Why Should Delaware Care?
In Delaware, teachers’ salaries are funded by a state and local share. But as the state continues to pay based on an educator’s years of experience and credentials, districts with lower property value find themselves unable to compete with their neighboring school districts.
When teachers are deciding where to land a job, one of the first things they consider is a school district’s pay.
But not all Delaware districts are able to compete for the best of those teachers. Because of communities’ differences in wealth and in their willingness to support public schools, some – particularly in rural Delaware – are at a disadvantage.
Among those that struggle is a school district that encompasses Laurel – a roughly 3-square-mile, 4,000-person town in western Sussex County – and its surrounding farm communities.
Patrick Gross, head of the educators’ union in Laurel, said his school district has not been able to keep teachers’ salaries competitive with wealthier districts because it has not held a referendum to raise taxes in more than a decade.
And a failure to pass or even hold referendums only furthers a gap between wealthy districts and those that are more economically modest, such as Laurel.
Gary Henry, a professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Education and Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration, said that the problem is exacerbated in areas in Sussex County that face a combined disadvantage of relatively low property wealth and high student needs.
Those needs often include higher numbers of students who are English language learners or those who come from low-income backgrounds — two factors that typically require more school resources.
“That creates another disadvantage for the lower wealth districts … like Laurel,” said Henry, who is also a member of the state’s Public Education Funding Commission.
“It just makes the lift much heavier,” he said
How are educators’ salaries funded in Delaware?
The total salary for a teacher in the Laurel School District with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree is more than $71,000, according to the district’s salary schedule for the 2025-26 school year.
A teacher with the same experience and education in the wealthier Cape Henlopen School District — about 30 miles from Laurel — makes more than $79,000
Furthermore, the Cape Henlopen School District, which serves more than 6,500 students, had a budget of more than $180 million during the Fiscal Year 2025.
Meanwhile, Laurel schools had nearly $44 million that same year while educating more than 2,600 students.
Educators’ salaries are funded by a combination of state and local tax revenue, with the state paying approximately 70% of an individual’s total salary.
The state share takes into account a teacher’s education and experience. It also funds a pre-set schedule of pay raises for each teacher.
The local share of an educator’s salary is primarily funded by property taxes. And districts with lower property wealth generate less revenue.
Because of how the pay formula is structured, Henry said, the state gives more money to districts that recruit more experienced and more highly credentialed educators. That dynamic means that Laurel, again, misses out on dollars that many of its peer districts enjoy.
“[Districts with more credentialed educators] are already given more money per teacher by the state, and then they add their local supplement, then you can imagine that it’s easy for them to recruit teachers who are willing to move,” Henry said.
Gross, who is president of the Laurel Education Association, said many of his town’s educators are committed to their district and students, but he understands that “it’s hard when you look at the opportunity in other districts.”
As Sussex County continues to experience a residential building boom with rising home sale prices, the $8,000 pay increase at Cape Henlopen over Laurel could make a huge difference for an educator living within the Laurel School District.
But Gross said that teachers who leave their districts can make learning more difficult for students.
Having teachers who are committed to staying in their school helps students stay engaged in their overall educational experience, he said.
Retaining educators without referendums
Laurel is one of many school districts in Delaware that this year chose to implement a 10% increase in property tax revenue following the completion of the first statewide property reassessment in more than three decades.
Among other districts that did so is the neighboring Indian River School District.
While the increases gave both Laurel and Indian River some financial flexibility, their school-funding equations remain challenging. And residents in their areas appear wary about approving a referendum that would send additional local dollars to the schools.
Last spring, Indian River Board failed to pass two referendums, which sought money for ongoing operations amid a national teacher shortage.
The referendums failed even after Indian River board members made the district’s fiscal woes public. At the time, they said that even a successful referendum may not eliminate a need to lay off staff to cut costs elsewhere, according to a report from Coastal Point.
Gross believes the Laurel School District will also be going out for a referendum in the coming years, but was cautious about its success, noting Indian River’s failures to pass its referendums this year.
“I think that the referendum is going to be key … If we can get that done, we’ll see,” Gross said.
Until Laurel goes out for a referendum, the district is looking at ways to improve educators’ working conditions by implementing programs to help address classroom management and increased flexibility for teachers’ building access or dress codes.
“Our district does the best that it can with what we have,” Gross said.
