Delaware Education Reform Must Focus on Learning, Not Just Spending or Consolidation

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

There are two major events likely to occur in the next year related to education in Delaware. One is change in the way we fund our schools. The other is the prospect of consolidation of the four major school districts in (most of) New Castle County. Both are of concern.

First, the funding. We already spend about 25% of our state budget on education – one of the highest spenders in the country. We average over $20,000 per student, according to the Department of Education. But that number is much lower in charter schools, which are also public schools, and is much higher in some of the lowest performing schools in the state.

Concerns have been raised about disparities in funding, focused on the more prosperous areas of the state, which are claimed to have more money, so better school funding.  In fact, many resources are funneled to the poor performing schools in order to add special services and resources. One study, by the Caesar Rodney Institute found that in one of the poorest performing schools in the state, in the City of Wilmington, the amount spent per pupil per year was in excess of $30,000. Yet, students were performing at the lowest levels – less than 10% proficiency in some years. (That means out of 100 students, 10 read at grade level.)

The problem is not money. We have said it before, consistently, and will continue to do so. Delaware is in the top ten in spending in the nation, bottom 4 or 5 in performance. If what you seek from our education system is learning, achievement and accomplishment, we need to change what we are doing, not how much we are spending.

So, the idea of consolidation was proposed. It is a change in what we are doing – moving from four school districts to one school district of over 43,000 students. Questions abound. Will parents get more say in where their children can attend school? Will transportation be provided to the children who choose a school further from their home?  Will there be cuts in the bureaucracy and unnecessary administrative staff? Will we simply be moving pieces of the old system to new locations? Will we change anything about the curriculum? Will we add accountability?

What about the City of Wilmington? The vast majority of our state’s failing schools are located there. That is not a reflection on the capability of the students, but of the system that is failing them. The City’s children are not likely to fare better when they become a small piece of a larger bureaucracy, swallowed up by the numbers. The City of Wilmington should take back the education of their children. The state is failing them. The City can look to the remarkable comeback of New Orleans. Once at the bottom of all schools in the state, after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans took a look at what might work. The latest Education Scorecard, which is compiled by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth, ranks Louisiana as the only state to exceed pre-pandemic performance in math and reading, and the researchers credit New Orleans’ efforts with the leap. New Orleans now is in the center of the pack and poised to keep rising, with “impressive” test scores, graduation rates and college enrollment. The City of New Orleans now is nearly “all-charter, all-choice” and has put parents in the driver’s seat when it comes to making decisions about their child’s education.

We do not need to change buildings or staff or even adopt a consolidation to improve our education system.  We need to change our delivery and accountability. Our current and former Governors failed us when they did not advocate adoption of the accountability that has moved Mississippi students ahead of the nation in improvement in student performance. Adding money to a system that is not delivering a product – learning – is wasting money.

There are good and dedicated people in our schools, teachers and administrators alike. But the leadership has not created or supported the energy, direction and inspiration those dedicated professionals can provide to generate curiosity and interest in our students, and, thus, learning. Bigger may not be better. What is clear is that the focus on where kids are learning, instead of that they are learning, is misguided and should not take priority in effort, time or funding over changing the lives of the students who depend on our schools to give them the tools they need to prosper in live and the workforce.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.