Education & Schools

NOTE: A Link to New Information, the Third Article in this Series on School Funding, is Posted Below this Introduction Section or can be read by clicking here. (Posted - June 11, 2006)

Recently there have been a number of published news articles about development, growth, and government expenditures, particularly DELDOT (Delaware Department of Transportation), recently listed as having a $2.7 billion deficit for needed road construction projects. There is another big item on the development list that, to date has hardly hit the headlines, namely, public schools.

In New Castle County there are (5) public school districts for kindergarten through grade 12. (4) of the K-12 districts currently share the tax base resulting from the 1978 federally mandated desegregation order. With a 46.8 cents / $100 assessed valuation standing from this order, the (4) districts, namely Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay divide this revenue according to "unit count", the number of enrolled students. This revenue, plus the individual rates of the (4) districts, taxed $15,834,930,867 of real estate valuation, producing $201,714,652. for fiscal year 2004-05. Included in this valuation are hundreds of commercial and industrial properties, like the refinery complex in Delaware City, the Christiana Mall, the DuPont buildings, the Chrysler and General Motors assembly plants, totaling $ 6,087,363,672 in assessed valuation. This is a balanced tax base.

Now let's look at the Appoquinimink School District the fifth district. Unlike the northern neighbors, ASD does not share any of the 1978 mandated tax base, none of the malls, nor the assembly plants. None of the industrial behemoths are located in the school district. But thousands of houses are, as well as a rapidly growing student population.


This begets the conundrum of the Debt Service tax rate , who benefits , who pays.


ARTICLE II - - The High Cost of Development - An Evaluation of the Appoquinimink School District Funding in Response to Growth

ARTICLE III - - WHOSE HAND IS IN YOUR KID'S POCKET???


Please Check Back Again Later. More details to come in Article IV (July/August 2006) on the disproportionate cost of the excessive residential development of SNCC to our tax payers in SNCC compared to the rest of NCC.