DeLuca bows to criticism after killing legislation

After killing a bill that would have set up a state scholarship program for students attending Delaware State University, the leader of the state Senate now says the chamber will vote on the legislation during its one-day special session this fall.

In the waning hours of the General Assembly’s 2010 session July 1, President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca, D-Varlano, said he and his colleagues were too exhausted to consider a House bill that would have provided 139 Delaware high school graduates with a total of $372,000 in scholarships to DSU this year.

The initiative, called the Delaware State Inspire Scholarship, had wide bipartisan support and the funding it needed to get off the ground, at least for the coming school year.

Other lawmakers were shocked and confused to learn that the legislation creating the scholarship would not see a vote on the Senate floor — a decision made solely by DeLuca.

With the session heading past 1 a.m., DeLuca said his chamber was not prepared to take up a significant issue like the scholarship bill, even though it’s not uncommon for both houses of the legislature to work into the wee hours on their final day of business, discussing such weighty business as the state budget until the bitter end.

“We’re all too tired,” DeLuca said immediately after adjourning his chamber at 1:46 a.m., 15 minutes earlier than the House.

DeLuca took heavy flak for his decision in the days following the session’s end, particularly from local talk radio pundits.

Late on July 2, DeLuca released a statement saying the Senate Education Committee would review the Inspire bill and the legislation would be placed on the agenda for the chamber’s special fall session, called to act on gubernatorial appointments.

“I want this to get a thorough, full and fair review,” DeLuca said.

The Inspire program would be similar to the SEED Scholarship, which gives an in-state high-school graduate with at least a 2.5 GPA full tuition for a two-year degree from the University of Delaware or Delaware Technical & Community College.

Inspire students would need a 2.75 GPA, but could qualify for as many as six semesters worth of tuition in pursuit of a four-year diploma.

The legislation creating the Inspire program, authored by Rep. Darryl Scott, D-Dover, was introduced May 6 and received two favorable committee hearings in the House. The bill was written so the scholarship program would take effect only when money became available to fund it, making it an easy sell for even the most budget-conscious legislators.

But the House waited until 9 p.m. July 1 to bring the bill to the floor for a vote — a move that indicated there were plans in the works to find money for the program.

Those suspicions were confirmed when, shortly before 1 a.m., the annual Grant-in-Aid Bill was introduced in the Senate, with a two-sentence addendum giving DSU authority to fund the Inspire program using the state money it receives for operating costs or any of the $2.9 million in federal stimulus cash it’s getting this year.

The Grant-in-Aid Bill, traditionally the last of the yearly budget bills to come up for a vote, cleared the Senate and was sent to the House shortly after 1 a.m.

When the House leadership learned the Grant-in-Aid Bill did in fact include money for the Inspire program, they immediately asked their counterparts in the Senate to put the scholarship’s enabling legislation on the fast track.

In a highly unusual move, Speaker of the House Robert Gilligan, D-Sherwood Park, left his chamber, walked across the hall to the Senate and asked DeLuca to come down from the dais for a private discussion on the Inspire bill.

Shortly after, the Senate wrapped up a few final pieces of business and adjourned.
DeLuca said after adjournment that not only was the Senate too weary to delve into the Inspire bill, but he and his colleagues knew almost nothing about the legislation or its importance to the members of the House.

“It was not on an agenda anywhere, we had no knowledge the House had worked that bill,” he said.

Scott called the turn of events “unfortunate.”

“This would have provided over 100 kids, many the first in their families to attend [college], with opportunity,” he said.

Scott said he never would have thought the Inspire scholarship would get the funding it needed, or that if it did the enabling legislation would not be put forward.

“I didn’t think we’d ever have that problem,” he said.

House Minority Leader Richard C. Cathcart, D-Middletown, said he didn’t buy DeLuca’s reasons for not running the bill.

“It was a bill the speaker had made public statements about. It had tremendous support in the House,” he said. “I find it impossible to believe [DeLuca] didn’t hear about a bill that was introduced two months ago.

“There’s some underlying reason he’s not sharing with the public.”

Cathcart is DSU’s vice president for operations and recused himself from voting on the Inspire bill or participating in discussion on the floor, but he said the scholarship is something the university has been pushing for with great enthusiasm.

Since the introduction of the SEED program, DSU’s enrollment is down among Delaware high school graduates, he said.

“If you’re going to reward students for doing well in high school, why not let them go to a four-year school?” he said.

Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.