The commission in charge of reshaping Delaware’s education funding formula is clashing over the best approach one week before a final vote on a new framework model.
The Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC) appeared to be in consensus on moving forward with a hybrid funding model at its meeting just two weeks ago.
The body has added more meetings to its calendar and has adopted a more intense pace at the request of Gov. Matt Meyer, who would like to see the Delaware legislature pass a funding framework before the end of the summer.
Delaware's current unit count system is a resource-based funding formula, meaning spending is allocated to school districts and charters based primarily on student enrollment.
Student to unit ratios determine how much a district receives to pay for a teacher or two paraprofessionals, funding for non-salary expenses and for “equalization,” which provides more money to districts with lower property tax bases to "level the playing field."
While a school's number of special education students does generate more resources than a "basic" student under the current system, unit count does not properly account for other vulnerable populations like low-income students and multi-language learners (MLL).
The new hybrid approach would combine the state’s current unit count system with more local flexibility, as well as target more weighted funding to vulnerable students.
At the commission's Monday meeting, Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Learning Policy Institute Mike Griffith presented what funding could potentially look like for seven different schools under the hybrid model.
The AIR-ECM funding column refers to the American Institutes for Research's (AIR) recommendation to invest close to $600 million more in Delaware's education system, while the AIR-PJP approach recommends investing close to $1 billion more.
The state has yet to decide if it will adopt either of these spending increases.
The weights were also selected based on recommendations from the AIR report — a comprehensive study of Delaware's education funding system that was a requirement of a 2020 legal settlement over the state’s inequitable education funding system.
Commission members across the board raised concerns over the new potential funding distribution, noting the Charter School of Wilmington has a very low percentage of vulnerable students, yet their funding could potentially double, while Lulu M. Ross Elementary School — which is over 30% MLL — would gain much less, or nothing at all if the state doesn't pump more money into education.
Griffith and PEFC Co-Chair State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Woodbrook) reiterated several times that the inputs can all be changed and that the weights assigned to low-income, MLL and special education students would likely need to increase to create the desired equity.
"We can take another run at this and change the weights. It makes a lot of sense to me to increase both the at-risk and the MLL weights. And [you all] can make other decisions — this is your formula. But this, again, is not the final numbers," Griffith said.
Griffith also reminded commission members that the PEFC committed to a "hold harmless" framework, meaning no school would lose funding under a new model. Additionally, the proposed framework does not factor in equalization as the state awaits for each county to finalize its property tax reassessment process.
Sen. Sturgeon says the commission could also consider having low-income and MLL students generate more units, similarly to how the current system works for special education students.
But regardless of the discussed changes, some commission members remain insistent that the unit count system must be abolished and Delaware should adopt a student-based model.
A student-based formula would ensure schools receive a base amount of funding for each student it serves and then additional funding would be allocated based on students with higher need, instead of distributing funding based on the amount of resources needed — mainly staff positions.
"What I see from this table is that it proves that using the resource model to then multiply by the weights is purely inequitable. This system does not work and does not provide equity," DelawareKidsCAN Executive Director Britney Mumford said, a belief echoed by University of Delaware School of Education professor Gary Henry.
But Colonial School District Chief Operating and Financial Officer Emily Falcon pushed back, arguing there are good components of the unit count system and an entire new formula cannot be implemented in a timely fashion as student outcomes remain below average in the First State.
"We have come into this commission with the understanding that the current system is not working, but to completely abandon it and go with a brand new system is going to take time, energy and capacity that frankly Delaware does not have right now," Falcon said.
Mumford made a request for additional models to be presented besides the hybrid framework and argued time and difficulty should not be a factor in implementing a student-based formula: “We have the capacity to do what is right for kids. Other states have done it — virtually all of the states have done it. And the reason being that it's difficult for adults to not do the right thing for kids is the wrong answer.”
Falcon and several other commission members took offense to Mumford’s comments, arguing the hybrid formula can deliver what’s needed to improve student outcomes.
To wrap up the meeting, Sen. Sturgeon reiterated the need for decorum and compromise among commission members: “I reject the idea that compromising means that we are letting our kids down. What would be letting our kids down would be not moving forward because we didn't end up with the perfect model that we thought is what's best for kids that we individually wanted.”
Sen. Sturgeon says that Griffith will take all of the comments into consideration and adjust the weights accordingly so they can be presented at Monday's meeting before a final vote is taken.
“At some point, we're going to vote. I hope it's next week. This was set up to be a majority vote situation, so I would love to see consensus, but if we can't reach consensus, hopefully we can at least reach a majority," she said.
If the PEFC approves the hybrid framework, legislation will be filed with the General Assembly in hopes of gaining ultimate approval by June 30.
If the framework is adopted, the commission still has several factors to consider before recommending a final funding formula to the legislature.
