Citizens for Delaware Schools

09/23/2026

Despite concerns over the 2025 PISA student scores, there's positive news: America's high achievers excel in reading and science, and they've improved in math, their previously weakest area.

09/16/2026

If you want to get Delaware students extra educational services at no cost to taxpayers or the state, now is time to sign this petition after learning more about this new opportunity. The state has to opt in so students can access the privately funded scholarships. Learn more and act.

09/09/2026

PISA RESULTS RELEASED TODAY SHOW GLOBAL LEARNING RECESSION

In this worldwide testing of 15-year-olds, U.S. students are still above average in reading and science, reading performance is deteriorating, math is merely average, and the distance between American students and the world's highest-performing systems is enormous—especially in mathematics.

The U.S. reading score fell 14 points from 2022 to 2025—the largest decline among the three U.S. subject areas. The U.S. has a strong group of high performers, but a much larger problem at the lower end.

Even more concerning is the falling interest of parents in their children's education. More about that coming soon.

08/27/2026

Dolly has long said one of her greatest achievements is helping children to love reading, inspired by her father, who never learned to read or write. Parton's Imagination Library has gifted over 50,000 books in Delaware. She even visited Delaware in 2022 to celebrated the program.
In Delaware, every child under the age of five is eligible to receive a gift of a monthly book at no charge to families. Families can sign up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on Delaware Libraries’ website: delawarelibraries.org/imagination.

08/14/2026

What is most sad about this story most overlook is that we as a society need SROs (and they are needed for everyone's safety) in MIDDLE schools.

The Christina School Board voted Tuesday to phase School Resource Officers out of its middle schools and replace them with armed district constables.

During the conversation, Christina School Board member Doug Manley made pointed comments about police while pushing to remove School Resource Officers from district schools.

“These people can put a bullet in anybody at any time, and there is absolutely no accountability for them,” Manley said.

Manley wants SROs replaced with district-employed constables, who are also armed. He was the lone vote against a compromise to phase SROs out of middle schools because he wanted all SROs removed immediately.

08/04/2026

A Key To Success: Reading entire books provides the knowledge kids need to do better in school. It doesn't have to be just when they get a school assignment. Most important, parents have a vital role to get their kids reading.

📚 How do 8th-graders feel about reading?

We asked as part of the NAEP 2024 reading assessment. When asked how much the statement "Reading is one of my favorite activities" described them, 34% of 8th-graders said "not at all," while 12% said "exactly."

Which of these results stands out most to you?

08/03/2026

08/01/2026

Even in tax-free Delaware, parents are feeling the squeeze from higher prices on clothes, shoes, supplies, and technology.

📚 Every school year seems to cost a little more.

What has your experience been? What's your biggest expense?🫨

07/31/2026

Anthony Fauci was in the news this week about how he handled the Covid-19 crisis. Most damaging were the extended school shutdowns. Six years later, there’s this troubling news…
A study from the American Enterprise Institute’s Nat Malkus. shows that students who weren't even alive when COVID hit are now missing school at much higher rates than children did before the pandemic. The pandemic didn't just disrupt one generation of students—could it be that those school shutdowns have permanently changed norms around school attendance?

07/25/2026

Three of the New Castle County districts plan to raise local property taxes later this year. Why?

The districts seem incapable of managing a multimillion budget with costs rising much faster than inflation. Rising costs that come in hiring more non-instructional staff with their generous benefits. Special education costs also exploding. We need to better understand it all before education funding reform, which is projected to cost $600 million more in education spending. (And Delaware's enrollment expected to be flat in 5 years due to declining birth rates. This is an opportunity every school board in Delaware must tackle now.