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Joint Finance Committee Meeting

Thursday, February 5, 2026·1h 24m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Finance Committee received FY2026 budget orientations for Delaware Technical and Community College, Delaware State University, and the University of Delaware. All three institutions had at least some budget requests excluded from the Governor's recommended budget, with the committee signaling it may revisit DSU's operational funding requests during May markup.

Key Actions

·Delaware Tech – FY2026 Budget OrientationNo Vote

+ 2 more actions

Controversies

Parity between Delaware Tech faculty salaries and public school teacher salaries

The Chair framed the situation where Delaware Tech could fall below high school teachers in compensation as a problem worth addressing. Representative Bolden countered: 'I think you can't expect the same type of payment to their staff as we do, you know, to the public school teachers. So I just, I mean, yes, we want to be competitive, but we can't expect it to be the same.' The Chair responded: 'Yeah, all part of the conversation.'

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Our graduates, approximately 60%, are graduating debt free. And it's because they're either accessing scholarship programs that the college has created, but most important, the SEED scholarship. The other metric that I want to point out. We have not raised tuition at Delaware Tech in six years.”

Dr. Mark Brainard, President of Delaware Technical and Community College — Brainard was making the case for Delaware Tech's affordability and value to the committee, highlighting the impact of the SEED scholarship program on student debt outcomes.

+ 4 more quotes

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TranscriptPreview
Will come to order. Madam Comptroller General, if you will take the roll. We do have some members who are running late this morning. They will be filtering in. But please go ahead and take the roll at this moment. Sure. Representative Bolden. Representative Bolden. Absent. Senator Brown. Senator Brown. Absent. Senator Bucksson. Senator Bucksson. Absent. Representative Chuquocha. Representative. Absent. Representative Griffith. Representative Griffith. Absent. Senator Hanson. Present. Senator Hanson. Present. Senator Lawson. Senator Lawson. Absent. Senator Pardee. Present. Senator Pardee. Present. Representative Postols. Present. Representative Postols? Present. Representative Short. Representative Short. Present. Senator Sturgeon. Senator Sturgeon. Absent. Representative Williams. Present. Representative Williams. Present. Mr. Chair. Five members present. Seven absent. Thank you. So today we have on tap we have our higher eds, which is usually one of the more interesting and uplifting series of hearings that we have. And we have our newest analyst at the table this morning, Russell Ames. And if you would, Russell, if you would begin with the orientation for Delaware Technical and Community College. And we'll go through the orientations for all three higher eds, then we'll take a break, and then we'll have the team from Delaware Tech join us to give…
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