Money Is Not the Answer
By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware
There was a big meeting, actually a rally, this week, regarding funding Delaware’s schools. It was only one of many meetings lately about how we fund schools, where the dollars should go, what formulas to use to allocate the funds.
The ideas flow faster than the dollars – but most suggest that if we just spend more money, we will get better results. Sadly, that approach has been advocated for about three decades now, and with little to show. Add money to the budgets of schools where students’ needs are most severe. Change from an allocation based on students assigned to a school to one based on need. Pay teachers more money. Pay paraprofessionals more money. Add specialized trainers to the mix. Our spending on education now tops one third of our state budget, and our students perform worse than those in more than 40 of the states in the entire country.
But what are the numbers? What has been the result of all this increased spending? This year’s results are in. 42% of Delaware students between third and eighth grade are proficient in English. 35% of those same students are proficient in Math. Math proficiency of high school students in Math was a dismal 18% for the third straight year. A distinction without a difference. Moving the chairs on the Titanic. Ineffective. Unacceptable.
Remarkably, but in all fairness, these numbers do represent some modest improvements. Very modest. Barely improvement. But why are the scores so low to begin with? Because our focus is not toward accountability and results.
It is no secret that Mississippi found the key to improving student performance – teach children to read by third grade. Wallowing last or nearly so for decades, when the state changed its perspective and priorities, their students rose to surpass Delaware students by a mile in performance. All they did was make it mandatory that students learn to read at third grade level before progressing to fourth grade. Suddenly, every student in third grade had a plan, an objective, that everyone was aware of and worked to achieve -the teachers, the parents and the students themselves shared a common goal – learn to read before third grade year was over. And most of them achieved it. Because there were clear expectations, clear objectives and…no one wanted that student to fail.
Delaware leaders are aware of this – the current and former Governor, members of the General Assembly, the leaders in the teachers’ union. Yet, there has been no response to the call to implement the concept that Mississippi and other states have proven works.
In Delaware, we “teach students to read.” We always have in our schools. We just haven’t done a very job of it. To know that there is something we can do, and not do it, is unforgivable. The lives of those students in Mississippi and other states who learned to read are changed forever. New possibilities for success – in business, nursing, technology and even teaching – are in their futures. But for students who cannot read, the future is dismal. Every person, parent, teacher, leader in Delaware should feel an obligation to make a difference in the lives of the youth in our state. When it is known what can make that difference happen, our obligation is to implement the changes that make happy, profitable and rewarding futures possible for Delaware students.
As I said to a school board one evening, “When was the last time your child brought home a 50% and you were happy?” Of course, none of them could relate to a student, their student, bringing home 50% on an assignment, But, if your school district is hovering at 42% proficiency in reading, more than 50% of the students are performing at less than 50% proficiency.
The recent numbers also reflected a significant difference by race and ethnicity in proficiency. Sadly, African American and Hispanic students scored relatively equivalent to each other, but far lower than White and Asian students. Similarly, low-income students performed lower than those from higher economic brackets. But, after Mississippi’s experience, there can be no more excuses from the establishment that would justify the failure to educate lower income, minority students well. Mississippi is, unarguably, the poorest and brownest state in the country and their kids are beating the pants off ours. It is time for accountability. It is time to put the students first. And it is time to use our funds to create the real opportunity for success for Delaware’s students – teach them to read!
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.