Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2018, the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity filed a lawsuit claiming that the state’s education system did not provide an adequate education to all students. Nearly 10 years later, the state has officially taken its first step toward changing the more than 80-year-old funding formula.
Two bills that would lay the groundwork for Delaware to implement a new school funding system advanced out of a Senate committee Tuesday, two years after a state commission launched an effort to analyze whether public education in the state was sufficiently serving all students.
One of the bills, sponsored by State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing a so-called hybrid public school funding model, which calls for more money to go to schools with large numbers of low-income students or English-language learners.
The legislation, Senate Bill 302, also includes a provision that would mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model.
If the bill passes, the hybrid model would be implemented during the 2028 fiscal year.
Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission — tasked with recommending reforms to Delaware’s 85-year-old school funding system — voted unanimously last year to approve a recommendation to lawmakers to move forward with the hybrid framework.
Sturgeon, who serves as chair of that commission, also introduced Senate Bill 303, which establishes it as a permanent body to continue studying and evaluating the state’s funding formula in the years to come.
Both bills passed out of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, and now advance to the Senate Finance Committee.
In opening remarks Tuesday, Sturgeon said her legislation was not about fully implementing the hybrid funding formula, but about preparing the state to implement it.
“Before [a hybrid funding formula] can happen, the Department of Education needs time to build the foundation for this long-overdue overhaul,” she said.
Also during the committee hearing, Republican committee members expressed concern about how broader changes to the funding system could affect taxpayers.
“I just don’t know how much more the taxpayer can take,” State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) said. “Where are you going to find a million dollars or another billion dollars to fund education?”
Lawson’s remarks were likely in reference to a recommendation made by the American Institutes for Research — an organization contracted to assess education funding in Delaware — that the state increase public education spending by upward of $1 billion.
While Sturgeon’s bills do not fund schools through a future implemented hybrid formula, SB 302 would cost the state nearly $2.5 million in Fiscal Year 2027, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
Sturgeon said state education officials would spend the money on system upgrades and on staff training, so that the department is ready to implement the hybrid model.
Also on Tuesday, the ACLU of Delaware sent a letter to state leaders, stating “Delaware’s treatment of multi-language learners is unconstitutional and structurally discriminatory.” The civil liberties organization said the state must immediately remedy the situation to avoid a lawsuit.
The News Journal reported that ACLU of Delaware Executive Director Mike Brickner also criticized Sturgeon’s bills, saying “they kick the can down the road another year, when the legislature may or may not put more dollars in.”
What led to Tuesday’s vote?
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.
The formula is based on what officials call a “unit count system,” which distributes money to districts based on the number of students enrolled, without considering additional factors, such as poverty or special needs.
But in 2018 the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity sued the state, stating its education funding system did not provide an adequate education to all students.
Following the settlement of the lawsuit, Delaware contracted with the American Institutes for Research, which later issued its $1 billion education spending recommendation.
The hefty price tag then sparked concerns from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who later created the Public Education Funding Commission to examine the recommendation.
Last spring, the commission introduced an example of what it called a new “hybrid formula,” giving a glimpse of what an overhaul of the funding system could look like.
The formula shown 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.
The hybrid formula was only based on state funding and did not account for dollars raised by Delaware’s 19 school districts through property taxes.
