The Public Education Funding Commission had its first formal meeting Thursday. (Photo by seb_ra/iStock Getty Images
Delaware must decide to remodel its current house or build a completely new house.
That’s the analogy used to describe needed changes to how the state funds its public schools by Michael Griffith, senior researcher and policy analyst at the Learning Policy Institute.
He repeatedly used this mantra Thursday during the first formal meeting of the Public Education Funding Commission, which was created by the state legislature in June.
Funding commission
The 31-member group includes education leaders, budget experts, legislators and more and is tasked:
- Conducting a comprehensive review of public education funding for all students and populations served by district and charter schools
- Developing a roadmap of recommendations to implement improvements to the public education funding system
- Serving as an ongoing body to review the funding annually and recommend updates and changes
Griffith led the discussion, which started off with initial thoughts of education funding in Delaware.
Answers included the overall stress that school leaders deal with, the surprise of how much funding affects daily classroom activity and student support, inconsistency with funding across districts and charters, the importance of measuring success to other states and funding systems and more.
The commission will make decisions with the 200-page report from the American Institutes for Research that suggests the state should invest $500 million to $1 billion more in education in mind.
Some of the problems outlined in that report, that were brought up Thursday, include the money following units rather than students and student needs, to inadequate funding for vulnerable populations like Black and Brown students, students with disabilities, multi language learners, low-income students, to the challenges of poorer districts maintaining well-experienced educators, the group has plenty to digest and evaluate.
The meeting was more of a holistic, philosophical discussion rather than getting into specifics of how the funding would change – that will come in the monthly meetings over the course of next year.
Sen. Eric Buckson, R-Dover, said he hopes to get a better understanding of how increasing the funding weight for a child will impact the district and overall education system.
Griffith pointed out that this whole discussion can be difficult and almost hypothetical because Delaware is a unique state that doesn’t regularly conduct property reassessments, which impacts school taxes and thus the budget for districts and charters.
However, all three counties are expected to have their assessments completed by the time the commission submits its recommendations in late 2025.
Emily Falcon, chief financial officer at Colonial School District, said she’d love to see how school boards in other states with more effective education funding operate.
She said many district boards in Delaware are reluctant when it comes to tax authority and increasing taxes, which would generate a larger budget for the district.
Britney Mumford, executive director of DelawareCAN, said it’s important for the commission to not just focus on teacher salaries.
That’s the job of the Public Education Compensation Committee, and Mumford urged that the commission’s job is to focus on the entire funding system in order to generate the best outcomes for students.
Another aspect of the discussion included how people and businesses often move to places that have a good education system or a successful school district.
The commission will issue its first recommendations by Oct. 1, 2025, so the recommendations may be considered for inclusion in the governor’s recommended fiscal year 2027 budget.
It will meet every second Monday of the month until September 2025 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and moving forward, all meetings will be virtual.
The next meeting is Oct. 14. Watch it here.
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