Education Equity in 2026

Delaware has faced an underfunded education system for decades. This culminated in the 2018 lawsuit brought against both the state government for overseeing an inequitable education system and the counties for failing to regularly reassess property taxes to raise funds. Following an eventual settlement agreement, a 2023 independent report conducted by the American Institutes
for Research commissioned by the State of Delaware found that students with disabilities, multilingual learners (MLL), and low-income students are collectively underfunded by $600 million to $1 billion.

Across these disadvantaged groups, students are consistently far behind standards established by the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE). For example, 88% of low-income students did not reach proficiency on last year’s statewide Science assessment. 85% of MLL students did not reach proficiency on last year’s statewide Social Studies assessment. 94% of students with
disabilities did not reach proficiency on last year’s statewide Mathematics assessment.

Low student achievement rates often lead to higher incidences of disciplinary infractions and later interactions with the criminal justice system. Given the high incidence of Black and Latino students among low-income and MLL students, failure to adequately educate disadvantaged students serves to recreate cyclical oppression across generations. Historical district and school segregation, the prevalence of private schooling, structurally racist school discipline, and the deprivations inflicted on communities by systemically racist policing have already disadvantaged many students before they reach the schoolhouse doors.

This delicate situation calls for energetic and expert-informed action from the legislative and executive branches. The General Assembly must make significant appropriations in alignment with the recommendations of the 2023 report, plug those resources into data-driven programming, follow-up with clear guidance to the districts, and move forward with consistent cooperation between districts and the DDOE.

Many schools across the country have implemented in-school policing programs to prevent in school violence and protect students from external threats. The results have been at best unimpressive and at worst troubling.

Public schools have historically increased punitive tactics and school surveillance in the midst of social panics. Following the civil rights movement and national desegregation efforts, education administrators significantly increased their use of in-school and out-of-school suspensions. Groundbreaking research by University of Delaware Professor Aaron Kupchik shows that, nationwide, exclusionary punishment was widely expanded from the 1970s onwards, especially in school districts that resisted desegregation.

In the 1990s, a panic about “superpredator” children in low-income communities galvanized state and federal lawmakers to pass a wave of legislation that helped bring police into schools. The presence of school resource officers, local police officers deployed to public schools, was part of this wave. In the mid-2000s, school districts invited retired law enforcement to serve in a similar role, in the form of school constables.

Since law enforcement in schools is largely a response to integration and irrational anxieties about underprivileged youth, it would be reasonable to look at the policy with skepticism. Academic studies of the effectiveness of school constables and SROs find little evidence that they reduce rates of crime or in-school violence. Conversely, this sort of personnel tends to increase discriminatory school discipline towards low-income and minority students. When discipline disparities increase, disadvantaged students are more likely to show declines in student achievement and increase their chance of arrest or imprisonment. Additionally, studies show school constables and SROs tend to disrupt the ability of all students to feel comfortable at school, including those who are not subject to discriminatory discipline.

In-school law enforcement can likely be improved by strictly regulating their involvement with routine school discipline on campus. Enacting policies that ensure law enforcement is only involved in serious criminal matters. Law enforcement often escalates normal disagreements or conflicts between children to the level of arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system, which can completely derail the educational development of a student. Education policymakers should take pains to clarify the role of law enforcement personnel in public schools to best protect their students from severe harm.

This election season, we must support candidates who are ready to take the following steps toward education equity in Delaware schools.

• Increase the volume and responsiveness of resources so they reach the schools and students who need them;
• Significantly improve transparency including school data, equity plans, school improvement plans and school budgets;
• Replace police officers in schools with trauma-informed and culturally appropriate support services; and
• Erase racial and ethnic disparities in rates of disciplinary action.