Dr. George F. Fiore, executive director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit presents a resolution of behalf of the CCIU thanking state Sen. Andy Dinniman for his decades of work on behalf of education in Chester County.
The Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) Board of Directors passed a resolution at its November 2020 meeting honoring Senator Andrew Dinniman’s lifetime of public service and commitment to education.
“Senator Andy Dinniman could always be counted on to join our schools and communities in our celebrations, to support our educators in times of needs, and to advocate
for our students tirelessly,” said Dr. George F. Fiore, executive director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit. “Senator Dinniman could be counted on to show up in good times and in bad. Most recently, he was instrumental in securing two million dollars in additional relief funds for our schools during the pandemic.”
The resolution is in recognition of Dinniman’s decades of public service, which began in 1975 when he was elected to the Downingtown Area School Board. He has also been elected to the Chester County Board of Commissioners and to the Pennsylvania State Senate. In the Senate he was minority chair of the Senate Education Committee and a member of the State Board of Education and the State Public School Building Authority, as well as representing Pennsylvania on the Education Commission of the States. He served in the Senate from 2006 until his retirement on November 30, 2020.
“It really has been an honor to serve the people of Chester County,” said Dinniman. “I have been fortunate to be able to serve in a county that has the resources to provide an outstanding education system for our students. I am very grateful for the work of the Chester County Intermediate Unit, and the leadership that Dr. Fiore is providing our schools during the pandemic, and the support the CCIU will continue to provide when the pandemic is over.”
Although retiring from the Senate of Pennsylvania, Dinniman is not retiring from public service. He plans to form a coalition to bring together public, nonpublic and charter schools to equitably fund education in Pennsylvania and to meet the needs of every student.
“The problem is that everyone is fighting over the same money, so in the end, everyone is underfunded,” said Dinniman. “There are moments in time, when we have to ask, ‘how do we change?’ We are at such a moment now; we can go back to the status quo or we can say that the digital divide along with the disparity between per pupil spending, between poor and wealthy districts, the largest in the nation, is too great and we must find a new way.”
According to Dinniman, the only way to do this is for all schools – public, charter and non-public, to work together and not to compete against one another. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought these disparities clearly into focus.
“If anyone can bring all the educational stakeholders together, it is Senator Dinniman,” said Fiore. “I am grateful for his past service and look forward to his future undertakings.”
