Why Should Delaware Care?
The Public Education Funding Commission, a state group tasked with studying the current funding formula and recommending how dollars are distributed to schools, voted on Monday to move forward with a hybrid formula. The approved framework incorporates Delaware’s current distribution of money on a per-student basis with one that allocates money based on students’ needs.
A reform of Delaware’s 85-year-old public education funding system is officially moving forward, with schools with large numbers of low-income students or English language learners the likely beneficiaries.
On Monday, the state’s Public Education Funding Commission, which is in charge of recommending how dollars are distributed to Delaware schools, voted unanimously to approve a recommendation to move forward with a new hybrid framework.
Gov. Matt Meyer, who ran a campaign on education reform and has made it a major policy initiative for his first year, applauded the commission’s efforts.
“After many decades, we are finally united in making progress. While the work is far from done, the show of support tonight demonstrates that change is possible on this issue. I asked for progress by this summer, and the members of the PEFC delivered,” he said in a statement.
Last month, the commission looked at what the commission’s chair, State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), called a “Delaware hybrid” funding model.
The model, created by a consultant hired by the commission, incorporates the state’s traditional framework of distributing money on a per-student basis with one that allocates dollars based on student needs.
The approved recommendation only pushes forward the idea of a hybrid framework though, and provides no details as to the specific funding model that will be used to calculate a school’s new state support. Notably, the commission reviewed a hybrid funding model at its May meeting, but details from that model were not in the recommendation.
However, the commission did agree that the additional funding weights would go to disabled students, students from low-income families and students who are still learning English. They also agreed to ensure that no school district receives less in state funding in the transition than they currently do.
During the meeting, Sturgeon said that if the General Assembly takes any action relating to Delaware’s public education funding formula this year, it would be a resolution echoing the approved recommendation.
“The soonest the General Assembly will be able to act with any degree of specificity on a formula, as opposed to just a general framework, would be next January, because after June 30, they’re out of session,” Sturgeon said.
The commission also approved four other recommendations Monday, including developing a plan to guide the transition into a new funding formula and establishing a group of parents, community leaders, and educators to continually review the state’s public education funding system.
It also agreed to continue meeting and work on additional school funding issues, including referendum reform and equalization of school budgets across differing areas of wealth.
The commission’s recommendations follow years of complaints that Delaware school funding was failing students.
In 2018, the ACLU of Delaware filed a lawsuit claiming that Delaware’s education system did not provide adequate schools for poor, disabled and non-English speaking students. The plaintiffs included the Delaware NAACP and a citizens’ group called Delawareans for Educational Opportunity.
The case settled in 2020, and as part of the settlement, the state contracted the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization, to conduct an independent assessment of education funding in Delaware.
The group recommended in late 2023 that Delaware increase spending on public education by upward of $1 billion. In response, the Delaware legislature created the Public Education Funding Commission.
Gov. Matt Meyer previously stated during his “State of the State” address that he wants lawmakers to pass a school funding reform package by June 30. Sturgeon also said the commission would vote to approve the framework so that she and Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) could file legislation with the General Assembly by that deadline.
During Monday’s meeting, Sturgeon noted that the resolution may no longer be desirable.
“[Meyer] was the one who seemed to want some type of action in the General Assembly, so we had suggested a resolution. From things I’m hearing, he may not be feeling like that’s necessary, because of the progress he thinks we’ll be making today,” Sturgeon said.
A July 14 meeting of the Public Education Funding Commission has already been cancelled. The next meeting will be hosted Aug. 11 from 4 to 6 p.m.
