Delaware school districts could spend an additional $28 million per year on direct educational services to students, with no additional expense to taxpayers, if they diverted the money from administrative expenses.
The office of Lt. Gov. Matthew Denn released what it said will be the first annual report on public school district spending on Friday, April 16. The report takes a critical look at statistics from the most recently completed school year (2008-2009).
The Seaford, Caesar Rodney, and Cape Henlopen school districts are spending the highest percentages of their total budgets on direct educational services to children. The report also shows that the Laurel and Appoquinimink School Districts are spending the lowest percentages of their total budgets on direct educational services to children.
Denn’s report also reveals that the Laurel and Appoquinimink districts spend higher percentages of their budgets on administrative expenses than the state’s other 14 traditional school districts.
“I believe that public education spending should be one of the state’s highest budget priorities,” Denn said. “But it is also critical that our public school districts spend as much of their existing money as possible on services that directly impact student education.
“This report provides evidence that we could significantly expand support for teachers and other professionals who work directly with kids if our school districts made better use of the money they have,” he said.
The lieutenant governor’s report is a continuation of an effort undertaken by him, Gov. Jack Markell, and Secretary of Education Lillian Lowery in 2009 to encourage school districts to spend more funds in the classroom and less money on administrative overhead. This effort was reflected in the passage of House Substitute 1 for House Bill 119 by the General Assembly last June, and the implementation of Department of Education Regulation 738 last February.
In compiling the statistics for his report, Denn calculated the additional funds that the state’s school districts could have spent on direct educational services to children (without raising taxes) if each of them spent 76.72% of their budgets on such services—the average percentage of the state’s top five performing districts. The total additional funds exceeded $28 million.
“These statistics are baseline numbers, drawn from a school year whose budget was prepared by local officials before the current administration and General Assembly took office,” Denn said.
He hopes the statistics in coming school years for districts will improve, and more dollars will be spent directly on students.
Next week, Denn’s office will release comparative statistics for the state’s vocational-technical schools and charter schools.
