Equity of Funding
The Kirwan Commission and the “Blueprint”
in 2016 the Maryland legislature established the Kirwan Commission to “assess the current state of Maryland’s PreK-12 education system and the adequacy of its funding formulas and to make policy and resource recommendations that would ensure Maryland children achieve at the levels of students in the world’s best-performing school systems.” (https://aib.maryland.gov/Pages/Kirwan-Commission.aspx)
The Kirwan Commission found that the funding of public schools in Maryland is “regressive,” which means it favors wealthy districts. This is a significant finding, and has long term implications, particularly for districts such as Baltimore City.
In 2021, some of the “Kirwan” Commission recommendations were adopted in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Act in 2021. The new funding formula in the Blueprint Act has, and will, make an enormous impact on education in Maryland, but particularly in historically underserved districts such as Baltimore City and Prince George’s County.
However, the Blueprint Act is designed to supplement the programs and facilities funded by the Bridge Act (Thornton Funding). Since Baltimore City never received full Thornton funding, we are still short compared to the state’s own definition of “adequacy.”
The full ramifications of this new funding formula for schools and how it affects the equitable distribution of funds both within Maryland and within a single district, such as Baltimore City, are still not entirely clear.
To see the details of the “Blueprint” click the button below.
Understanding Maryland Education Funding
This slide deck explains the basics of how school districts are funded in Maryland, and the big picture surrounding the recent Blueprint funding for education.
Despite much needed improvements in the equitably distribution of state resources to support local districts, we explain why the historic inequities in funding for districts such as Baltimore and Prince George’s County have not been fully remedied. This is in part because the funding for the Blueprint is not scheduled to be fully in place until 2032, and in part because the baseline funding for these districts was woefully inadequate to begin with.
We also explain how different schools within a particular district will receive different levels of funding according to the new, State-mandated formula.
The Implementation of the Blueprint
Strong Schools Maryland and ACLU Maryland are strong advocates for adequate education funding in Maryland. There have been issues surrounding the Accountability and Implementation Board that oversees the implementation of the Blueprint. There are going to be tweaks needed to the funding formula in order to correct for disparities and inequities. To follow these issues and stay up to date with school funding in Maryland, we recommend following Strong Schools and the ACLU.
TDP and AROS (The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools) will also revisit these issues as we learn more.