Why Should Delaware Care?
For years, policymakers have debated why Delaware public school students have consistently scored low on standardized tests. Now the state’s new education secretary has laid out a plan as part of a $2.4 billion budget that she says will ultimately demonstrate that students are improving — and scoring higher on the tests.
With Delaware’s student scores under scrutiny, state education officials are asking lawmakers to continue to invest in teachers, as well as in reforms that they say will improve reading comprehension, graduation rates, and other performance metrics.
During a legislative budget committee hearing on Tuesday, Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten requested a nearly 4% increase in her departmental budget for the next fiscal year.
If passed as requested, the department’s state funding would reach nearly $2.4 billion – the largest amount of any state agency — due primarily to the fact that Delaware’s education funding model sees the state government cover 60% of each student’s annual cost to educate.
During the budget committee meeting, education officials linked the requested increase in part to rising personnel costs and an increasing enrollment. Marten also unveiled what she said was the Department of Education’s first strategic plan in over a decade.
According to the plan, the department’s funding would focus on four central pillars.
Those include expanding access to early childhood education; supporting student well-being and teacher retention; improving student achievement and test scores; and transitioning to a new hybrid school funding formula that would send additional dollars to schools with large numbers of students who are low-income or English-language learners.
The budget request also included funding for Delaware’s growing student population. Brian Maxwell, the director of the state’s Office of Management and Budget, said during the meeting that the cost of paying school staff increases with the implementation of a $60,000 starting salary for educators.
During the hearing, lawmakers showed mixed reactions to the department’s funding request.
Reps. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) and Charles Postles (R-Milford) praised Marten’s presentation.
Williams said it was “probably the best DDOE presentation” she has seen, while Postles noted the “potential delivery” of Marten’s promises to improve performance metrics.
Not all legislators agreed.
State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) noted his appreciation for Marten’s work, but said he has heard similar sentiments for the last 14 years as test scores have declined.
“So if [performance metrics] aren’t accomplished, what are going to be your actions? Are you still going to be secretary?” he said.
Addressing test scores
In recent years, Delawareans across the political spectrum have grown increasingly frustrated with the state’s education spending compared to students’ test scores.
Delaware’s 2024 results on the National Assessment on Educational Progress – or better known as the Nation’s Report Card – showed that 40% of eighth graders and 45% of fourth graders were found to be “below basic” proficiency levels on the assessment.
Although there has been some growth since the COVID pandemic, Marten said her recommended budget is “designed to accelerate this trajectory.”
As part of the strategic plan, Marten told legislators that her department will in the coming years focus particularly on increasing the state’s graduation rate, and the third-grade reading proficiency rates.
Her plan also calls for the passage of legislation that would allow the state to transition to the new hybrid funding model by August 2027.
In recent months, the state’s Public Education Funding Commission, which is in charge of recommending how to reform how dollars are distributed to Delaware schools, voted to approve a recommendation to move forward with the new hybrid framework.
The model incorporates the state’s traditional framework of distributing money on a per-student basis with one that also allocates dollars based on student needs. The details for such a formula and how it would impact individual school districts and schools has yet to be determined.
