Why Should Delaware Care?
The Delaware legislature reassesses the public education system through new legislation filed each year. In 2026, lawmakers passed a string of consequential bills that reforms school funding.
When Delaware’s legislative session came to an end early Wednesday morning, lawmakers had approved a string of education bills that reform how the state and how school districts collect and distribute money for schools.
Among them is one that would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing its hybrid public school funding model, which would distribute more money to schools with large numbers of low-income students or English-language learners.
Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware that the passage of the hybrid funding bill, and others, does not represent a “victory lap” but marks the “beginning of the next phase of a shared civic project.”
“The work ahead is implementation,” she said.
Here’s a look at Delaware education bills that have passed through or stalled within the General Assembly this year.
A new public education funding formula?
Two years ago, Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission — tasked with recommending reforms to the state’s 85-year-old school funding system – launched an initiative to analyze whether public education in the state was serving all students.
Last year, the commission unanimously recommended that lawmakers approve their hybrid school funding framework, which would shift education spending away from a per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher needs.
In May, two bills that would lay the groundwork for Delaware to implement a new school funding system advanced out of a Senate committee.
One of the bills, sponsored by State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing the hybrid school funding model. It also includes a provision to mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model.
If signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer, the hybrid model would be implemented during the 2028 fiscal year.
Sturgeon, who serves as chair of the Delaware’s Public Education Funding 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 await the governor’s signature.
School referendum reform
Lawmakers have spent the last year attempting to address Delawareans’ concerns about school district tax increases following last year’s first-in-a-generation property reassessment.
Sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola (D-Newark), Senate Bill 322 was spurred by school districts’ decision last summer to increase their property tax revenues by 10% following Delaware’s statewide property reassessment.
Sokola’s bill follows two failed attempts by Republican lawmakers earlier this year to scale back districts’ ability to take those automatic tax increases in the future.
While Senate Bill 322 would rescind school districts’ current ability to automatically implement a 10% tax increase after property reassessments, it would allow them to seek additional funding without holding a referendum vote.
Instead of taking an automatic 10% hike, districts – should they meet certain criteria – would be able to implement an up to 2% tax increase each year without seeking approval from voters.
That approach mirrors the process in many other states.
The bill now awaits Meyer’s approval. If signed, Senate Bill 322 would not take effect until 2031, after the state’s next property reassessment.
Funding school construction projects
Late last week, lawmakers released Delaware’s $1.26 billion capital budget. The 103-page bill includes scores of spending items, including traditional appropriations for roads, parks, and school buildings.
During a legislative committee meeting last week, Delaware’s Controller General Ruth Ann Miller said the bill will also allow the state to “forward fund” school districts’ Certificate of Necessity requests.
If a school district wants to build a new school, add an expansion, or complete a substantial renovation, officials must seek out state funding and get approval from the Department of Education through the Certificate of Necessity (CN) process.
If state officials approved the requests, then a percentage of the cost would be funded through state bonds. The district would then need to secure a local contribution through a referendum vote for the remaining funds.
Multiple CN requests have failed in recent years and as a result, many districts have turned to unique ways to address overcrowding in schools. In Delmar, teachers hold classes in the high school auditorium.
“The hope is that by forward funding all of these schools that were already in the pipeline, that opens the door next year for new CNs to actually be allowed in,” Miller said.
The bond bill ultimately passed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and now awaits the governor’s signature.
Not passing last week was a measure to require union workers on school construction sites. Senate Bill 272 would have mandated that a school district sign an agreement with the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council – the umbrella organization for the state’s various unionized trades – to use union labor for construction projects that cost at least $5 million and have at least two bidders.
Multiple major industry groups, including the Associated Builders and Contractors of Delaware and organizations representing minority-owned businesses, opposed the bill and held protests over it for months.
Expanding the childcare tax credit
Earlier this spring, two pieces of legislation that would each expand tax credits for Delaware parents also saw action in the state house.
One was a Democratic bill that proposes to double the amount of money that parents could receive from a Delaware childcare tax credit. The other, which had bipartisan sponsors, would expand the credit for lower-income parents and allow them to redeem more money than they pay in.
Rep. Melanie Ross Levin (D-Brandywine Hundred) first introduced House Bill 274 in January as a means to ease financial pressure on parents in need of childcare.
In March, a revised version of her bill – which would increase Delaware’s match of the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit from 50% to 100% – passed the House Revenue and Finance Committee.
The federal Child and Dependent Care Credit allows working parents to reduce their tax liability if they pay for childcare.
During testimony at a committee hearing, Ross Levin noted that her proposal was not in Gov. Matt Meyer’s recommended budget in January. Still, she called the bill “fiscally, potentially doable,” and noted that the credits were designed so that taxpayers do not receive more cash from the government than what they pay in taxes.
The bill was assigned to the House Appropriations Committee in March but did not make movement.
The second bill, House Bill 284, was sponsored by Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Dover). It would double the childcare and dependent care expense tax credit for single individuals with an income of less than $60,000 and would make the credit refundable – meaning beneficiaries could receive payments even if they own little in taxes.
In an interview, Yearick said his bill is designed to attract “a qualified workforce” to the state by making childcare more accessible to parents who do not qualify for programs, such as Purchase of Care or Head Start.
Among the additional and co-sponsors of the bill were two Democrats — Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton) and Sen. Kyra Hoffner (D-Leipsic).
Yearick’s bill has also awaited consideration in the House Appropriations Committee since May.
