Del. Block-Grant Program Poses Funding Dilemma

By Jonathan Weisman

Delaware educators are finding this fall that their state's new block-grant program has given them both a unique opportunity and a difficult responsibility: deciding on their own how to carry out a 15 percent cut in a key form of state aid.

At the urging of Gov. Michael N. Castle, the legislature this year approved a major restructuring of state education programs, under which a number of categorical programs were combined into three block grants. The new funding scheme calls on local educators to make funding decisions traditionally reserved for state administrators.

The shift to the relatively small block grants for adult education and career training has not caused many problems. But the consolidation of supplementary education programs into the Academic Excellence Grant has been a trying experience...