Why Should Delaware Care?
The Public Education Funding Commission has been tasked with studying Delaware’s public education funding formula. Nearly six months after the resolution to establish the group was passed, the commission has given the first look at what a new funding formula could look like.
On Monday evening, the Public Education Funding Commission introduced an example of what the group called a new “hybrid formula,” giving a glimpse of what an overhaul of the funding system could look like – but in the end it produced as many questions as answers.
During the meeting, Michael Griffith, senior researcher and policy analyst at the Learning Policy Institute, an education research consultant hired by the PEFC, showed how the example formula would affect seven individual schools.
Those schools were Brandywine High School, Delcastle Technical High School, Frederick Douglass Elementary School, Lulu M. Ross Elementary School, the Charter School of Wilmington, Stanton Middle School, and Warner Elementary School.
Each of those schools, except for Ross Elementary, would gain about $1.29 million if the hybrid formula example were implemented.
Ross would instead lose more than $181,000.
Griffith reminded the commission members during the meeting that this was just an example and members had previously agreed to utilize a “hold harmless” framework, meaning no school would lose funding under a new funding formula.
Still, multiple members expressed concerns about Ross losing money because of its high population of students from low-income backgrounds and English-language learners.
“I doubt anyone in this room would accept a model that didn’t increase the allocations to a school like Lulu Ross that serves the population they serve,” said Commission Chair State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), who is a former Spanish teacher.
How does the hybrid formula work?
Delaware’s public education funding formula is currently based on a unit count system, which distributes money to districts based on the number of students enrolled, without considering additional factors to their educational outcomes.
The formula shown on Monday would combine the unit count system with new “Opportunity” and “Flex” categories that direct dollars based on student needs while giving schools more control over how funds are used.
Unlike the American Institutes for Research’s study, the hybrid formula was only based on state funding and does not include funds raised by Delaware’s 19 school districts through local taxes. It also did not account for certain “parking lot” items, like equalization, because of the ongoing property reassessments throughout the state.
Griffith said that Ross’ results are partially because general education students were given weights in addition to groups like students with disabilities or those from low-income backgrounds.
“In the way I modeled it, I counted every general education kid within the weighted formula amount,” he said during the meeting. “We might not want to do that and only provide extra funding for those kids who have higher needs.”
Griffith also said that the Charter School of Wilmington saw higher increases because they have a large number of students, but said there would be changes if the commission tweaked the weights to only include students with higher needs.
Some commission members, like Britney Mumford, executive director of education advocacy DelawareKidsCAN, believed that the example shown on Monday proved there needs to be larger changes to the public education funding formula.
“What I see from this table is that it proves that using the resource model to then multiply by the weights is purely inequitable,” Mumford said. “This system does not work and does not provide equity.”
What happens next?
The commission is slated to have Griffith take comments into consideration and present an edited hybrid formula during its next meeting on May 5.
Sturgeon aims to have the commission vote to approve the hybrid framework so that she and Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) can file legislation with the General Assembly by June 30. Gov. Matt Meyer has pushed legislators to adopt a new funding formula for state schools before they leave Dover for the year on July 1, but that timeline has proven to be ambitious.
Tensions arose during the Monday meeting after members expressed disagreements over whether to keep some components of the current unit count system, marking uncertainty as to whether the commission can reach a consensus on the hybrid model.
“We have a level of decorum on this commission if we’re going to accomplish anything, we are wasting too much time with finger-pointing and defending ourselves, and these are things that are not helpful for our kids right now,” said commission member Marcus Wright, who is also a member of the Seaford School District Board of Education.
Monday’s meeting wasn’t the first time that Wright has expressed frustration with delays in the group’s progress.
In November, Wright called on other members to lean on those who are on the commission to help “gain the knowledge that you need so that we can move forward” after a survey determined that a large number of the commission members didn’t feel they had enough of a grasp on the current or proposed funding systems to formulate a plan.
Sturgeon noted that although she would love to see consensus among the members on what the formula should look like, the vote would be based on the majority’s opinion.
“If we can’t reach consensus, hopefully we can at least reach a majority, but this group has to respect one another and respect one another’s defaults,” she said.
Get Involved
The Public Education Funding Commission meetings are open to the public and available remotely. The next one is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday, May 5.
