What You Need to Know About the “Blueprint” School Funding Bill
The legislation begins implementing Kirwan Commission plan
On March 11, more than 8,500 educators, parents, students, and public education advocates marched in Annapolis to protest a $2.9 billion funding shortage facing our schools and urge the state legislature to take action.
They heard our voices and acted. On Friday, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation to begin implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the Kirwan Commission’s plan to address the underfunding of Maryland’s public schools. Here’s what’s in the bill:
$1.1 Billion Increase in State School Funding
The Kirwan Blueprint called for an 11-year implementation timeline between now and 2030, with funding increasing by $3.8 billion split between the state and county governments. State funding would increase by $325 million in the 2019–2020 school year, $750 million in 2020–2021, and up from there.
The original legislation had these funding targets for the first two years, but legislators were wary of creating mandates without identified funding sources and decided to slow down what they were willing to commit to this year.
The bill, and the corresponding Fiscal Year 2020 budget, now provides a $255 million increase in 2019–2020, $355 million in 2020–2021, and $500 million in 2022. That totals $1.1 billion and puts the Blueprint on a path to be implemented on schedule, albeit more gradually than proposed by the commission. The funding increases are paid for by a combination of casino gaming revenue, a $200 million set-aside in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget, and an adjustment to online sales tax compliance.
But the Kirwan Blueprint was never really about just more funding. It’s about making sure we’re investing that new funding in strategies that are backed by research and educator expertise.
Teacher Salaries Increase by 4.5% Next School Year
One of the major findings of the Kirwan Commission was how underpaid teachers are in Maryland compared to those in high-performing school systems — both internationally and in the United States. So the Commission recommended that Maryland increase its teacher salaries by 10% above normal rates of increase in the next three years: 3% in 2019–2020, 3% in 2020–2021, and 4% in 2021–2022.
“Over the first three years of implementation, teacher salaries will be increased by 10% to reach the average salary of teachers in Massachusetts and New Jersey…This salary increase is intended to be a base adjustment and not a replacement for annual cost-of-living increases, which will continue to be the subject of collective bargaining.” — Kirwan Commission Interim Report
Since teacher salaries in Maryland have increased by an annual average of about 1.5% since 2012–2013, that means teachers would need to see a 4.5% increase to realize the commission’s recommendation. The legislation makes this happen by providing an additional 1.5% raise if school systems provide a 3% increase (the 1.5% usual increase and a 1.5% local bump).
All certificated educators in teacher bargaining units (but not administrators) are eligible for the raise.
But what about education support professionals? There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that the legislature passed a bill — and overrode Gov. Hogan’s veto — to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 2025. That means thousands of hourly ESP will see raises in the next five years, not to mention those who make above $15 an hour will likely see raises as school systems adjust their wages to account for the new law.
The bad news is ESP salaries are not addressed in the Kirwan Blueprint and legislation that would have created a statewide living wage standard failed to pass for a second straight year. In light of this frustrating outcome, MSEA is studying how we can adjust our bargaining strategies at the local level to prioritize ESP living wages in the context of everything we negotiate for at the table.
200+ New Community Schools
As the commission wrestled with how to close opportunity gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers, a consensus quickly grew around the community school model. As defined in the bill, a community school “establishes a set of strategic partnerships between the school and other community resources that promote student achievement, positive learning conditions, and the well-being of students by providing wraparound services.”
The commission recommended that every school with low-income students making up 55% or more of its student population would receive funding for a community schools coordinator and a health services practitioner. They would also receive, on a sliding scale, additional funding to provide services identified in a needs assessment.
The legislation begins phasing in that idea, starting with schools that have low-income students making up 80% or more of their student population. That means 219 schools will qualify next school year (2019–2020) and 235 schools are projected to qualify the year after (2020–2021). The vast majority of these schools are in Baltimore City (130) and Prince George’s County (45), though 15 counties will receive funding for at least one school next year.
Funding for Pre-K, Special Education, and More
There are several other programs funded in the legislation:
There is $32 million included to convert more half-day pre-kindergarten for low-income four-year-olds to full-day. This is estimated to grow to $59 million in the 2020–2021 school year for further expansion. These are the first steps towards a targeted public pre-kindergarten program that covers all three- and four-year-olds below 300% of the poverty line at no cost, as well as four-year-olds between 300–600% of the poverty line for a sliding scale fee.
“The average return-on-investment of serving four-year-olds in high-quality prekindergarten, across centers, family homes, and public prekindergarten programs, is $5.54 for each $1 invested.” — Augenblick, Palaich and Associates
The bill contains $65 million to fund special education services in both the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years. School districts are not required to fund any specific strategies so long as the funding is used to fully implement individualized education plans and 504 plans. But with special educators severely overworked, it would be smart for districts to use additional funding to hire more special education staff.
The legislation includes $23 million to fund in-school tutoring services for K-3 students performing below grade level in English or math. It’s very possible that school districts hire additional paraeducators to provide this one-on-one and small group tutoring.
The bill also includes $2.5 million to incentivize the creation of new teacher mentorship programs and teacher career ladders, and $2 million to fund a mental health services coordinator in every school district.
Inspector General for Education
The bill does include one major feature that is not included in the Kirwan Commission interim report. In an effort to bring Gov. Hogan on board, the legislature added in one of his education proposals: the creation of an inspector general (IG) to investigate instances of fraud, waste, and abuse in schools.
Instead of giving the governor complete control over the selection of this IG — as his proposal did — the bill creates a more independent process in which the position is filled by a unanimous vote between the governor, the treasurer, and the attorney general. This structure follows a successful model in Massachusetts.
The IG would have subpoena power and would be tasked primarily with ensuring compliance with laws and discovering the misuse of public funds. The bill creates a separate auditing process for districts to demonstrate they are using the funding for the specific policies outlined in the law.
Next Steps
The bill passed the House 124–20 and the Senate 45–0 and now goes to the governor. Gov. Hogan can sign, veto, or allow the bill to go into law without his signature. He likely has until mid-May to decide, though that depends on when the bill is officially presented to his office.
The governor has one other major job to do here: he has to approve the funding passed in the budget that allows these programs to happen. That budget passed unanimously in the Senate and with more than 90% of votes in the House, so withholding funding would go against a strong bipartisan consensus. While Gov. Hogan can choose to announce his decision earlier, he has until summer to take action.
Take 30 seconds to call Gov. Hogan’s office at (888) 520–6732 and urge him to sign the Blueprint bill into law and allow the bipartisan education funding to reach our schools.
The Kirwan Commission will now resume their work to develop a new funding formula that will split education spending costs between the state and counties. The legislature will then take up that formula next session when the entire Kirwan Blueprint will (hopefully) be passed into law.
