An Open Letter to Governor Meyer:  Money Isn’t the Answer By Tanya Hettler, PhD Center for Education Policy February 13, 2025     I have carefully read your education plan for Delaware multiple times. There are several aspects of your plan that I think would be extremely beneficial in improving Delaware public education.    These include:   improving transparency in spending, improving the quality of professional development (especially in Science of Reading), allowing excellent teachers to take on more challenging assignments and mentor new teachers to increase their pay, and providing greater support to teachers in ...[read more]

What is the Delaware Department of Education Trying to Hide? By Tanya Hettler, PhD Center for Education Policy November 27, 2024 (Updated)   The Department of Education (DOE), school districts, school boards, and the state teachers' union are hiding information from the public that should be available to everyone. The following are a list of some areas in which Delawareans are kept in the dark.   Poor Academic Performance The most significant lack of transparency involves the state's own Smarter Balanced assessment which indicates that only 41% of students can read at grade level and only 31% of students can do math at grade level. This informati...[read more]

Delaware's Next Governor Must Declare a State of Emergency in Education   By  Tanya Hettler, PhD  Director, Center for Education Policy October 28, 2024     Delaware’s educational performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked in 2013. Since then, proficiency scores for 4th and 8th grade math and reading have plummeted, underscoring the urgent need for improvements in student achievement.    Delaware is among the top ten states in the country in spending at  $20,231 per student and yet has a performance ranking in the bottom five states on the NAEP at...[read more]

Delaware's Top Revenue Sources: A Decade of Change   Tracking Delaware's Tax Shifts and What's Ahead By Charlie Copeland Center for Economic & Fiscal Policy September 6, 2024     "Sometimes called Delaware's 'hidden sales tax,' the tax is levied on the seller of goods and services in the state, rather than the consumer."--Jonathan Starkey, former News Journal reporter and current Chief of Staff to Governor Carney writing about Delaware's Gross Receipts Tax.       In 2014, the News Journal published an article titled "Delaware taxes: Top 5 sources of s...[read more]