Chapter 8: Delaware: Staff Writer¹

Delaware’s constitution was first created in 1776. P–12 education today in Delaware is governed by the constitution’s education article, requiring the state General Assembly to “provide for the establishment and maintenance of a general and efficient system of free public schools, and may require by law that every child not physically or mentally disabled shall attend the public school, unless educated by other means.”² Article X of the state constitution further elaborates that “the General Assembly shall make provision for the annual payment of not less than one hundred thousand dollars for the benefit of the free public schools which, with the income of the investments of the Public School Fund, shall be equitably apportioned among the school districts of the State.”³ The language of the Delaware education article has been judged to be among the more moderate legal obligations placed upon states to provide equitable and adequate resources, rated as Category II (on a scale I–IV) defined as a mandate that the system of public schools must meet a certain minimum standard of quality, such as ‘thorough and efficient.’⁴