Why Should Delaware Care?
As the new legislative session begins, attention turns to Delaware’s education system, specifically its funding formula, which has played a role in the state’s declining education outcomes. This year, the Public Education Funding Commission will focus on developing recommendations to address the unique challenges facing Delaware’s schools.
With Delaware set to revisit its outdated school funding formula this year, key leaders in the state’s education system highlighted the need for reforms to deliver equitable and adequate resources to public schools.
The state’s education system has been challenged over the past decade, marked by low proficiency levels, poor testing outcomes and high rates of chronic absenteeism, which has been attributed to how funding is distributed.
But Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC), which was created last summer, will be in charge of forming recommendations for changing the current funding formula, with hopes to solve many of the challenges the state’s schools currently face.
During a panel discussion at Spotlight Delaware’s Legislative Summit on Jan. 8, education leaders spoke on the current issues with the funding formula as well as what needs to be done to make sure schools see improvement.
As opposed to using a “student-based” formula, Delaware is one of few states that uses a “unit-based” public education funding formula. This means that the state allocates funding based on the number of students enrolled, rather than accounting for unique needs of any given student.
Taylor Hawk, director of legislative and political strategy at the Delaware State Education Association, the state’s teacher union, said that although the system is adjusted for grade level and special education status, it fails to generate resources for students with from low-income households or those are still learning English – two populations were Delaware has a larger share than many states.
Legislative changes have been made to help support those students like Opportunity Funding, the equalization formula, which helps by giving more state money to districts with less local property tax revenue; and the recent increase in public educators’ pay made by the Carney administration.
But stakeholders say it’s still not enough.
The current system divides funding into separate pots with strict rules on how it can be used for costs, which limits flexibility and puts a burden on administrators about where they can use the money, said Madeleine Bayard, senior vice president of the Rodel Foundation of Delaware, a nonprofit that has studied public education for decades.
Bayard said there’s an opportunity to move toward something more student-based, and mimic other states that set aside one pot of money with guardrails.
State Sen. Laura Sturgeon, who is chair of the PEFC and the Senate Education Committee, said there’s an opportunity to look at both systems.
“It’s just important to me that we move a little bit away from discussing the two formulas as if they are binary choices, and understand that we have an opportunity to take what works well with any formula and what has worked well in other states with other formulas, and we can build a formula that’s Delaware-specific, and that has elements of both,” she said.
Another change they want to advocate for is addressing Delaware’s unique referendum system, which requires school districts to not only get voter approval to raise funds for capital projects but also basic school operating costs, such as salaries and energy.
Hawk said this rule often delays the ability to provide schools with adequate resources.
“It’s really a shame, and we are one of the only states who does this,” Sturgeon added.
The panelists agreed that money is an important factor in improving the system, but that it must be put in the right places to address things like meeting minimum class size requirements, educator pay, early learning and staffing shortages, where they say Delaware is lagging behind.
But one of the biggest flaws of the current funding system is that the state doesn’t provide resources to the areas that need it the most.
“We’ve heard from national experts that we are one of very few, or maybe the only state, where the state is giving more resources to districts who have higher property wealth,” Bayard said.
The PEFC, which all three speakers are a part of, plan to rectify that in their recommendations when the state’s property reassessment process is completed this fall.
The commission, which is composed of 31 stakeholders, including members from all four legislative caucuses, started meeting in September. Since then, they have focused on educating themselves about the current challenges of the state’s education system, with the goal of making vetted, holistic and informed decisions about their recommendations.
Hawk said she would like to hear from families and allow them to work with educators on creating a better system.
The commission plans to submit preliminary recommendations this fall so they can wait for the property reassessment and the recommendations of the equalization committee, which creates the formula for equitable funding in Delaware.
The PEFC aims to turn in their final proposal in July 2026.
“This is about outcomes for students. This is about teacher retention. This is about making the conditions in schools better for everyone,” Bayard said.
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