Delaware educator creates an escape for fellow public school teachers
A Colonial educator was inspired by the loss of a fellow teacher to create the “Zen Den,” a place for all Gunning Bedford educators to decompress.
- Delaware’s Department of Education has introduced its first strategic plan in a decade, alongside a proposed $2.5 billion budget.
- The plan focuses on five key areas, including early education, teacher retention, literacy and funding reform.
- A major school redistricting plan for northern New Castle County is expected to be delayed until the end of the calendar year.
- Wilmington Learning Collaborative is one education program facing sharp possible cuts.
Delaware’s Department of Education unveiled its first “strategic plan” in a decade on March 3, as lawmakers sifted through its roughly $2.5 billion proposed budget.
That’s about one-third of the state’s draft spending plan, up nearly 4% from last year.
Lawmakers discussed those infusions – from reading support to early education and more – alongside some $22 million in various proposed program cuts, which could include lessened support for the Wilmington Learning Collaborative.
“It’s the first plan the Delaware Department of Education has had in at least a decade,” Secretary Cindy Marten said ahead of her remarks before the Joint Finance Committee. “There’s an opportunity here. This is not another initiative that we’re just going to layer on top of one more thing and one more thing. … We’re building on the capacity that’s already here.”
The department sculpted budget requests around five “building blocks” in this plan:
- Bright beginnings: Expanding early education, with aims to raise early care enrollment from 25% to 40% by September 2028.
- Safe supportive schools: Boosting teacher retention rates, with a goal to raise the three-year retention rate for all early career educators from 72% to 75% by June 2028, alongside reducing chronic absenteeism and more.
- Great teaching and learning: That’s boosting early literacy, improving student achievement, growing graduation rates and college/career readiness. A key benchmark here is boosting third-grade reading proficiency from 38% to 53% by 2028.
- Fair opportunities for every learner: DDOE leaders seek to implement a new public education funding model by August 2027, in step with the Public Education Funding Commission.
- Families and communities as partners: The department intends to launch a family and community portal that enhances transparency and connection to learning tools, support and updates.
For Delaware state test scores, average English proficiency rates across all tested third to eighth graders came in at 41% in 2025, while math reaching 34%. Pre-pandemic 2019 scores remain around 10 points higher in each bucket.
On the Nation’s Report Card, scores released in 2025 revealed eighth grade reading scores had hit a 27-year low.
“It’s been decades where we have let that fall,” said committee Vice Chair Rep. Kim Williams, as statistics joined the budget hearing backdrop. “It took us decades to get where we’re at today. It’s going to take us some time to pull ourselves out.”
Literacy and Delaware’s youngest learners
The plan should sound pretty familiar.
Delaware’s “literacy emergency” has been an ongoing call from the Meyer administration. For Marten, a fixture benchmark is that third grade reading proficiency growing from 38% to 53% by 2028.
Alongside some $97.4 million proposed for state personnel cost, the department may also see one-time infusions of $8 million to maintain support for the “Literacy Emergency Fund” and $3 million in direct-to-teacher grants to fuel literacy gains.
Meanwhile, the plan calls for all K-3 teachers to complete professional learning in the science of reading, as mandated by Senate Bill 4 back in 2022.
The secretary also called early childhood education a “first priority” after a year of plan crafting.
Roughly $8 million in one-time spending could fuel the “Delaware Early Childhood Care & Education Alliance” next fiscal year. That’s a pilot “hub” to support child care providers across the state, while also fueling an estimated 480 additional seats in the state’s Early Childhood Assistance Program, per DDOE, or state-sponsored pre-K.
By fall 2028, the department aims to grow birth-to-five enrollment overall from 25% to 40%. She hopes a hub like this can simplify and consolidate the process for providers and families alike.
DDOE’s Office of Child Care Licensing has also been working to digitize electronic record systems to elevate the office’s public database, while tracking compliance and investigating complaints across Delaware’s licensed providers. A combined $2.4 million has been pledged to make it happen, in the last two years, and the department is aiming for launch this summer.
More investment lined budget spreadsheets, and lawmaker questions, as Marten and her team echoed back to their strategic plan. The department pledged to have regular, public reporting on the goals outlined.
After all, there’s much more to come.
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Foundational funding change still in the works
To get anywhere, Marten said Delaware needs funding reform.
A one-time infusion of about $2.8 million is proposed to help launch a new funding formula, including support for public communication. So far, that pales in comparison to investment eyed by the Public Education Funding Commission’s hybrid model.
That model will tweak the state’s current unit-count system, while also adding a “weighted” approach based on student needs, as should be proposed to the General Assembly later this spring.
One commission work group projected a baseline infusion of roughly $70 million just to “hold harmless.” That’s allowing Delaware to launch a new formula, without taking existing funds away from school districts.
“That doesn’t bring us near adequacy,” said Commission Chair Sen. Laura Sturgeon, back in January. One independent research report recommended an infusion from $600 million to $1 billion in total.
While that infusion remains “the gold standard,” Sturgeon said, members think they can meaningfully implement the formula with less. She said a figure closer to $200 million has been in discussion, though nothing is final.
This reform will also likely be implemented in phases, if it clears the chambers above this JFC hearing room.
The next commission meeting is at 4 p.m. on March 16, online.
What didn’t make the cut?
The Wilmington Learning Collaborative was only listed on Meyer’s proposed DDOE spending plan as an $8 million cut.
The collaborative launched in 2022 under then-Gov. John Carney with aims to correct fractured education inside the state’s largest city, combating issues like low achievement, absenteeism and teacher retention. It fused across three school districts touching Wilmington – Red Clay, Brandywine and Christina – and pushed in programming and staff positions in about nine of their city schools.
DDOE initially described the reduction as “carryover” funds, aligned with recommendations from the governor. However, collaborative leadership said it likely wouldn’t shake out that way.
“We’re projecting a little less than $2 million carryover,” Laura Burgos said, moments after her presentation to the committee. That meets an allocation of $2 million eyed for next fiscal year, according to her presentation, compared to $10 million allocations in previous funding cycles.
“That’s still a significant reduction in total,” she continued. “But we’ll have a better idea as we reconcile the budget and see how far we go with our advancement of the STEM learning labs and better understand the number of students being served over the summer months.”
Burgos highlighted these projects and more in her presentation, while she expects more specifics on the funding cut impact to come in its council meeting, March 4.
In his questioning, Sen. Darius Brown pressed that the cut could end up being more than $6 million. In response, chair Sen. Trey Paradee said his committee could have more “conversations as a group” on those cuts, before final markup.
In Red Clay Consolidated School District alone, the collaborative fuels about a dozen teachers and five paraprofessionals, as the school board discussed in its February meeting. Burgos roughly estimated that investment at about $1 million in Red Clay.
Total impact is unclear, as local districts must consider covering positions in local budgets. The same is echoed in cuts to certain block grants.
The administration proposed cuts to a $2 million grant for substitute teachers and another $2.3 million for athletic trainers. Some districts will be able to pick up the cost locally, lawmakers noted, though the department was unable to speak to overall estimates Tuesday.
Sturgeon hopes coming reform will allow districts more flexibility for such coverage.
“What we’re moving toward is a system where all those positions will be able to be grouped together and then funded based on the priorities of the individual district,” she said.
ICYMI: Delaware to consider massive infusion in public education funding
Major redistricting effort signals further delay
The Redding Consortium – a coalition charged with improving education in and around Wilmington, as well as redistricting schools in the same boundaries – caught renewed attention in late 2025, as it voted to center planning on a consolidated district in northern New Castle County.
That’s a pending plan to convert Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay into one school district, which would serve students from Newark to Wilmington and the suburbs north and west.
But that wasn’t the sole focus on March 3.
“Redistricting planning” has reflected about 1% of the group’s allocations in the past five years. Supports in student health centers, at $27.6 million, have made up 54% of that budgeting, while full-day pre-K support has seen about $14.8 million in the Wilmington area.
The consortium’s request this year remained consistent, as Majority Whip Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman said, at about $10.2 million.
But her colleagues should not expect a redistricting plan this session.
“Having reviewed the project scope, AIR’s best estimate for us is that putting together a thoughtful plan, with robust public input, will take the remainder of the calendar year,” the consortium co-chair said. “Again, we’re committed to delivering a robust proposal – but are very aware that students are in schools of concern every day and eager to see them better served.”
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Olivia Montes covers state government and community impact for Delaware Online/The News Journal. If you have a tip or a story idea, reach out to her at omontes@delawareonline.com.
