New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY EXECUTIVE OFFICE

By Joseph Edelen

WILMINGTON — New Castle County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Matt Meyer has unveiled a comprehensive, 23-page education plan that focuses on remedies to Delaware’s school system that better serve students throughout the First State.

The extensive policy outline focuses on key commitments like addressing the teacher shortage, altering how the state funds education, providing pathways for vocational and technical education opportunities and ensuring access to higher education for Delaware students.

Mr. Meyer, a former math teacher at the Prestige Academy in Wilmington, placed an emphasis on educational equity with the unveiling of his plan Monday, as the guideline received praise from a number of educators throughout the state after collaborative efforts to develop the platform in recent months.

“We don’t just make promises. We make plans. From these plans, we will make progress. A free, high-quality public education is the greatest equalizer. As Delaware’s first teacher-governor, I will work tirelessly to improve our education system so every student can get a world-class education and every educator can thrive,” Mr. Meyer said.

One of the key parts of the New Castle County executive’s plan is to increase teacher compensation in the First State.

The average starting salary for Delaware teachers is $45,448, according to statistics from the Department of Education. The pay is lower than Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, and the latter state has committed to raising educator salaries to a $60,000 minimum beginning in 2026.

In the plan, Mr. Meyer commits to ensuring Delaware’s salaries eclipse that of our surrounding states by the end of his first term, as well as providing paraprofessional staff with significant increases.

“It is hard to see our classrooms thriving when paraprofessionals play such an important role in teaching, learning and classroom environment, and they are paid a fraction of what Amazon delivery drivers make,” Mr. Meyer wrote in his plan.

As the state continues to experience effects of the nationwide teacher shortage, the candidate outlined several retention efforts.

This includes implementing programs to reduce classroom disruptions, providing loan forgiveness and financial assistance to incentivize teachers to work in high-need schools and subject areas, funding teacher residencies and raising the pay of excelling teachers in high-need schools, areas and specialties to $100,000 per year.

Mr. Meyer also intends to change the state’s education funding formula by ensuring an increase of investment of $3,400 to $6,400 per Delaware student.

Another focus of the education initiative is to provide universal access to pre-K care for Delawareans by the end of the next gubernatorial term.

Further, Mr. Meyer has plans to address primary and secondary education, specifically by giving principals more authority to lead their schools, ensuring students read at or above grade level by third grade, fully funding school meals, doubling the state’s investment in school-based health centers, implementing an intervention system to address absenteeism, increasing investments of mental-health supports and after-school programs and requiring students to develop a personal education plan for their career goals by 9th grade.

When the Department of Education released assessment scores for the 2022-2023 school year, it showed that 60% of fourth grade students are not proficient in reading. Also, SAT scores from the same year showed that 44% of students met or exceeded grade-level proficiency in reading and writing, and only 23% in math.

“These numbers have only gotten worse since the pandemic,” Mr. Meyer wrote. “In short, there are many extraordinary district leaders, school leaders and educators working many overtime hours across our state. But the outcomes are not what they should be. It is our failure, a failure of leadership, that I will seek to address as governor.

The plan also includes commitments to address vocational and higher education needs in the state.

According to the platform, Mr. Meyer plans to tackle vocational education by creating a system for students to enter into dual credit enrollment in vocational, technical and community college courses; seek apprenticeships; establish a compact program to implement a pipeline toward employment for students; integrate experiential learning and to allow high schools seniors to take vocational or higher education courses as they finish classes in route to their diploma.

The final key focus of the Meyer campaign’s educational priorities regards higher education and increasing the number of Delawareans with college degrees.

The outline includes commitments to provide increased college counseling and scholarship opportunities to students and their families, working with institutions to get more resources to individuals to ensure they graduate on time and receive further educational and professional opportunities and to simplify the process of transferring college credits.

“Fundamentally, for the good of all our young people individually – and for our state as a whole – we need to focus like a laser on the workforce needs of the future and ensure that the entire pipeline of Delaware’s education system is oriented toward meeting future needs,” Mr. Meyer wrote.

Mr. Meyer is one of three Democratic candidates in pursuit of the governor’s office ahead of this year’s Sept. 10 primary election. He is joined by Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long and former Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara.

There are two Republicans registered for the race, according to Delaware’s campaign finance reporting website. Those candidates are former New York City Police Department officer Jerry Price and Bobby Williamson.

Department of Elections