Delaware
Delaware unlikely to overhaul school funding formula this year
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This investigative report was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Many education advocates cheered the release of recommendations from a blockbuster report last year showing Delaware was underfunding high-needs students by $500 million to $1 billion.
But it is unlikely that lawmakers will dramatically overhaul state school funding this legislative session.
“I do not think in this budget year we’re going to see the kinds of investments that the report is talking about, but I do think this is a good year to start talking about it,” said Democratic state Sen. Laura Sturgeon, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “When you’re talking about a sea change in possibly how we fund education and in how much we invest in education, that is going to take time.”
The independent report, a direct result of a settlement from a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups that alleged the state was underfunding disadvantaged public school students, was presented to the public in December. Sturgeon said the General Assembly’s next step in changing how the state funds school districts will be to hold a hearing on the report next month.
That’s not good enough for Dwayne Bensing, legal director of the ACLU of Delaware, who helped litigate the case.
He wants the legislature to add substantially more money to the state’s education budget than Gov. John Carney has proposed. The governor has recommended $10 million more in Opportunity Funding for fiscal year 2025 to go to disadvantaged students, which includes those who are low-income, have a disability or speak English as a second language. Those weighted dollars were codified into law as part of the lawsuit settlement. Carney is also pushing to increase starting teacher salaries to $60,000 and to add more than $56 million to cover an increase in the state’s student population.
Bensing said Carney’s recommended spending doesn’t provide the investment in education that the report calls for.
“It would be increasing the education funding appropriation, which the governor’s proposed budget does not do,” he said. “I think since the report, they have increased by tens of millions of dollars, but the report’s saying that what we really need is an appropriation that’s much greater than what has been proposed in past administrations and what needs to be the operating budget for our school districts moving forward.”
During the report presentation in December, Delaware Education Secretary Mark Holodick said lawmakers should think about equity in developing legislation, especially when looking at how neighboring states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, dole out money to school districts.
“We say in Delaware, ZIP codes can tell you what outcomes are going to be,” he said. “Well, the same exact thing exists in Pennsylvania.”
Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey have student-based funding formulas that provide more money for low-income students and English language learners, while Delaware has a unit-based formula. Instead of a set amount per pupil in Delaware, there’s a yearly count of students where the number of children in each building are converted into units.
Like Delaware, Pennsylvania’s funding formula was challenged by a lawsuit in 2014. In 2023, a Commonwealth court ruled that Pennsylvania’s school funding formula was unconstitutionally underfunding poorer school districts.
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
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The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
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Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
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