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The Delaware Department of Education has requested $2.4 billion in taxpayer funding for fiscal year 2027, a nearly 4% increase over last year. But members of the state budget writing committee expressed frustration about students’ poor academic outcomes and questioned some of the cuts Gov. Matt Meyer has recommended.

Delaware public and charter schools serve 142,495 students. Nearly 60% of that population are low-income, students with disabilities or are multilingual learners.

National test scores from 2024 show that overall student academic performance remained below prepandemic levels and the national average. Eighth-grade reading scores in the First State hit a 27-year low, leading Meyer to declare a “literacy emergency” last year.

Education Secretary Cindy Marten presented the Joint Finance Committee with a strategic plan to improve student success — the first time the department has produced such a plan in more than a decade, she said. It lays out priorities, including expanding early education, improving test scores and implementing a new hybrid school-funding formula to direct more dollars to low-income and multilingual learners.

“Everything in this proposal reflects our guiding promise,” she said. “Start with students, build for impact. Outcomes matter.”

The Education Department’s budget cuts spending for several programs. That includes slashing 80% of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative’s funding. The WLC, which was receiving $10 million a year, aims to support city students across the Christina, Brandywine and Red Clay school districts. Its budget request currently stands at $2 million, with the organization projecting that it will have an additional $1.6 million in fiscal 2026 carryover dollars.

Wilmington Mayor John Carney said he wants to review the group’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget, but with the Redding Consortium moving forward to redraw school district boundaries in northern New Castle County, the learning collaborative was more important than ever. Redding members voted in December to combine the area’s school districts into one.

“If Wilmington families are going to have a strong say, as they should, then the Wilmington Learning Collaborative needs to be part of it,” he said. “Particularly now, if we’re talking about going to essentially a county-wide school district, obviously the percentage of families that are from the city of Wilmington is lower, and so I just want to make sure that their voices are heard.”

In the days since the initial U.S. strikes in Iran, countless lawmakers stateside have weighed in on the Trump Administration’s decision to once again get involved in a conflict in the Middle East.

Prominent Georgia political figures like former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senators Ossoff and Warnock have denounced the attacks, while candidates to replace MTG and others running in midterm elections have backed the president.

Now, Georgia State Senator Greg Dolezal, who is running for Lieutenant Governor in November, has posted a controversial video to social media depicting a hypothetical scenario where an extreme version of what he calls “Sharia law” has taken over the United States.

“London has fallen. Europe is under siege. In America, the invaders who would rather pillage our generosity than assimilate are roaming Minnesota, New York and LA,” Dolezal said in the post. “As Lt. Governor, I will fight the enemy before they’re within the gates and keep Georgia safe and Sharia free.”

The video was marked with a content warning on X.

What does the video show?

The video, appearing to have been AI-generated, begins with two people walking toward a building and wearing head coverings, possibly hijabs, shaylas, Al-miras or khimars.

It then cuts to a man writing with frosting on a cake, possibly “Happy Easter,” but the letters are unclear. A figure dressed in all black runs into frame and slices the cake with a weapon like a Zulfiqar sword.

It goes on to show military vehicles driving down the street, a woman being stopped from driving, a group of men in head coverings shooting weapons into the air and a suicide bomber vest, all while playing a song with the lyrics “No Sharia.”

(Warning: the video may be disturbing for some viewers.)

Video called ‘disgusting’ and ‘racist’

The video was met with significant criticism, including from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Geoff Duncan.

“This is disgusting. People wonder why I became a Democrat, it’s because of the inexcusable hatred spewed by so many Republicans like Greg Dolezal. Hate, including Islamophobia, has no place in Georgia,” Duncan wrote on X.

Rev. James “Major” Woodall, Sr., of Atlanta, called the video “deeply racist.”

“As a Christian man who deeply loves Georgia, I pray you never become Lt. Governor,” Woodall wrote.

Emanuel Jones, of the state senate, called out his fellow representative and said “if you don’t know it yet, Georgia is better than this!!”

“We don’t need race baiting, fear mongering to get votes. Perhaps that (is) what the Republican Party has devolved into,” Jones said on X.

Dolezal got support, however, from MAGA personality Laura Loomer who commented “No Sharia!”

The video has also been reposted more than 1,000 times as of 2 p.m. on March 4.

Who is Greg Dolezal?

The state senator represents District 27, and is based in Alpharetta. He was sworn in to the Georgia Senate in 2019.

He is a small business owner and attended North Park University.

Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.