With the year coming quickly to a close and projects and tasks being wrapped before the holidays, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the State Board of Education going into the new year, particularly between now and January 21. The SB has the WEIC plan for our Wilmington schools, students and teachers in their hands from now until their January meeting where they are expected to vote up or down on the plan in its entirety. The plan and its related documentation weighs in at several hundred pages’ worth of information and material. http://www.solutionsfordelawareschools.com/
During the last 10 months, the public had opportunities to contribute their thoughts, ideas, feedback, and criticisms of the plan or any part thereof. Public comment ran the gamut from helpful feedback to downright racist criticism. In my observation, the comments that tended to align closer to the racist end of the spectrum were elicited when meetings were held in suburban locations. The more supportive comments, while also showing in the suburbs, really came to the forefront in the meetings’ city locations.
What’s interesting to me is even though the team that put this plan together is titled the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission, the changes proposed in the ways Delaware funds public education are designed to be eventually rolled out statewide, despite the public ‘testimony’ to the contrary. Changes including weighted funding formulas that take into account a student’s level of poverty and/or level of English language proficiency (two of the biggest drivers of academic difficulty that are not addressed in the current funding model). The recommendation for property reassessment and permitting School Boards to raise the operating tax in an amount that would control for inflation only without a referendum. All would be ‘piloted’ in northern New Castle County and then expanded statewide over time.
Poverty isn’t limited to the city of Wilmington nor is it even limited to New Castle County and it has the same deleterious effects on a student’s ability to learn and retain no matter where he/she is located. So for the state to finally wake up to that fact and potentially do something about it is something we’ve kind of all been waiting for. As we move closer to the first toll gate, the State Board of Education meeting in January, commentary on the plan will surely pick up. Once the State Board says Yea or Nay, it goes to the General Assembly. If it passes there, it goes to the Governor. At no stage in the approvals process can any part of the plan be amended. The State Board, General Assembly, and Governor have to accept it 100% as is, or reject it 100%.
Of course, none of this really matters unless Governor Markell budgets significant funding to get this off the ground. We’ll find that out next month too.