​By now most of you have seen or heard the good news: DuPont plans to locate the headquarters for its Agriculture company in Delaware.

Leaders of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and The Delaware Business Roundtable worked with the Governor’s office and Delaware’s congressional delegation in this successful effort to have the corporate headquarters of the DuPont, Dow independent Agriculture company locate in Delaware.

Click here for the press release from DuPont Dow released today, below is the joint media statement from the DSCC and DBRT that was distributed earlier this week.

Joint Statement from Mark Turner, Chairman of Delaware Business Roundtable (President and CEO, WSFS Bank) and Chip Rossi, Chairman of Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Delaware Market President, Bank of America)


“Today’s announcement that DuPont will be establishing the headquarters for its Agriculture company in Wilmington is great news for Delaware. We are very excited that both the new Agriculture and Specialty Products companies will be headquartered in Wilmington, following the planned separation of DowDuPont into three separate companies.


This announcement reinforces Delaware’s long-standing reputation as a business friendly state, particularly since a number of states were competing to have these businesses located within their borders. We believe some of the factors contributing to this decision were the state’s attractive business climate, the skilled and highly educated workforce and the close and constructive working relationship between government, business, and higher education in our state.


In terms of future job growth, DuPont’s recent announcement that the company is creating a process to evaluate requests by former employees to gain access to DuPont patent property is another sign of how maintaining DuPont in Delaware will foster the establishment of new entrepreneurial businesses and help create additional economic growth.


We appreciate DuPont’s ongoing commitment to the state and the fact that the company and its thousands of employees will continue to be active in our community, including with civic and charitable organizations. This announcement is good news for Delaware, for all Delawareans and anyone connected with our state.
​

In particular, we applaud the fact that Governor Markell and his administration and our congressional delegation demonstrated exemplary leadership and collaboration in working together with DuPont and the business community to ensure that the company and its employees will remain a vital part of our economy and our communities.”

​Quite simply, we focus our core initiatives to address the concerns of the entire business community.
The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce is the preeminent statewide business organization promoting a strong business climate in Delaware. We strive to create a statewide economic climate that enables all businesses to become more competitive. Our team consistently meets with Delaware’s Congressional delegation and plays a leading role on issues before the General Assembly. Our Board of Directors, Board of Governors and committee engagement assist in promulgating rules and regulations stemming from the various federal, state and local agencies that oversee business activity.
We are proud to be leaders on the policy front. Recent achievements include:

• Reducing workers compensation rates by 33% over three years
• Partnering with the Delaware Business Roundtable on an economic study focusing on the state’s long-term economic future
• Actively shaping legislation that impacts our members on issues such as: privacy, tax matters, abandoned property, employment law, education, and economic development

We also help our members forge new business relationships through networking and other social events meant to create an environment where businesses thrive in Delaware.
The DSCC is a nonprofit organization. We depend on the support of our members to accomplish our mission. We partner with other advocacy groups and serve as the leading voice of the business community. Our leadership helps create jobs, promote business and improve the quality of life for all Delawareans.
Your membership dollars and your support through programs like the Annual Dinner, Superstars in Education, Superstars in Business and our Legislative Brunches allow the State Chamber to be your dedicated voice in Dover.
We are proud to advocate on your behalf addressing the challenges of today and exploring the opportunities of tomorrow.

On Wednesday, over 125 educators, administrators, business and non-profit leaders participated in the Vision Coalition’s Eighth Annual Conference on Education at Clayton Hall at the University of Delaware.  The conference focused on how to best implement the recommendations Vision Coalition of Delaware’s Student Success 2025 – a 10-year plan to advance Delaware’s schools and education outcomes. Student Success 2025 is a multi-tiered plan developed through public collaboration and extensive state-wide engagement of community, student, business, nonprofit, and government stakeholders.  The Student Success 2025 approach focuses on exploring personalizing learning for more students and improving career prep.
The conference also concentrated on how to address Delaware’s decades-old education funding model to integrate funding for schools that have high concentrations of poverty and provide additional resources for school districts at the state level for English Language Learners.
In addition to looking at funding, the conference looked at how to coordinate programs like the Success Pathways and Roads to Careers (SPaRC) initiative (a program spearheaded by United Way and the Delaware Business Roundtable’s Education Committee) with other school to career programs. Integrating programs like SPaRC into the Delaware education system will bring valuable workplace experiences to students in an effort to keep them engaged and to fully prepare them for work at Delaware businesses.

​by Matt Amis

Ernie Dianastasis—perhaps more than ever—is eager to go back to school this fall.

The longtime business leader and education advocate serves as chairman of the Vision Coalition Leadership Team, a cadre of local influencers who work collaboratively and cooperatively to improve Delaware schools.
This month, the coalition releases Student Success 2025. Like its well-known predecessor, Vision 2015, Student Success 2025 is an ambitious 10-year plan designed to boost Delaware’s public education system to world-class status.

Delaware Business caught up with Dianastasis—who, when he’s not leading his CAI (Computer Aid, Inc.) global IT firm, also leads the Delaware Business Roundtable Education Committee—to talk about the plan and the vision for the future of Delaware schools.

Tell us about a little about Student Success 2025.
This is a 10-year vision for public education in Delaware. We started back in 2014 by asking a question: What are the skills and attributes that an educated Delawarean needs to have by the year 2025?—and worked backward from there to develop the strategies to achieve that vision. And we’re not just jumping straight to 2025—these are issues we can begin working on today.

The plan itself deals primarily with six core areas: quality early learning, personalized learning, postsecondary and career attainment, educator support, school funding, and governance. The thinking is, by aligning those six areas better, Delaware can build a more modern and seamless education system, and our kids can take advantage of that in numerous ways.

So whose vision is this, exactly?
The ideas in this report don’t come from me. They don’t come from the Department of Education. Over the last few years, our group talked and collaborated with more than 4,000 Delawareans—including 1,300 students. They reached out online, in surveys, at community meetings, cups of coffee—you name it. The people of Delaware told us where they think we need to go as a state. They told us their hopes for providing more social and emotional support for kids, and for more collaboration between families and schools. And the kids themselves said they wanted more real-life career experiences and flexibility in their school experience. We took the student input very seriously. They’re at the center of this whole thing.

We also called upon leading experts in Delaware, across the country, and around the world—to help inform our thinking.

This is a follow-up to Vision 2015. Did that plan work? Is this the sequel?
 Vision 2015 came out in 2006, and since its release around 75 percent of its recommendations have been acted upon in Delaware. That includes higher academic standards overall, new investments in teacher prep programs, and huge increases in the number of children enrolled in high-quality early learning environments. We have more kids than ever taking and passing AP courses, taking foreign language immersion classes, applying to college, and participating in career pathways.

So, I’d say it has worked, but to be candid some things simply haven’t—like improvements to our funding system, and big shifts that we didn’t anticipate a decade ago, like the explosion of technology in our daily lives. When the community sees Student Success 2025, they will see that we looked to address those gaps and build on the foundation we started. There’s still so much more we can do to support our schools and our kids. We also need to remember that transforming a multi-century old system does not happen overnight. It is a multi-year journey with many phases. There is no finish line where we declare victory. Rather, it is a life-long commitment to excellence that we must all embrace.

What happens next? How do you transition the plan into action?
Well, we’ll officially release the report on September 16 at a special event at the Del Tech Dover campus, and from there, we’ll follow up with our Annual Conference on October 28, where we’ll try to reenergize Delawareans around these issues and keep the momentum going. From there, we’ll establish some dedicated implementation teams to dig in on putting these recommendations into practice. Some will be easier than others, and some of them are already underway. That said, at the end of the day, this is about results, so we are going to hold ourselves accountable by producing a report card on the progress we make every fall. We hope the Chamber and the community as a whole keeps the pressure on to make sure we collectively deliver on what we’ve promised. We all need to own this.

We haven’t seen a whole lot of harmony when it comes to education policy in Delaware lately. What makes this any different?
I think it goes back to the collaborative nature of the plan. At the end of the day, of course we will need political and legislative action to enact some of these recommendations. And we know the state is facing some major revenue issues. But the truth is, we aren’t all going to agree on everything. As a group, the coalition is committed to working on the 80 percent or more that we all agree on, and keep the work moving forward. We accept that there will be real disagreements on the margins, but we can’t let that slow us down.
And in fact, everyone in Delaware can play a part. You already have members of the business community energized around career pathways for students; you have all these wonderful family and community organizations providing support; you have school districts collaborating on things like personalized learning. There are already so many great things happening in pockets throughout Delaware, so our biggest challenge right now is connecting them all together across the state, and doing more of what works. Let’s focus on the things we already agree on, and work toward this vision for the future. It’s closer than we think.
​
For more info on Student Success 2025, visit www.visioncoalitionde.org

​By Rich Heffron

The recent study commissioned by the Delaware Business Roundtable (DBRT), of which the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce (DSCC) is a long-time member, is consistent with the DSCC’s message over the past year that Delaware’s current revenue structure is not sustainable.

If the state’s economy is to be turned around, it is time for the General Assembly and the Administration to make the difficult budget decisions that have been postponed for years. The problems we are facing continue to grow exponentially. For example, last year the State Chamber supported the Governor’s proposal to have state employees contribute more towards their health care costs consistent with what has been necessary in the private sector. Furthermore, there are other reports including the report issued by the DEFAC Advisory Council on Revenues issued earlier this year that make it clear the state must realign Delaware’s revenue collection process if there is to be any hope of matching revenue with spending. This is problematic considering anticipated future state spending driven by a variety of demands including Medicaid costs and state pension obligations, among others.

The DBRT and its members are not offering “free advice” but have carefully commissioned and paid for a needed review of our fiscal situation. The Roundtable, the State Chamber, their members and their employees provide hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and fees to the state as well as thousands of volunteer hours. This is the engine that drives Delaware’s economy. The Roundtable and the State Chamber were part of the coalition to keep GM and Chrysler in Delaware. Our members have suffered the consequences of those plants closing.
​
DSCC President Rich Heffron says, “As the State Chamber has repeated, we are not interested in planting stakes in the ground or pointing fingers. We are only interested in solving problems. Any comprehensive solution must be bipartisan in nature. We look forward to participating in any solution to find sustainable revenue sources and position the Delaware economy to move forward.”

​By Bob Perkins

The State of Delaware faces a structural budget challenge with multiple dimensions – a revenue portfolio that is not responsive to the economy, unsustainable expenditure growth and the need for more robust economic growth, according to an independent study released today by the Delaware Business Roundtable.  The study projects that, absent policy changes, annual operating budget deficits will expand to over $600 million, or 11 percent of expenditures, by 2025.
​
Commissioned by the Roundtable, the study was conducted by Michael C. Genest and Brad D. Williams of Capitol Matrix Consulting, a leading economic consulting firm whose work focuses on a wide range of fiscal, economic and policy issues, particularly related to state government.
The study reviews the work of the DEFAC Advisory Council on Revenues, created by Governor Markell, noting that it provides a potential framework to construct a portfolio of revenues that will demonstrate better economic responsiveness and lower volatility than Delaware’s current portfolio.  Successful implementation of pro-growth economic policies are an important way to improve state revenue growth by boosting income and consumer spending.

“Notwithstanding the strong headwinds of the recession, Delaware has begun to make economic progress, as a number of recent reports and data suggest,” said Mark Turner, President and CEO of WSFS and Chairman of the Delaware Business Roundtable.  “However, there is much more that needs to be done, and it is essential that the business community play a significant role in helping to meet this challenge, particularly with regard to the creation of a growth agenda for Delaware.”

The study points out that because more robust economic growth is an important factor necessary to resolve Delaware’s structural budget challenge, a high priority should be given to policies that will boost, rather than hinder, economic growth and job creation.  Given its relatively small size, talented workforce and solid higher education system, the state is uniquely positioned to identify and act on opportunities to build strategic alliances with the private sector and remove regulatory and workforce barriers to potential growth.

As a result, the Roundtable plans to collaborate with state, business and community leaders to assist in developing a growth agenda to increase capital investment and job creation statewide.  The Roundtable has contracted with TIP Strategies, a leading strategic planning firm whose planning model combines rigorous data analysis with the latest thinking in economic development, workforce training and community-based principles.

With regard to state spending, the study by Capitol Matrix Consulting indicates that Delaware spends 23 percent of its economy on state and local government services, ranking it 7th highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.  The state can make significant progress toward resolving future budget shortfalls by restraining spending growth over time in key areas of the budget, according to the study.
“The results of this independent review and the difficulty our elected officials faced in preparing a budget for this fiscal year clearly indicate that the structural budget challenge we face will require creative solutions and political courage,” said Robert W. Perkins, Roundtable Executive Director.

Specifically, the study identifies a number of areas where state expenditures are inconsistent with neighboring states or national averages and where policymakers should spend time further analyzing potential spending reductions.  For example:

Corrections: The study notes that expenditures for corrections are significantly higher than the national average and that over the last two decades expenditures in this area have taken a growing share of Delaware’s operating budget.  Delaware spends substantially more on a per-prisoner basis than the national average, and for this reason, the study suggests policymakers conduct a more detailed analysis of corrections expenditures to identify opportunities to reduce costs without jeopardizing public safety.

Public Welfare/Social Programs:  The study suggests there may be opportunities to improve on Delaware’s federal shares in the Medicaid program and recommends a thorough analysis be conducted.

Education:  From 2008 through 2014, while other states were cutting K-12 per-pupil funding by 4 percent, Delaware was increasing funding by 12 percent.  Slowing the growth of spending over time would bring costs in line with the average of neighboring states.  The study notes that while maintaining and expanding such spending is laudable, the budget impact is problematic.

Personnel Costs:  The study recommends that Delaware consider reducing the size of its state and local government workforce over time, either through hiring freezes and attrition or by targeting specific programs for reduction or elimination.  Delaware also could reduce spending by changing premium cost sharing ratios for healthcare coverage for state employees and retirees.

In 2009, the Delaware Business Roundtable worked with the Markell Administration to assist in developing the Government Performance Review (GPR) plan by offering loaned executives trained in Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM) to work with cabinet secretaries and their staffs.  A number of recommendations from the GPR plan were implemented, but there may be opportunities to review that report and identify additional budget savings.  In addition, at the request of the General Assembly, the Pew Foundation is conducting a study to identify potential state spending reductions.

It also has been reported that the Governor’s Office is planning to create an expenditure committee to review state spending.  The Roundtable looks forward to contributing ideas and resources to that committee if requested.
​
“Historically, the Roundtable has worked in partnership with state government, and we would like to continue that partnership in a meaningful way at this pivotal point in the state’s economic history,” Mr. Turner said.

by Matt Amis, Senior Communications Officer, Rodel Foundation

Ernie Dianastasis—perhaps more than ever—is eager to go back to school this fall.

The longtime business leader and education advocate serves as chairman of the Vision Coalition Leadership Team, a cadre of local influencers who work collaboratively and cooperatively to improve Delaware schools.
This month, the coalition releases Student Success 2025. Like its well-known predecessor, Vision 2015, Student Success 2025 is an ambitious 10-year plan designed to boost Delaware’s public education system to world-class status.

Delaware Business caught up with Dianastasis—who, when he’s not leading his CAI (Computer Aid, Inc.) global IT firm, also leads the Delaware Business Roundtable Education Committee—to talk about the plan and the vision for the future of Delaware schools.

Tell us about a little about Student Success 2025.
This is a 10-year vision for public education in Delaware. We started back in 2014 by asking a question: What are the skills and attributes that an educated Delawarean needs to have by the year 2025?—and worked backward from there to develop the strategies to achieve that vision. And we’re not just jumping straight to 2025—these are issues we can begin working on today.

The plan itself deals primarily with six core areas: quality early learning, personalized learning, postsecondary and career attainment, educator support, school funding, and governance. The thinking is, by aligning those six areas better, Delaware can build a more modern and seamless education system, and our kids can take advantage of that in numerous ways.

So whose vision is this, exactly?
The ideas in this report don’t come from me. They don’t come from the Department of Education. Over the last few years, our group talked and collaborated with more than 4,000 Delawareans—including 1,300 students. They reached out online, in surveys, at community meetings, cups of coffee—you name it. The people of Delaware told us where they think we need to go as a state. They told us their hopes for providing more social and emotional support for kids, and for more collaboration between families and schools. And the kids themselves said they wanted more real-life career experiences and flexibility in their school experience. We took the student input very seriously. They’re at the center of this whole thing.

We also called upon leading experts in Delaware, across the country, and around the world—to help inform our thinking.

This is a follow-up to Vision 2015. Did that plan work? Is this the sequel?
 Vision 2015 came out in 2006, and since its release around 75 percent of its recommendations have been acted upon in Delaware. That includes higher academic standards overall, new investments in teacher prep programs, and huge increases in the number of children enrolled in high-quality early learning environments. We have more kids than ever taking and passing AP courses, taking foreign language immersion classes, applying to college, and participating in career pathways.

So, I’d say it has worked, but to be candid some things simply haven’t—like improvements to our funding system, and big shifts that we didn’t anticipate a decade ago, like the explosion of technology in our daily lives. When the community sees Student Success 2025, they will see that we looked to address those gaps and build on the foundation we started. There’s still so much more we can do to support our schools and our kids. We also need to remember that transforming a multi-century old system does not happen overnight. It is a multi-year journey with many phases. There is no finish line where we declare victory. Rather, it is a life-long commitment to excellence that we must all embrace.

What happens next? How do you transition the plan into action?
Well, we’ll officially release the report on September 16 at a special event at the Del Tech Dover campus, and from there, we’ll follow up with our Annual Conference on October 28, where we’ll try to reenergize Delawareans around these issues and keep the momentum going. From there, we’ll establish some dedicated implementation teams to dig in on putting these recommendations into practice. Some will be easier than others, and some of them are already underway. That said, at the end of the day, this is about results, so we are going to hold ourselves accountable by producing a report card on the progress we make every fall. We hope the Chamber and the community as a whole keeps the pressure on to make sure we collectively deliver on what we’ve promised. We all need to own this.

We haven’t seen a whole lot of harmony when it comes to education policy in Delaware lately. What makes this any different?
I think it goes back to the collaborative nature of the plan. At the end of the day, of course we will need political and legislative action to enact some of these recommendations. And we know the state is facing some major revenue issues. But the truth is, we aren’t all going to agree on everything. As a group, the coalition is committed to working on the 80 percent or more that we all agree on, and keep the work moving forward. We accept that there will be real disagreements on the margins, but we can’t let that slow us down.
And in fact, everyone in Delaware can play a part. You already have members of the business community energized around career pathways for students; you have all these wonderful family and community organizations providing support; you have school districts collaborating on things like personalized learning. There are already so many great things happening in pockets throughout Delaware, so our biggest challenge right now is connecting them all together across the state, and doing more of what works. Let’s focus on the things we already agree on, and work toward this vision for the future. It’s closer than we think.

For more info on Student Success 2025, visit www.visioncoalitionde.org.