Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2020, a court ruling found that Delaware’s property assessments have inequitably shortchanged many of the state’s most disadvantaged communities. It kickstarted a debate about whether Delaware needs to overhaul its entire school funding formula, and perhaps spend up to $1 billion more to support students. Legislators have requested another study of that proposal before embarking on further spending.
Nearly four years after a historic deal was brokered over equity in public school funding in Delaware, a new commission will allow legislators, educators, community leaders, and advocates to review how the state’s public education system will be funded into the future.
The decision to create the group came after a consultant recommended that the state increase spending by as much as $1 billion to meet its 2030 goals.
Both Democratic and Republican members of the State Senate’s Education Committee raised concerns in a March meeting about how such a sum – which would equal nearly a sixth of the state’s entire budget – would affect taxpayers.
“I want to make sure that we’re deliberate and measured in this approach because one of the things here is a $500 million to $1 billion cure, and the Delaware taxpayer is [going to want to know] ‘What the heck are we spending it on?” State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover) said during the meeting.
The Public Education Funding Commission, a 31-member work group that will include legislators, Cabinet leaders, teachers, principals, support professionals, and community advocates, will review the state of public education funding in Delaware and in other states, and develop recommended changes to the system.
How does Delaware compare to other states?
Delaware is often compared to its neighboring states, like Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Each of these states use foundation formulas, which begin with a base amount per student, and add weighted funding for students with greater resource needs, like those from low-income backgrounds, the disabled or non-English speakers.
Unlike its neighbors, Delaware uses what is known as a resource-based formula, essentially providing a funding value to every student a district has regardless of their additional needs.
The amount that each Delaware school district spends per pupil varies from a low of just over $10,000 per student for Delmar School District to more than $19,000 per student in the Christina School District. The statewide average is $15,607.
The state’s funding is often similar or more than neighboring states — Maryland’s base per-pupil fund is $7,991 and New Jersey’s is $12,177 — but critics say Delaware still isn’t spending enough to meet the needs of its students.
Delaware is needier than other states surrounding it, particularly within its special needs and English-learner populations, explained Kenneth Shores, assistant professor at the University of Delaware who specializes in education policy.
Shores, who spoke at the State Senate’s Education Committee meeting about the American Institute of Research’s (AIR) recommendations in March, also completed his own research into Delaware’s education funding system.
He determined that Delaware has more needs based on the number of students with special needs, students who are English learners and students living in poverty.
During the 2021-22 academic year, 16.9% of students enrolled in Delaware were enrolled in special education and approximately 14,000 were English language learners (ELLs). Approximately 16.8% of Delawareans under 18 live in poverty.
“Delaware is pretty unusually needy, not so much with poverty, but with its special needs population and the ELL population, we’re certainly higher in those dimensions than a lot of neighboring states,” Shores said. “When you think about needs, that’s certainly a factor that you should consider when you think about how much it costs to educate kids.”
Delaware does spend more on education than some states, but it depends on who someone is labeling as the comparison state, Shores added. Part of analyzing whether Delaware is spending enough is determining which comparable states Delaware is spending more than, like Utah or Mississippi, and which states Delaware is spending less than, like New York.
Why is funding being questioned?
Delaware’s current funding formula was established in 1940, with the state and federal governments providing about 70% of the funding while 30% is generated through district-level property taxes that residents vote on during referendums.
Advocacy groups like the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity filed a lawsuit in 2018, stating that the state’s education system did not provide an adequate education to all students. The American Institutes for Research completed its independent assessment of education funding in Delaware as part of the 2020 settlement from that case.
During his time as a community leader and education advocate, Jea Street, a New Castle County councilman and plaintiff in the lawsuit, has rarely seen the state help low-income and at-risk children unless compelled to do so by a judge.
The settlement sum was comparable to what the organizations would have asked the court if they’d gone to trial, but it wouldn’t have accurately addressed problems in the funding system, Street said. Although he acknowledges that the money would help, Street labeled the sum “woefully insufficient.”
“They know that, and it’s a matter of whether or not the state is willing to do what needs to be done for high-priority children and schools throughout the state,” Street said.
Street has heard ongoing conversations about need-based funding but feels the state keeps “running away” from the topic.
Mike Brickner, the executive director of Delaware’s ACLU branch, expressed that the “political will” to address inequities has always been “the stumbling block” and a large reason for the 2018 lawsuit.
“As part of our settlement, we asked for the AIR report to be commissioned because we knew much more funding was needed, and we wanted unbiased experts to examine the issue objectively, so that elected officials could act quickly and decisively,” Brickner said in a statement. “While we are certainly willing to be a resource to this commission, legislators should not evade their constitutional obligation to urgently address these well-documented and long-standing funding issues immediately.”
Change is coming
While most of the funding for the public education system comes from the state, Delaware’s schools receive money from a mix of local, state and federal funds.
Delaware also established its own Equalization Committee and formula that is designed to allocate state resources to districts based on their ability to generate revenue from their local property tax base.
Property values are often correlated with poverty levels, and in theory, the equalization plan could put more money into low-income school districts, Shores said. He also found that many assessment values are outdated, making them no longer valuable for accurate correlations.
House Bill 62, which was signed into law by Gov. John Carney in 2023, required Delaware’s three counties to complete countywide property tax reassessments once every five years.
Prior to the bill, Sussex County had not conducted a countywide property tax reassessment since 1974, while New Castle and Kent County last reassessed property in 1983 and 1987, respectively. The lack of assessments meant properties were extremely misvalued; some homeowners paid more than what the updated market called for and others paid too little.
If property assessments were updated, the best-case scenario would be that poverty and property values would be indirectly correlated because Delaware’s education funding formula doesn’t account for child poverty, Shores added.
“The funding formula in Delaware is not explicitly targeted toward economic disadvantage,” Shores said. “It doesn’t explicitly provide more funding to districts who have kids in poverty. The equalization plan doesn’t really work that way, it works based on property values.”
Another recommendation from the AIR report to address this concern was a weighted student funding formula.
The formula would use student weights, especially for students who may not speak fluent English or come from low-income backgrounds, to distribute money to district and charter schools. Multiple states throughout the country use this type of formula.
I have some reservations about putting more money in until we address the root cause of that inequity.
State Senate majority whip tizzy lockman
Diversifying Delaware’s education funds
Delaware’s state funds for its education system match that of neighboring states, but it lacks contributions from the districts, Shores said. When districts don’t complement what the state is funding, there tends to be less money available.
However, increasing the amount of funds from the districts often means increasing taxes. Some of the state senators’ biggest concerns were how the increase in funds would affect taxpayers in the state.
“Flexibility is something I completely agree with, but we can do that now and it won’t cost us any more money,” Buckson said during the March meeting. “So I would encourage us to look at ways to increase flexibility in the current spending that we already allocate.”
Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman agreed with Buckson’s sentiment. “I also have concerns about investing in a system that is not equitably allocating at this time,” she said. “I have some reservations about putting more money in until we address the root cause of that inequity.”
Critics of spending more on education often believe that money won’t solve all the problems within Delaware’s education system. However, studies have shown that when schools receive more money, students tend to score better on tests and stay in school longer. It can often help promote smaller class sizes and more resources for teachers and students.
The weighted student funding formula could also help adjust what states are contributing to funding the state’s education system. If there was a threshold set by a foundation plan, Delaware could set minimum property tax rates to regulate those district contributions.
“You have more need, less contributions from local school districts, and the parts the state is bringing in doesn’t actually go toward need in the first place,” Shores said. “It’s like a trifecta of dysfunction.”
The commission will hold its first meeting no later than Oct. 1 and issue its first set of recommendations by Oct. 1, 2025, to be considered in the governor’s recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2027.
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