‘It’s going to die’: Education advocates to vote on Wilmington school redistricting plans amid political uncertainty

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Delaware education advocates expect to vote later this year on a plan to redistrict schools in New Castle County, but politics could threaten to upend a process years in making.

The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity is a state group created in 2019 tasked with redrawing lines for the school districts currently serving the city of Wilmington and northern New Castle County.

Wilmington is currently carved into four school districts: Christina, Brandywine, Colonial and Red Clay.

The advisory group is considering a few plans, pitting competing opinions from Gov. Matt Meyer and Mayor John Carney, Meyer’s predecessor, against each other on the best politically viable path forward. The consortium is not expected to vote to recommend a plan to state lawmakers until December.

3 options under consideration

• Metropolitan Wilmington School District: Would consolidate Brandywine, Red Clay and the city of Wilmington into one district
• Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District: Would consolidate all four districts serving Wilmington. It would not include the Appoquinimink School District in the southern part of the county
• Brandywine and Red Clay School District: The two districts would be responsible for educating all students within the city of Wilmington. There are three variations of the boundaries for this option

In all three plans, Christina School District, which has schools in Wilmington and Newark, would be removed from the city, and Wilmington students currently going to Christina schools would move to one or more of the other school districts.

Political leaders debate best option

Once the Redding Consortium issues a recommendation, it will vote on a full plan early next year. The Delaware General Assembly has to then approve it. That could happen sometime next year before the legislative session wraps up at the end of June.

Meyer said he believes the New Castle County single district is the right way to go.

He argues having one district for students makes sense “when you look at the finances of it, when you look at where the money goes, when you look at efficiencies and getting resources to classrooms, when you look at opportunities for families to move and stay in the same school,” he said. “When you look at the value of scale of having a larger district and therefore getting increased resources to students in need and to do specialized programs, I think there’s no doubt that the best thing for kids and for families is a single district in northern New Castle County.”

Mayor Carney, who was governor of Delaware for eight years before being elected mayor of Wilmington last year, has long preferred sending current Christina city students to Brandywine and Red Clay. Carney argued for that plan during a recent Redding Consortium retreat, but has said since then that he supports any of the options.

“Right now, we need our city kids to be in a district that can do a better job making sure they get the education they need,” he said. “Everybody agrees that those children who are in the Christina School District are performing the worst and they’re not getting what they need.”

Political viability of the plans

Some Redding Consortium members, community activists and parents are at odds over the best plan. Some voiced concern that a single-county district would dilute Wilmington voices. Others said they were concerned that English language learners wouldn’t get as many resources with the Metropolitan Wilmington School District or Brandywine/Red Clay concept. Brandywine community members have expressed opposition to the two-district plan, arguing it would place a bigger tax burden on suburban residents.

At least one previous redistricting plan failed in 2016 to make it through both chambers of the state legislature.

Maria Matos, president and CEO of the Latin American Community Center, pointed to forced busing of students of color to the suburbs, which started in 1978. During court-ordered busing, white suburban students were bused into the city for three years while city kids were bused into the suburbs for nine years. She said she doubts state lawmakers will ultimately approve a city school redistricting plan.

“It’s going to die,” Matos said. “It’s going to die because you don’t have the political will in the Senate to get it passed. Don’t be fooled. It ain’t going to happen.”

State Sen. Eric Buckson, R-Dover, said he was willing to support the group’s recommendation on the Senate floor.

“I need strength in the room, and I need a consensus, and I need folks to understand at the end of this, we’re on the same team,” he said. “We all want what we want, and that’s for our children to succeed.”

If the General Assembly approves a plan and Gov. Matt Meyer signs it, the implementation could take up to five years.

City schools debate dates back to battle over desegregation

The debate over how best to educate Wilmington children goes back more than 40 years.

“Schools are an outgrowth of the societies they sit in,” said Angela Perry of 4th-Dimension Leaders, who facilitated the Redding Consortium retreat. “Schools by themselves aren’t the problem or the solution. There’s an ethos here that we have to address and Delaware could do that now. First State in the union, one of the last states to desegregate.”

Christina schools in Wilmington encompass the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods. They have large populations of low-income students and have historically been some of the lowest performing in the state.

Trent Sharp, a principal consultant with American Institutes for Research, said the current racial composition of most Wilmington city schools largely reflects the majority-Black student population from the early 1970s.

Lawsuits filed by Louis Redding — Delaware’s first Black attorney and a lawyer for the NAACP legal defense — played a critical part in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. But Delaware schools didn’t desegregate until 1978, when a court order forced busing, affecting almost all students in Wilmington. Some young people were bused over an hour to school from their homes. In 1981, the four city school districts were formed.

Forced busing ended by 2000 and state lawmakers passed the Neighborhood Schools Act, requiring students to attend the public schools closest to their homes.

The 1978 order on bussing and the 1981 creation of the city school districts failed to uncouple the tight pairing of race, place and educational opportunity.

Sharp said students attending their assigned schools are disproportionately Black, low-income and those with special needs.

“When you begin to look at educational opportunity, you see the distribution of students scoring a one or two in math and language arts, just very clearly, kind of correlates with racial patterns across the city and district,” he said.

Poverty impacts Wilmington students’ ability to succeed

Children living in poverty require more resources to achieve the same academic outcomes as wealthier students, which could strain the other districts’ funding. American Institutes for Research gave Redding Consortium members a review of the challenges Wilmington students face to consider when choosing a plan. Obstacles include crime, mental illness, housing instability and a lack of transportation.

The company’s research found that where a child is born and the resources available to them in that neighborhood are strongly associated with their future success. But there’s an unequal distribution of social services across Wilmington neighborhoods. Areas such as Southbridge, West City Center, Hilltop and the East Side had less proximity to nearby resources.

A youth research team from the Center for Structural Equity, a local nonprofit group, interviewed students and adults. They found community violence led kids to avoid parks and other public spaces, negatively affecting their mental health. Safety concerns also led kids to avoid taking public transportation, with female students reporting they are regularly harassed by men.

Wilmington students and families reported facing significant challenges to accessing after-school and summer programs due to high costs, lack of safe transportation and limited programs.

Chronic absenteeism, a lack of affordable housing, homelessness, frequent moves and living in substandard conditions also hurt students’ educational outcomes.