Delaware continues to move forward and engage in the important conversation on public school funding. Governor Matt Meyer’s Administration and Secretary of Education Cindy Marten have both expressed that modernizing the public school funding formula is a high priority in the coming years. So, what has been happening in this work?

Public Education Funding Commission

The Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC) has continued to meet and has now held two meetings with the new members that were added in the January renewal.

In February, the commission took time to introduce these new members, and to align on a set of principles that would become the basis for a funding formula that would be used when reviewing any future models that were presented to the commission. These principles stipulate any formula would be:

• Adequate: Ensure that funding is adequate to meet school/student needs
• Equitable: Funding should be adjusted for local wealth and student needs
• Flexible: Allow for greater flexibility in how funds are expended
• Targeted: Provide additional funding to high-need student groups (special education, low-income, multilingual learners [MLLs], etc.)
• Staff Protections: The formula should contain greater for teachers and other school staff (such as maintaining the salary schedule, smaller class sizes, etc.)
• Streamlined: A new system should reduce the administrative burden on schools
• Transparent: Greater clarity on how funds are generated and expended

In March, the commission heard from Jesse Levin, a principal economic researcher from the American Institutes of Research on a key part of their report the results of the professional judgement panels. These panels of professional educators determined what programming would be required to adequately educate students, creating an input-based analysis of what “adequacy” could look like.

What Do Educators Say Schools Need?

• Improved classroom conditions including smaller class sizes and two adults in every classroom
• Additional opportunities for professional learning during the regular school day
• School staffing and resources
  • Lower ratios for school psychologists, school counselors, and social workers
  • Additional full-time support staff such as: nurses; occupational therapists;
• Increased resources for high-need schools such as:
  • Basic needs like food pantries, wellness centers, psychologists
  • Additional staff to support MLL and special needs students
  • MLL curriculum support, including books and curriculum in home languages
  • Extended school day and enrichment activities such as field trips, funding for athletics, band
• Universal pre-K

To read more about the professional judgement panels and the results see the Vision Coalition background document.

This conversation recentered the work back on those who are the most impacted, educators and students.

The commission will be meeting again on April 14 to see the first set of new funding formula models. The Vision Coalition of Delaware has released a tool to provide a crosswalk with AIR’s recommendations, SEE 2035, and national research.

What Else is Going on in Education Funding?

Equalization Committee

The Equalization Committee continues to meet, and Public Consulting Group has presented the committee with an initial set of recommendations on how to modernize the equalization formula. These recommendations are in line with PEFC’s direction, as well as with national trends.

• Recommendation 1: Simplify the Formula
  • Focus the calculation and distribution of funds more on students and
  • Use assessed value of property rather than projected sales or market value
• Recommendation 2: Modernize the Approach to Equalization
  • Streamline certain taxes into operating budget
  • Treat New Castle County tax pool districts individually
• Recommendation 3: Provide Statute to Mitigate Against Risk
  • Phase in formula over five years
  • Make sure districts have predictability and stability with equalization funds

The committee will hear final recommendations in October of 2025.

Reassessment Appeals and Final Determinations

Delaware’s property reassessment process continues, and the window for homeowners to make appeals has now ended Final numbers are expected in fall of 2025, and school districts are now weighing how much they may increase the local school property tax. Post-reassessment, Delaware school districts may increase up to 10 percent of total revenue but may choose to raise less, as well.

Vision Coalition Student Equity and Excellence 2035 Released

On March 24, the Vision Coalition of Delaware released Student Equity and Excellence 2035, a policy roadmap for the next 10 years.

This plan includes recommendations related to funding including:

• Distribute more resources according to student need
• Adequately fund schools to pay educators and school staff competitively
• Allow more flexibility in how funding is spent and remove administrative burdens
• Provide state funding to account for local wealth inequities and reform the referendum process
• Provide transparency and predictability in the funding formula
• Simplify how charter schools are funded

Delaware continues to work toward a revised school funding formula. A lawsuit settlement in 2020 led to a cascade of actions, including the establishment of the Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC) last June.

What has the Public Education Funding Commission Been Up To?

The Commission met once a month from September to December and was recently re-established through HCR 2 in January with a few minor changes. These changes include:

• Extending the timeline of the commission: Initially, recommendations were due in October of 2025, now a preliminary set of recommendations will be due in October and the final recommendations will be due in July of 2026.
• The addition of a student member of the commission: This student will either be the student representative serving on the State Board of Education or another student selected by the State Board.
• The addition of a representative from an institution of higher education with special interest in school finance issues

Additionally, with the changing administration at the state level, the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Brian Maxwell, and the new Secretary of Education, Cindy Marten, will be joining the commission in February.

At their last meeting in December the PEFC heard representatives from district and charter schools explain how our current system works and what their recommended changes would include. District and charter leaders presented on changes that could be made to our current system. They shared that:

• The current system is structurally sound, but the additional demands being put on them through positions that do not get full units has strained the system.
  • Ex: Nurses, drivers ed teachers, and substitutes do not receive the full Division II (operating costs) and Division III (equalization) components and therefore LEAs are not getting the full amount they need to afford the operating cost needs.
• In order to alleviate the pressure and support LEAs, several things would need to be fixed:
  • Unfreeze and update the Equalization Formula
  • Add units for positions that currently do not have units allocated (nurses, substitutes, mental health positions, other related services)
  • Add lower ratios for students from low-income backgrounds and multilingual learners

These recommendations fall more on the side of adjustments to the current unit system rather than switching to a different approach, however at their next meeting on February 10, the commission will hear more potential scenarios including more hybrid options for what our funding formula could look like and how the state could move closer to what was recommended in the assessment of public education produced by AIR last year. This meeting will be in person on February 10 from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Delaware Legislative Hall.

What We Heard at the December 6 Vision Coalition Funding Event

Last December, the Vision Coalition continued the Equity in Education Series started in 2023 with an event inviting the Funding Commission and experts from Maryland, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and others to discuss the lessons they learned from making change in their own state. Some highlights include:

• Providing flexibility and removing the burden of managing 50 checkbooks at the district/charter school level
• Agreement on removing the requirement to go to referendum for basic operating costs
• Learning from other states—like how most states have more equitable funding for student needs
• Change is possible
  • States like Maryland, Tennessee, Massachusetts and others have made these changes through commissions but also through advocacy
• Public engagement, including voices of students, parents, and educators, is very important
• There are a lot of options, and all systems are some form of hybrid

Check out a recording of the event here.

Other News in Funding

The Equalization Committee continues to meet and consider recommendations for updating the formula that has been frozen for over 15 years. The committee heard from the Public Consulting Group (PCG) their preliminary findings in November and will hear some preliminary recommendations in February. PCG’s initial considerations mainly focused on ensuring a more equitable equalization formula and ensuring that it was regularly reviewed and properties are reassessed, to make sure it is working as planned.

The property reassessment process continues, and while all three counties have numbers in, there is still a way to go before these numbers are finalized. Now begins a complex appeals process, wherein individuals can appeal the valuation that was provided. This means that it will likely take more time for these reassessment numbers to be final and affect school property tax rates, projected for fall 2025.

Additionally, legislative action can still impact the outcome of reassessment such as SB 35, which would lower some agricultural valuation and therefore property tax rates, which would impact local education tax collection.

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) results were released last week, and as expected, scores remain low. Delaware did see improvements in fourth grade math scores but generally remained stagnant in the other grade levels and subjects. Gov. Matt Meyer declared a “literacy emergency” in the aftermath. While most states remained stagnant, a few saw some improvements in scores. Per Education Resource Strategies (ERS), all states saw an increase in funds over the last two years thanks to COVID relief dollars, but the states that saw the most improvements were the states with the most flexible formulas that also regularly assessed whether their investments were making a real difference.

When it comes to Delaware’s school funding formula, classroom educators tend to agree with the conclusions drawn by the American Institutes of Research (AIR) last year: that it is inadequate, it negatively impacts student outcomes, and lacks transparency.  

Seven members of the Rodel Educator Network came together in 2024 to learn about the landscape of school funding, advocacy, and how educators can be involved in policy change. After several months of learning about the landscape of school funding policy in Delaware they developed a survey, which ran from late April of 2024 to mid-June of 2024, to hear from other fellow educators on their thoughts, needs, and opinions on how well the K-12 funding formula is serving their students. 

Click here to explore the full survey and research results. 

Of the over 50 respondents from across the state, a majority (88 percent) said funding inequity negatively impacts student outcomes, over half say that funding is either inadequate or very inadequate (62 percent), that the current formula does not adequately support student needs (58 percent), and that the funding formula is not transparent (56 percent). 

Educators are an essential part of the conversation around school funding, as educators are the closest to students and are uniquely able to identify the needs of our students across the state. Their policy recommendations of having fair distribution of funding, and increased overall funding demonstrated alignment with AIR report’s recommendations of increasing investments in Delaware’s public education, distributing more resources according to student needs, and improving funding transparency. One survey respondent notes, “There is no transparency and no one on the school level has access to that information…Transparency means letting the people that the distribution affects have access to that information.” 

As part of the analysis undertaken by AIR, a research firm based in Arlington, Va.,  “professional judgement panels” were assembled with those with the most knowledge of this system, like classroom teachers, principals, and other district- and school-level employees, to develop recommendations of what it would take to adequately educate every child. As one respondent says, “Talk to [educators]; include them in meetings. Find out where the deficits are and try to address them systemically.” 

The educators urge other educators and administrators to advocate by giving public comments at meetings and in testimony, participating in working groups and committees, and educating others about the issue, among others, “Every group that works on these decisions should have as many educators as non-educators…legislators need to hear from actual teachers in Legislative Hall when they are voting on budget allocations.” 

The group also learned about and highlighted some of the ways educators can get involved in advocacy—not only for school funding, but across any topics that are important to them. 

This survey results come at a time when Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC) comprised of legislators, experts, and community members will build on the recommendations and financial models from the Assessment of Delaware Public School Funding and the recommendations of the Vision Coalition. Tune into the third PEFC meeting in its series, happening on November 18.  

Delaware’s longstanding quest for a more student-centered, equitable school funding system marches on. Following the release of an independent assessment of Delaware’s school funding system conducted by American Institutes for Research (AIR), the state Senate and House of Representatives education committees held a joint legislative briefing in March to dig deeper into the issue.

This month, legislators took the next step toward modernizing school funding by establishing a commission of stakeholders to draft the roadmap forward. (As we’ve written, these actions stem from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Delaware and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity in 2020.) Here’s what we know about SCR 201.

What is the Public Education Funding Commission?

The new commission will bring together legislators, educators, and community members to discuss the AIR report recommendations, learn from experts, and create a roadmap for how best to implement the recommendations in a hybrid form specific to Delaware’s context. The roadmap will be created in 2025.

The commission is charged with reviewing the AIR recommendations and putting forward improvements to Delaware’s system to make it more student-based, equitable, and flexible to meet student needs. The commission is also charged with reviewing current Delaware laws and regulations to address disparities and consistency of allocation processes, and with making recommendations to the referendum process, ensuring it aligns with effort underway to update the state equalization formula.

The recommendations must ensure that no district loses funding in the effort; recent updates to teacher compensation are maintained; and stability and predictability are maintained. The commission must also hear from parents, educators and community, as well as national experts to inform their recommendations

The commission will hold their first meeting by October 1 of this year and deliver their recommendations by October of 2025.

The formation of this commission follows the recommendations of the Vision Coalition, which encouraged legislators to engage a broad range of stakeholders, look systemically, and focus on equity.

Why Another Commission? Four Reasons Why This One is Different

While a commission may not seem like the most exciting sign of progress (historically, Delaware has seen many such committees, commissions, and reports come and go without making much of a dent), the state is poised to act thanks to robust community momentum—and specific adequacy goals stated in the AIR report.

1. Delaware will elect a new governor this November, and many of the leading candidates to replace Gov. John Carney are on the record showing support for school funding reform. There is clearly an appetite for wide-scale change.

2. With a set of strong recommendations to work from and close collaboration with national experts who have guided other states through such efforts—Delaware will have all the ingredients it needs to design a Delaware-centric solution to a complex equity issue.
3. Recently, we’ve seen similar commissions get the job done. Just last year, the Public Education Compensation Committee (or PECC, created by Senate Bill 100 of the 151st General Assembly) recommended an enhanced compensation structure for school staff, which Gov. Carney included in his FY25 draft budget.
4. Transformative legislation requires legislative champions. In Delaware, strong leadership exists in both chambers—as evident from the legislative briefing held in March.

Stay tuned as we monitor the passage of this resolution, appointment of commission members, and first commission meeting.

Learning from Other States

What can Delaware learn from other states that have undergone—or are in the midst of—a similar process? Here are just a few recent examples, along with the key components of their success.

The New Hampshire Commission to Study School Funding

• Advocates in New Hampshire aligned strong champions—both within the community with inside the legislature.
• Led by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, a strong and broad public engagement gameplan included public town halls and large-scale public surveys.
• Like Delaware, New Hampshire enlisted AIR to provide recommendations, financial data models, and other supports. Delaware is ahead in comparison since we already have the study done – but we still need work with phasing in and other aspects.

Massachusetts

• In Massachusetts, local legislators have leaned into the issue, prioritizing it with strong political presence and support.
• In the meantime, lawmakers in Massachusetts have also committed to updating the extra funding levels (or “weights”) it provides for low-income, special education, or multilingual students—a smaller and more specific charge.

Kirwan Commission (Maryland)

• A bipartisan effort led by advocates and the Maryland General Assembly, the Kirwan Commission is charged with broad education reform that covers almost all aspects of public education—including funding. Its policy recommendations are still in the implementation phase.
• The Kirwan commission was able to navigate the challenges of focusing on student needs while maintaining teacher salaries at a high level.
• This commission dealt with significant opposition from the governor, but advocacy efforts won over the legislature and led to successful passage.

As national observers and researchers like Bellwether Education Partners have pointed out, states have looked to the above critical ingredients (strong political champions, research, and coalitions of vocal advocates), along with game-changing litigation, as necessities for change.

What Else is Happening in Delaware in School Finance?

Property value reassessment continues to unfold through the three counties, and some results have already come in: Kent County results were released earlier this winter, while New Castle and Sussex counties are expected in 2025. Delaware property taxes contribute to local school funding, so increases here will have significant ripple effects as soon as next year’s budget.

On a parallel track, Delaware is looking to revamp its equalization formula, or the process of allocating state resources to districts inversely on their ability to raise revenues through their local property tax base. Equalization ensures that each district has the same level of resources with which to educate each student. The state will soon engage with a consulting group to jumpstart the process.