear to these young folks in elementary schools throughout the state that they need to do their assignments, and they need to work hard because there is an opportunity at the end of all that if they want to go to college. You know, as Sen. McDowell used to say: ‘Some states have a promise. In Delaware, it’s the law.’”

Since it was enacted, SEED has witnessed more than 13,000 students utilize the program.

“Anytime you can provide access to Delawareans who might not otherwise have it, it’s a game changer, especially when you look at some of the struggles that Delaware families experienced, not just during the downturn of ‘08 and ‘09, but the struggles ... a lot of families have been navigating during the 2020 COVID crisis,” he said. “When a (wage earner) either becomes unemployed or underemployed, one of their first concerns is, how do their children continue their education or how do they get a college education? And SEED was there.”

Dr. Bunting said that it’s now known that students need something beyond their K-12 experience to go into their chosen industry — extras like credentials, apprenticeships and associate degrees.

“The SEED Scholarship has been able to provide that opportunity to so many of our kids that would otherwise not have been able to afford it,” she said.

She added that she is excited about a new program at DelTech: a four-year teacher-preparation initiative.

“I can just see that SEED idea of (Gov. Minner’s) coming forward with a new iteration or expansion,” she said, noting that the SEED provision can enable kids that would otherwise not be able to afford education ultimately become teachers.

“That’s still Gov. Minner’s impact, growing and encouraging people to think beyond the immediate and to really provide the support that so many of our economically challenged people here in Delaware now have a brighter future because of those investments,” she said.

Gov. Minner herself dropped out of high school at age 16 to help with the family farm. But in the years that followed, she earned her GED diploma and graduated from college.

Dr. Bunting remembers hearing her speak about her education.

“It’s just so heartwarming to me to see, 16-17 years later, the impact and, then now, the natural involvement of those things into our system,” she said. “They’re here, they’re solid, and she had to get them started. And then, the results are really paying off for our students.”

As the first African American woman to serve as superintendent at Capital, Dr. Cade said she feels like she stands on Gov. Minner’s shoulders. “She is that beacon of hope where you don’t have to conform, but you can transform,” she said.

Dr. Brainard said most people get involved in government or public service to “make things better than how we found it.”

“(Gov. Minner) definitely believed that. I think that was the foundation of her work in education, but it was also the foundation of her work and health. The preservation of open space, all of the key initiatives that she fought for during the course of her public service career, was founded upon that basic premise that we should work very, very hard to make things better for the next generation and to leave things better than we found it.”