The framework for a new school funding model presented to Delaware Senate and House education committee members has three tiers for state funding:
The first is "base funding." It's the largest pool, which covers staff costs.
The second, called opportunity funding, schools receive per-pupil. It identifies categories of students who need additional support: special education, multi-language learners, and students from low-income households. Commission members said this money is meant to be more flexible, so schools can use it based on the needs of its students.
The third category, also flexible and based on a school’s demographics, covers operational expenses, such as utilities.
Polytech School District Financial Officer and commission member Nick Johnson said the new funding model's core is flexibility and accountability.
For example, he said, a school can evaluate its staffing needs and reallocate some of that funding to cover other services. If a school qualifies to receive state funding for 100 positions, it could forgo five of those and use the money for something else.
"They'll be able to surrender those positions for their cash value to best serve their student population in the way that they know how," Johnson said. "And they can make that decision at the local level."
He said this type of funding represents "the overwhelming majority of state support, so about 75% of state funding moving forward."
State Senator Eric Buckson is one of four lawmakers on the commission. He said the formula still needs work, but its flexibility gives the lawmakers room to make decisions during session.
The legislature plans to submit a budget proposal based on the commission’s formula this spring.
Buckson said, in his opinion, the model presented to lawmakers Wednesday "doesn't yet require new funding. We can make the change and implement the changes. We can decide if we want to add more money."
State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) asked Delaware's Secretary of Education Cindy Marten about benchmarks to evaluate the new formula, referencing the new funding allocated for low-income and multi-language students:
"Has there been any discuss about the metrics of growth with that?" he asked. "...not just the proficiency rates, but the growth of where these students started, where they are in the middle of the year, where at the end of the year, based on this sort of funding formula."
Marten said the formula includes accountability provisions that follow Delaware's School Success Framework, which the state uses to track and report student progress.
"We will be codifying this year an ongoing commission or group that will continue to look at look at the outcomes and make tweaks to the funding formula so that it's really meeting the needs of our students," she said.
The new formula does not take the state's equalization rate into account, as it was frozen in 2009. The PEFC plans to assess equalization at future meetings.
