In 2002, the
Maryland Legislature passed the Bridge to Excellence Act, commonly referred to
as Thornton. It established a state
school aid formula to ensure that schools have the resources necessary to
provide every child with an adequate and equitable education. Thornton has been adjusted primarily by changes
in enrollment and cost of living. Local school systems are given broad
flexibility to decide how to best utilize state aid to meet the needs of their
students.
How Thornton Works
Thornton is
designed to ensure that the quality of your child’s education is not determined
by your zip code. Thornton is made up of several programs that determine how
much funding each of Maryland’s 24 local schools systems will receive from the
state for operating costs.
Foundation Program
The foundation program provides each system with a basic per-pupil
funding amount, which is adjusted by an inflation factor each year. The per-pupil
amount—which was $6,860 in fiscal year 2015—is then adjusted for every local
jurisdiction depending on its property value and income levels. This ensures an
equitable funding system, in which counties with less wealth (and therefore
less ability to cover educational costs) receive a greater share of state aid.
At-Risk Programs
In addition
to the wealth-adjusted per-pupil foundation amount, school systems receive
supplemental aid for every child who needs additional resources to receive a
high-quality education. There are three programs:
Compensatory Program: The compensatory program is designed to
enable schools to provide extra support to students coming from backgrounds of
poverty. For every student who qualifies for Free and Reduced-Price Meals,
school systems receive additional grants.
Limited English Proficiency: For every student who is
learning English as a second language, school systems receive an extra amount
per student.
Special Education: For every student receiving special
education services, school systems receive additional increases.
The state
also helps even the playing field and account for additional expenses with
other programs.
Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI): Since the cost of
education is different across the state, the state provides additional funding
through the GCEI to make up the difference for counties where delivering
education is more expensive.
Net Taxable Income (NTI) Grants: One of the factors in
calculating the per-pupil foundation amount was changed to account for taxpayers who file
later in the year and, in turn, cause the calculation to increase for certain
counties and therefore reduce their per-pupil foundation amount. To lessen the
pain of this adjustment, counties that lose funding as a result of this change
have received NTI grants.
Transportation: The state provides grants to assist local
systems with the cost of transporting students to school. The grant includes a
separate component for the transportation of students with disabilities, which
equals $1,000 per student requiring special transportation enrolled in the
school system the prior fiscal year.
Gov. Hogan’s
Proposed Education Cuts
Gov. Hogan’s proposed budget would cut $144 million from the
funding that school systems are currently scheduled to receive through the full
funding of Thornton. This cut would take place in three parts of the formula:
Inflation Factor: By state law, foundation program funding is
supposed to adjust for inflation each year. But Gov. Hogan’s proposal would
eliminate any adjustment for inflation this year—freezing the per-pupil
foundation amount at last year’s level. This limitation of the inflation factor
results in $63 million in cuts for next year’s budget.
GCEI: Gov. Hogan has
slashed GCEI funding in half. That results in $68 million less statewide and $20
million less for Prince George’s County.
NTI Grants: Instead of increasing the NTI grants in the third
year of a five-year phase-in, Gov. Hogan has proposed freezing the grant amount
at last year’s level. This results in a $12 million cut statewide.
In Prince
George’s County the student enrollment is expected to increase by over 2,300
students next year. Our school district receives state aid equivalent to $9,334
per student per year. Just to keep up
with the increased student enrollment, our County would need $21 million in
additional funds in the next fiscal year.
In addition, our County is expected to have 1,500 more students with
limited English proficiency, and 5,000 more students who are eligible for free
and increased meals. Though there is $14 million more in the Governor’s budget
for next year for Prince George’s County than is being spent this year, the
amount that is below the levels that the Thornton formulas require is $38
million. It is a decrease of $312 per
pupil - the highest per-pupil reduction of any County in Maryland. It could mean an increase of class size of
4-6 students.
These cuts
are unacceptable, and the Prince George’s Delegation will do everything
possible to restore the money.
Let your voice be heard: email larry.hogan@maryland.gov to demand that he restore full funding for
education.
