Parents - have you wondered how our schools perform compared to the rest of the nation, and why Maryland seems to be falling behind compared to other states (ranked 37th)? Are you tired of worrying about whether our schools have sufficient funding to achieve excellent student outcomes for every child, and keep high-quality teachers?
Background
In 2016, the Maryland General Assembly and the Governor created the Maryland Commission on Education and Innovation, better known as the "Kirwan Commission", after the commission's chair, William "Brit" Kirwan, former chancellor of the university system of Maryland. This commission made several recommendations on how to make Maryland a world-class education system, including increasing funding by $2.9 billion over the next 10 years. These include better teacher salaries to support high-quality teaching, additional support staff, full pre-K for low-income kids, support for college and career readiness standards, wraparound services through community grants for schools with a high concentration of low-income students, and a strong accountability system.
The 2019 Maryland Assembly agreed to fund the first three years of this 10-year plan, about $1.1 billion in new funding ($255 million to be invested in 2020), but have not yet agreed to funding the full set of recommendations
See the testimony from William Kirwan on the recommendations,
http://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabMtg/CmsnInnovEduc/WEK_Testimony_Senate_Bill_1030_FINAL.pdf
For details on the recommendations, review the interim January 2019 report
http://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabMtg/CmsnInnovEduc/2019-Interim-Report-of-the-Commission.pdf
The final report is expected this December.
Learn more about why all parents in Maryland, including those with children who will be in pre-K should pay attention to the recommendations, and advocate with state legislators to increase funding for education in the upcoming 2020 legislative session (January 8- April 6, 2020).
There are several ways to be informed and urge legislative support to increase education funding:
Blueprint for Maryland's Future
https://www.marylandblueprint.org/
https://www.marylandblueprint.org/learn-more/
Strong Schools Maryland is a statewide, non-partisan grassroots campaign set up just to advocate for the Kirwan Commission's evidence-based recommendations. They also organize advocacy efforts. Read more here
https://www.strongschoolsmaryland.org/now-why
https://www.strongschoolsmaryland.org/roi-study
They urge all parents to email or meet with state legislators to support this proposed bill to fully fund the Kirwan Commission’s recommendations.
https://www.strongschoolsmaryland.org/email-your-leaders
General Assembly of Maryland's Department of Legislative Services, Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education - see all the reports under Resources on the left of the page). Also legislative schedule for opportunities to testify and to view meeting materials
http://dls.maryland.gov/policy-areas/commission-on-innovation-and-excellence-in-education#!
Maryland State Education Association
https://www.marylandeducators.org/hot-issues/school-funding
https://mseanewsfeed.com/tagged/school-funding
