Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission approved the school funding model it plans to present to the General Assembly this spring.
Monday’s meeting saw members vote 26-2 to proceed with its hybrid funding model that uses weights to prioritize multilingual, low-income and special needs students.
But the PEFC still has decisions to make on local funding, total funding and equalization efforts.
Learning Policy Institute Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst Mike Griffith said Commission members must have those numbers figured out by April if they want the General Assembly to consider the proposal in July.
“That sounds like a long time,” Griffith said. “It really isn't. We only have a couple of more meetings.”
The PEFC meets once per month virtually, with working groups convening in between to prepare for Commission meetings. The Technical Working Group will prepare an equalization funding model in the next few weeks to prepare for the January meeting.
The agreed-upon model would see low-income students receive more than $5 thousand compared to the current $988. Multilingual learners also receive $988 under the current model, and the new formula would see that number increase to almost $3,842.
State Sen. Laura Sturgeon said those numbers can be revised in the future.
“There will be an ongoing committee to keep checking how the model is working once it's put into place, like a very big check-in at the one-year mark,” Sturgeon said. “And then there'll be an ongoing standing committee to continue to tweak every couple of years once we get the kinks of the first year out.”
Commission members plan to zone in on equalization at their next meeting on Jan. 26 at 4 p.m. Equalization is the process of offering resources and materials to lower-income school districts to even out the educational playing field.
“The proposed formula would have about five times as much funding for low-income students in three and a half times more spending for MLL students,” Griffith said. “So it helps to address equalization based on student needs. But right now, the proposed formula doesn't do anything to help address equalization based on a district's relative wealth.”
The proposed funding model will not call for any additional funding and instead restructures how funding is doled out. But Commission members at earlier meetings stressed Delaware’s General Assembly will need to funnel more money into its education system in the coming years to better serve students.
PEFC hosted five public engagement meetings already and plans to host two more in January.
People can offer input at Seaford Central Elementary School from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 20. An input session at Red Clay will be announced soon.
