The House Education and Senate Education Joint Committee held a joint presentation-only session on two major initiatives: the Public Education Funding Commission's proposed overhaul of Delaware's school funding formula — consolidating 32 funding streams into three tiers and adding new weighted funding for low-income and multilingual learner students — and the Department of Education's statewide literacy strategy. No votes were taken and no new legislation was advanced. Several related measures, including SB 4, SB 133, and SB 252, were referenced as already enacted law, with no action taken on any of them at this hearing. The commission signaled a legislative proposal is expected in April with a planned formula launch in FY28. The meeting concluded following the literacy strategy presentation and public comment.
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An unnamed committee member argued the unit count system creates 'deficiencies from the very beginning because it's not recognizing that student need,' and asked whether a model without the unit count was considered. Senator Sturgeon defended retaining unit count, arguing that it 'wasn't working' because of how the General Assembly layered positions without supporting infrastructure, not because unit count itself was flawed, stating: 'When unit count is done right and the positions that we fund also come with the support that they need to come with the supporting positions, then Unicount is actually a very solid foundation upon which to build a funding system.'
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“Probably the most stunning and sticker shock to be frank report was that we are underfunding our schools somewhere in the vicinity of 600 million to a billion dollars compared to our surrounding states.”
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Sign in to subscribeGood afternoon, everyone. If you could take your seats, we're going to get started. Please take your seats. Senator Sturgeon, just. Good afternoon, members. Please sit in the seat in which your committee's name place card has been placed. The desk mics are turned on for you to use and may pick up conversations easily. Public comment will be limited to one minute. After questions from members of the General assembly, we will first take public comment from in person, then virtual. This meeting will conclude at 1:30 and any remaining public comments that remain can be submitted to Housecommitteecommentelaware.gov written comments will be accepted until 24 hours after a meeting has concluded. The joint House and Senate Education Committee located in the House Chamber is now in session. The public physically present for the meeting may sign up on the speaker list for the the bill. We're not having any bills today. Comments about the presentations you would like to speak on. Justin, where's the. Where is Justin? The public may also participate virtually by registering via the meeting link. Instructions for providing public comment are posted on the General Assembly's website under this committee notice and will be…
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