UPPER CHICHESTER, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Upper Chichester police hope the public can help them identify two people they believe targeted a man for bank fraud in Delaware County. There’s also concern there could be other victims.

On June 4, around 12:30 p.m., police say the pair followed the man out of the Giant in Aston and approached him in the parking lot.

One suspect claimed he dropped a $20 bill while the other was recording the interaction.

Police say the victim pulled out and opened his wallet and said the money wasn’t his. In the process, cards fell to the ground and the man’s personal information was possibly caught on video.

A short time later, thousands of dollars were swiped from the man’s bank account, according to police.

“It’s horrible, there’s all kinds of things that are happening all different kinds of scams that are going around and people just need to be really, really careful,” said Jackie Kane of Aston Township, who was walking her dog near the Village Green Shopping Center.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, in the first quarter of this year, more than 30,000 cases of bank fraud have been reported nationwide. The tri-state ranked 8th overall for fraud, and people 70 to 79 were the most targeted.

“They’re too trustworthy too, older people,” said Cindy Robertson, of Ridley Park, who was shopping nearby.

“They should be careful, especially if they’re by themselves and they don’t have somebody with them.”

Residents say it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and they’re also thankful the only injury in this case was financial.

“It’s frustrating, it’s frustrating people do that kind of stuff. That guy worked for whatever he has his whole life and somebody gonna steal it, that is not a good thing to do,” said Dave Bonavita of Upper Chichester.

DOVER — The Delaware Senate voted Tuesday to create a committee to review how public schools are funded.

The current formula used in the First State is more than 70 years old and focuses on school censuses and not what each student needs, according to the sponsor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 201, Sen. Laura Sturgeon, D-Woodbrook.

Her measure would develop a group of legislators, educators, community leaders and other advocates to research how educational facilities receive funding and make recommendations. It would be called the “Public Education Funding Commission.”

Sen. Sturgeon, also the chair of the Senate Education Committee, hopes the initiative will drive reform.

“In my 25 years as a public school teacher, I saw firsthand how the incredibly complex and inequitable system that Delaware uses to fund public education is failing to meet the needs of students and contributing to widespread burnout among educators,” she said.

“Over the last five years, the courts, independent researchers and community members have all weighed in and consistently confirmed what our public educators have been telling us for decades,” she continued. “The time has come for us to stop kicking this can down the road and start working on real systemic reforms that will improve Delaware’s schools.

“The Public Education Funding Commission will do that by bringing advocates and experts together to develop a multiyear plan that the legislature and Delaware’s next governor can follow to bring about the transformative changes that we all agree will be needed in the years ahead.”

The current funding formula is based on enrollment and on how much money is needed to provide education to a “unit” made up of a set number of students, with little regard to the level of need among the children who make up that population.

The state and federal governments provide about 70% of the funding, while the rest is generated through district-level property taxes set by voters during referendums and collected by the counties.

SCR 201 stems from legal action over the last six years. In 2018, the Delaware NAACP, Delawareans for Educational Opportunity and others filed a lawsuit arguing that, by ignoring individual student need and local funding capacity, the state’s public school fiscal system is unfair to the disadvantaged and violates the state constitution.

In 2020, Carney administration officials settled the lawsuit, by agreeing to permanently allocate additional state funding based on the number of low-income and multilingual learners at a given school and expand special education funding in kindergarten through third grade, among other changes.

Part of the settlement created an independent assessment of the education funding system, which was completed in 2023. That review, according to Sen. Sturgeon, declared that the settlement did not go far enough to address students’ needs.

Therefore, the proposed Public Education Funding Commission would be composed of 31 members, including legislators, cabinet secretaries, parents, educators, principals, district administrators and advocates.

If now passed by the House of Representatives, SCR 201 would require the commission to hold its first meeting no later than Oct. 1 and issue its first set of recommendations within a year, so they could be considered in the governor’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2027.

“During the last several years, we have passed numerous measures and have committed meaningful investments to support students of all ages and abilities. While these have been critical steps, the fundamental issue lies in how we fund public education in our state,” said the resolution’s co-sponsor, Rep. Kim Williams, D-Newport, who also co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee.

“The Public Education Funding Commission will help us create a more equitable system that truly meets the needs of all students and educators. I commend Sen. Sturgeon and all the stakeholders for working on this issue and look forward to the work of the commission.”

The resolution is now awaiting consideration in the House.

A bill that was recently introduced in the Delaware Legislature and aims to include a Muslim holiday as a state-recognized legal holiday has gotten a recent update.  

Here’s what to know about the bill’s recent changes. 

What is House Bill 360?  

House Bill 360, introduced on March 27 and primarily sponsored by State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton of the 26th district, aims to add Eid ul-Fitr to the list of state holidays. The legal holiday would be observed for one day during the first full day of Eid ul-Fitr. 

The legal holidays currently recognized by the State of Delaware are: 

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day   

• Independence Day, also known as the Fourth of July   

• Return Day, observed after noon for state employees living and/or working in Sussex County  

• The day after Thanksgiving   

Previous coverage: A bill aims to add a new legal holiday to the state of Delaware. Here’s what to know

Although the State of Delaware grants state employees two floating holidays per calendar year, recognizing Eid ul-Fitr as a legal holiday allows those who observe the holiday to save their floating holidays for other personal matters. 

According to a fiscal note from the Office of the Controller General that examines state employee payroll system data, adding one state holiday to Delaware’s calendar would cost $712,532. 

One step closer to alcohol delivery: Delaware could become 33rd state to allow home delivery of in-state alcoholic beverages

How has HB 360 changed? 

HB 360 originally included both Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as potential new state holidays, but Wilson-Anton filed an amendment on May 22 to change the bill to include Eid ul-Fitr only.

On June 20, House Substitute 1 for HB 360 was filed by Wilson-Anton in the House of Representatives, making the bill inclusive of other cultural holidays. Under House Substitute 1, one floating holiday would be removed from the two granted to state employees and one legal holiday would be added.

The added legal holiday would rotate on a three-year basis between Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which occurs on different days between October and November each year; Eid ul-Fitr, which occurs on different days annually and is celebrated in accordance with the 10th month of the Islamic calendar when the new moon is seen; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for Jews, observed annually on the 10th day of the seventh month of the Hebrew Calendar, which varies each year and usually occurs in September or October. 

This makes it so that only one of the above cultural holidays would be considered a legal state holiday in any given year as opposed to all three being recognized in one calendar year. If the bill is passed, it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.  

Further voting on the substituted bill has yet to take place.  

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.