ACLU backs demand for equitable school funding

A group of parents concerned about education for students of low-income families or with disabilities joined forces with the Delaware NAACP in filing a Chancery Court lawsuit Jan. 16 to bring parity to funding for schools.

Delawareans for Education Opportunity, with about 20 parents and community leaders, wants better funding for low-income students, English language learners and children with disabilities, according to the lawsuit. Named in the suit are Gov. John Carney, Secretary of Education Susan Bunting, state Treasurer Ken Simpler and finance directors for New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties. All officials are sued in their official capacites.

Ryan Tack-Hooper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Delaware, which is prosecuting the suit with Community Legal Aid Society, said schools and students that need the most resources to succeed are often the ones that receive the least financial support.

Tack-Hooper said the lawsuit is a means to level the playing field. “We need to see money going to these students,” he said.

Differences in funding and resources can vary by school district and even by schools within a district, Tack-Hooper said.

“There needs to be more flexibility in how the state allocates money,” he said. “There are certain resources we need in classrooms.”

Qualified teachers rank among the highest need in struggling schools. Tack-Hooper said schools with the most low-income students are often the schools with the least-qualified and lowest-paid teachers. Teachers with experience typically leave struggling schools for higher-paying jobs at wealthier schools that have more money to spend on resources to help struggling learners.

“Teachers who have the hardest job are often paid the least and have the least amount of resources to work with,” Tack-Hooper said. “Teachers go to these schools and leave after a few years.”

The lawsuit offers no solution to fix funding and teachers' salaries, but it asks a judge to find the current system unconstitutional and force the state to fix it.

A funding system that relys on locally approved property taxes based on assessments done in the 1980s or earlier is also part of the problem, Tack-Hooper said.