Delaware has begun the first phase of implementing changes to its 85-year-old school funding system. Education leaders have been working for years to reform the state’s outdated public education funding model to better serve modern classrooms. Last year, the Public Education Funding Commission unanimously recommended that lawmakers approve a hybrid funding framework, which would shift education spending away from a strictly per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher needs. This past summer, two bills that lay the groundwork for that funding system reform were signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer.
The commission has also worked on its first implementation phase since the two bills were signed into law. The first phase does not include implementation of a new formula, though. Instead, the Delaware Department of Education is working on system updates during this phase, along with communication and training materials for those who will have a “key role” in changing the formula, said Brian Ray, the associate secretary of the finance and operations team at the Department of Education, during a public meeting this week.
Ray also said the commission’s working group will also have to consolidate existing funding appropriations such as teacher positions or different block grants into three main categories: base, opportunity, and operational funding. The commission’s working group also established four subgroups to move forward with phase two and focus on equalization, multilanguage learners, vocational and career technical education, and students from low-income backgrounds. Ray said each of the subgroups have met at least once, and “they’re starting to identify the variables and the processes we need to to work through to then make recommendations to [the full Public Education Funding Commission] to then review, vote, and move forward with into that next phase.” Any given school in Delaware is likely depending on a dozen funding streams or more, while leaders are seeking to streamline that to just three streams.
Why was school funding being questioned? 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. Before the bill, Sussex County had not conducted a countywide property tax reassessment since 1974, while New Castle and Kent County last reassessed property in 1983 and 1987, respectively. The lack of assessments meant properties were extremely misvalued; some homeowners paid more than what the updated market called for and others paid too little.
Because of communities’ differences in wealth and in their willingness to support public schools, some – particularly in rural Delaware – are at a disadvantage when trying to compete for high-quality educators. And a failure to pass or even hold referendums only furthers a gap between wealthy districts and those that are more economically modest. Those concerns are exacerbated in areas in Sussex County that face a combined disadvantage of relatively low property wealth and high student needs. Advocacy groups like the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity filed a lawsuit in 2018, stating that the state’s education system did not provide an adequate education to all students. After a preliminary ruling allowed the lawsuit to proceed, the state settled the case, promising to reassess property and review statewide school funding reform.
