A Changing Landscape Demands Legislative Action
Delaware is growing. Not in size, but in numbers. For our children to lead, or even keep pace, our state needs to confront some brutal facts.
Our population continues to grow at a higher clip than our immediate neighbors. At the Rodel Foundation, we look especially at the growing rate of low-income families and children, and kids who are learning to speak English. Low-income students now make up more than one-third of Delaware’s public school population, and data tell us that low-income students struggle more academically, indicating they likely will need more supports.
But more supports are increasingly hard to come by given Delaware’s murky financial picture. For the second year in a row, the state faced a significant budget shortfall. Beginning in June, Delaware’s Joint Finance Committee and General Assembly confirmed a slate of difficult budget cuts to public education. Melissa Hopkins broke it all down on our blog. Going forward, we need to recognize that our current revenue and spending assumptions simply no longer work.
In reviewing this coming year’s final budget, there are a few rays of light, but many core services have been reduced and many other important new ideas proposed by Governor Markell were cut altogether. The net result is Delaware losing ground in some important areas—where we could have instead made bold new steps.
Among the most painful were new proposals that were not funded that would’ve boosted technology and infrastructure improvements, starting salary increases for teachers, and an expansion of the SEED Scholarship program. The competitive fund for charter schools was eliminated altogether.
One of Rodel’s biggest priorities this year was supporting Delaware’s continued momentum in early childhood education, and specifically the raft of important initiatives that grew from the federal Early Learning Challenge Grant in 2011. While early learning advocates got more than 80 percent ($9.4 million) of what the governor proposed ($11.4 million), that reduction will have significant consequences for many families, children, and early learning providers.
Helping Delaware place highly effective teachers in front of every classroom is another Rodel priority. So while we were excited to see that the legislature added $1 million to pay for stipends for teachers who obtain National Board Certification, and a valuable teacher-leadership pilot for the fall, losing $3 million for proposed higher starting salaries for new educators hurts us, especially when neighboring states can offer more money and hire earlier in the calendar year.
On the legislative front, there was forward movement on some important issues like the recruitment of new teachers and the mental health of students, but there were not a lot of big shifts to the state code in this election year. (See our full legislative wrap up here.)
Rodel and many others were part of ongoing debates around the role of statewide testing. We supported a reduction in the amount of overall testing, and thanks to the Delaware Assessment Inventory, reductions have indeed occurred. Last year, we opposed HB50, the “opt-out” bill, because we believed it would’ve compromised our one common and reliable measure of how students can read and perform math. This bill, which Gov. Markell vetoed in July 2015, was not overridden. We also supported the final version of a bill to reduce the role of testing in teacher evaluations and to allow for the piloting of new approaches, while still largely retaining a consistent and fair framework for teacher appraisal. Above all the debates, Delaware has so far upheld the framework of standards and assessments and teacher evaluations. We’re making improvements and adjustments along the way and moving to a (hopefully less controversial) middle ground that is responsive to the field.
This year brought us some truly inspiring and ambitious, yet ultimately frustrating, conversations around difficult topics: equitable funding and governance. And while those ambitions were not yet realized, they absolutely made their impact—and the work continues.
Rodel was one of 22 organizations to sign a letter calling for updates to Delaware’s 70-year-old state education funding system in order to make it more responsive to the needs of students. We also watched closely as the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission (WEIC) strived for equity and excellence for the students and families in Wilmington via redistricting. Additional funding for high needs students was also a part of WEIC’s plan.
Ultimately, legislation (SJR 17) allowed for WEIC to continue its work on redistricting, while it seeks answers to major funding questions. But the issues raised by WEIC are the right ones, not only for Wilmington, but for the entire state, so we look forward to the next phase of this work.
Put simply, the dramatic shifts in Delaware’s demographics require action. So too does our state’s budget. Neither issue is going away anytime soon and the next administration will need to take a long, hard look at the facts, and figure out a way to support students equitably. Governor Markell, community organizations, and the legislature teed up some great options this session, but many yet remain for the 149th General Assembly.
What we do know is that investing in education benefits us all; and that the consequences of not investing can be dire.