Delaware commission advances a three-tier, student-weighted school funding plan with large increases for low‑income and multilingual learners

A joint House and Senate Education Committee on Thursday heard the Public Education Funding Commission's plan to overhaul how Delaware allocates state school dollars, preserving position-based funding while directing substantially more money to high‑need students.

The commission proposes a simplified, three‑tier funding model that retains a base allotment for staffing positions while adding opportunity and operational tiers that target low‑income students and multilingual learners (MLL). Senator Sturgeon, the commission co‑chair, said the overhaul is guided by five core values: “adequacy, equity, flexibility, transparency and accountability.”

The proposal would keep roughly 70–75% of state funds allocated to the base (staffing positions) to maintain educator compensation structures and school operations, presenters said, while the remaining roughly 25% would be allocated through opportunity and operational tiers that districts could use with greater flexibility. Mike Griffith of the Learning Policy Institute said the commission has been modeling increases to the formula but noted they are using a modest glide path: “we've been modeling it with say $200,000,000 extra,” he said, rather than the $600 million–$1 billion shortfall estimated in the AIR report tied to the NAACP/ACLU settlement.

Presenters described new targeted per‑student amounts: a low‑income student could receive about $5,500 in additional funding across the opportunity and operational tiers compared with roughly $1,000 now; an MLL student would receive just under $4,000 under the plan. Mike Griffith also explained how special education weights would be layered on top of those amounts; for example, a basic special education student would receive roughly $11,421 above a general education student when layered with other weights.

Committee members welcomed the shift toward targeted funding but pressed presenters on accountability and local control. Representative Shupe asked whether districts or the state would determine how extra dollars are spent; presenters described a model in which districts would create public plans for how they will use funds and set goals, while the department would review and support those plans. The presenters emphasized growth measures and public reporting as part of accountability packages.

Several members asked why the commission retained the unit count (position) foundation. Senator Sturgeon and Nick Johnson said scrapping unit count was discussed but retaining it preserves salary scales, collective bargaining expectations, and the staffing structure needed to operate schools; the new model layers targeted weights and flexible funds on top of that foundation.

Public commenters at the meeting supported the commission's work and urged pairing flexibility with strong accountability. Taylor Hawke of the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA) told the committee, “we see every day how funding gaps translate to larger class sizes, unfilled positions, limited student supports, and inequities between districts,” and urged continued engagement to ensure additional funds result in full classrooms and increased supports.

Presenters acknowledged remaining items for refinement, including equalization (how the state addresses differences in local tax bases), concentration weights that target schools with high shares of at‑risk students, and better data for categories like homelessness or foster status. Nick Johnson said vocational student weights will be reassessed — the commission initially set vocational weights low (0.2) and plans to move them toward values closer to 0.4–0.5 to avoid harming schools that run vocational programs.

The commission is conducting public engagement (five sessions so far, with more planned, including two per county) and expects to present a legislative proposal in the spring with a target to act on it by the end of the session and roll out the new formula for fiscal year 2028. No formal bill votes were taken at the hearing.