The Delaware Public Policy Institute (DPPI)

The Delaware Public Policy Institute (DPPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental public policy research organization. Its mission is to conduct research and encourage the study and discussion of public policy issues affecting the citizens of Delaware. The Institute identifies emerging issues that drive Delaware’s future public policy agenda.

Delaware Public Policy Institute Adequacy Study
The Delaware Public Policy Institute (DPPI) is conducting a study to look at how our state school finance system impacts the achievement of our students, and how it could be changed to ensure greater success in our public schools. This study will build on the 2004 DPPI study, Toward More Effective Financing of Student Achievement in Delaware’s Schools. Click here to view that study.

DPPI is exploring whether the current school funding system adequately provides the financial resources to schools, and the flexibility to use those resources, to ensure student success. This study will examine the current finance system that has largely been in place through the last wave of education reform initiatives and look at options for updating the system to reflect the changing needs of our students. The intent is to design a school finance system that reflects the work we have already done in developing standards and accountability systems, and that can provide the flexibility in our districts and schools to utilize those systems to their full potential.

As part of this study, DPPI will be contracting with an outside consulting firm to conduct research across the state to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current system, and also identify the needs that a new finance system would address. This research will include a number of study panels comprised of teachers, principals, superintendents, and other school and district level staff. These individuals will be identified from across the spectrum of public education, including small, medium and large districts as well as vocational districts and charter schools, and will be selected from schools that are deemed to be successful in terms of student achievement.

In the past, DPPI has addressed the issues of land use, economic development, water/wastewater, health care, the Delaware River and Bay Estuary, education and the new federalism. Many of the recommendations that have come out of DPPI projects have resulted in new laws and other statutory or regulatory changes specifically in the area of land-use.

The following is a list of past DPPI Projects:

• 1994/1995 Better Government Competition
• Education Restructuring Conference Report
• Water Resources Planning Retreat
• Delaware Economic Summit
• Health Care Forum
• Competition & Privatization Options: Enhancing Efficiency & Effectiveness in State Government
• Choices for Delaware: The Future of Land Use and Infrastructure
• Choices for Delaware: Life and the Economy in 2000 and Beyond
• How Delaware Compares