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Board of Education → About → Legislative Platform

2012 Legislative Platform

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Maintenance of Effort

Funding for public education in Maryland has been a shared responsibility between state and local governments. Maintenance of Effort (MOE) was established to ensure that, as the state dramatically increased its contribution of education aid, local communities would maintain their financial support. As a result of recent legislative changes, MOE is no longer the established local funding floor and counties have the ability to unilaterally “rebase” or drastically lower their public education contributions, even as the state is holding the line on education funding. Moreover, school systems, not counties, are penalized if MOE is not met by a local government. In fact, MCPS faces a loss of $26 million in state aid if the penalty for not meeting MOE is not waived.

Maintenance of Effort must be restored to ensure - 

• Accountability — make MOE the local funding floor, with a mandated waiver process.
• Flexibility - improve and expand the existing waiver process.
• Fairness — make the penalty for a county not meeting MOE apply to the county, rather than the school system.

Pension System

In 2006, Maryland improved its teacher pension benefits in order to be more competitive nationally. Pension benefits were improved retro actively on an assumption of available funding. Subsequent decisions to fund this increase using the “corridor” method, coupled with the current economic downturn, have resulted in pension system liabilities significantly outpacing assets. Recent legislative action already has new employees paying 80 percent of their benefit costs and all employees paying for most of the improvements in benefits on a “go forward” basis.

Shifting any additional retirement costs from the state to local jurisdictions or boards - 

• Unfairly transfers the burden to local jurisdictions for investment shortfalls.
• Is inconsistent with recent legislative action projected to reduce costs and improve solvency.
• Will put an unreasonable strain on local education budgets.

State Education Funding

Maryland are ranked Number One in the nation. The Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act of 2002 (BTE) represents the resources invested to support this achievement. Full funding of BTE, including the Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) and reinstatement of the annual inflation factor, is needed to sustain successful programs and services for our students.

To keep pace with rising standards for student performance, state aid must be sustained by - 

• Mandating the Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI).
• Reinstating the annual inflation factor.
• Maintaining BTE-mandated per-pupil funding levels and targeted funding programs.

School Construction

State construction funds continue to be inadequate to meet our substantial needs. Rapid enrollment growth, coupled with maintenance needs in older schools, continues to put enormous pressures on school facilities. Without adequate school construction funding, MCPS will be forced into an over-reliance on relocatable classrooms while, increasingly, aging and less-than-adequate facilities will become the norm, making it hard to meet the educational needs of our students.

To meet rapidly expanding facility needs, the state must - 

• Ensure at least $250 million for school construction and renovation.
• Expand bonding capacity to meet growing school facility needs.
• Distribute school construction funds equal to the percentage share of student enrollment