The body in charge of reworking Delaware’s public education funding structure opts not to vote on a new funding framework at its Monday meeting with several details still to be hashed out.
Public Education Funding Commission (PEFC) CO-Chair State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Woodbrook) says she is confident the commission will land on recommending a hybrid funding approach, but what’s included in that mix is still undetermined.
“We're going to end up with a hybrid. We can either start with what we do now and add flexibility and freedom, which is what we've done with the hybrid that we're looking at now, or we can start with a pure weighted student funding system that has zero guardrails, and we could build in a sufficient amount of guardrails," she said to commission members.
The first approach Sen. Sturgeon mentioned — now labeled "The Delaware Hybrid" — is what outside consultant Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Learning Policy Institute Mike Griffith has been putting together for the commission to review.
The Delaware Hybrid option combines the state's current unit count system with more local spending flexibility, as well as more targeted weighted funding to high-need student populations like special education, low-income, and multi-language learners.
While the commission has now seen a more in-depth version of the Delaware Hybrid with weights that have been tweaked compared to its meeting a week ago, some members are still raising questions over why a student-based formula is not being considered.
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.
Sen. Sturgeon says while she is not opposed to the idea of using a student-based model as the base for creating a hybrid model, she's worried exploring that option would keep the commission from abiding by the governor’s request to have a framework approved by the legislature before June 30.
“That's going to be time consuming. Even if building a model isn't as time consuming as I originally thought, figuring out what all the guardrails that this whole group can agree on is going to be incredibly time consuming. We will not have something ready to present to the legislature, certainly by June 30," Sen. Sturgeon said.
The commission's next meeting is on June 2, and Sen. Sturgeon says in the meantime, she will look into how much it would cost to hire another consultant to put together a student-based model and how long it would take.
