State Officials hoping to fix education funding discrepancies in the school system

DELAWARE. – The Public Education Funding Committee works to provide a comprehensive review of the funding system in Delaware. Friday, state officials from the Vision Coalition hosted an event. There, discussions took place to provide solutions to the system.

The State Senator of District 4, Laura Sturgeon said some groups are put at a disadvantage. “The funding system is not adequately funding the needs of students for example are multi-lingual learners, or low income, or homeless.”

These issues have heavily impacted education in the area. Due to this, the state decided to build the Public Education Funding Committee to find ways to fix it. The Co-Chair of PEFC is Marcus Wright. He also is a member of the Seaford Board of Education. He tells WMDT, that Seaford faces these problems like many areas in Sussex County.

“It’s hard for us to compete for teachers and staff, to provide the services we need. That doesn’t mean we can’t do it, however, if we had the equitable resources our scores would level out across the state.”

Lawmakers say the current model of funding is inequitable for many minorities. Sturgeon who previously worked as a teacher, added she’s seen it first-hand.

“We have a problem, our property-rich districts are receiving more funding more our property-poor districts. This creates a situation where low-income students receive less funding than higher-income students and that’s exactly what we need to fix.

The PEFC will host a virtual meeting on December 9th. You can visit the link for more.