Public Education Costs in Delaware

The numbers are in; Delaware runs a high cost public school system.

The following data is available from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

To gain an “over time” perspective the Caesar Rodney Institute compiled data on public education spending directly from the files of the Delaware Department of Finance. This is a more comprehensive measure of Delaware spending on public education than that published by the NCES. The trends in this spending were compared to the U.S. Consumer Price Index (Bureau of Labor Statistics) and annual public school enrollment in Delaware (Delaware Department of Education). The results are shown this downloadble chart and accompanying table (PDF Format).

The cost per student in Delaware in regular districts and special schools has risen over 14 years by 135%, while enrollment increased only 9% and the cost of living rose 3.1% per year. Unless it can be demonstrated that public education output rose at the same pace as spending per pupil, there is a significant cost control problem.

The above resource is available from the Caesar Rodney Institute.

CRI is non-partisan, non-profit public policy group intent upon affecting measured improvement in the socio-economic well being at all levels and strata of Delaware society through debates, town hall meetings, workshops, research papers, editorials, an active website, and other events and publications. We stress the importance of measurable outcomes and judge the success of public policy based on desirable outcomes achieved.

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