PRIORITY ISSUE: THE KIRWAN COMMISSION & THE BLUEPRINT FOR MARYLAND’S FUTURE

Introduction

The Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education is a multi-year initiative to research and develop major funding and policy reforms to improve the quality of Maryland’s public education system to benefit all of the more than 790,000 students, which will in turn benefit the State’s economy and quality of life for all Marylanders.

MABE Presentation: What’s the Kirwan Commission and the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future All About  (Oct. 10, 2019)

Key components of the Kirwan Commission’s work include:

• The APA Funding Adequacy Study: Expert analysis of what Maryland’s educators and experts have determined needed to improve our schools.
• The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) Framework: What experts recommend as the building blocks for creating an innovative and globally competitive education system.
• The passage of Question 1 on the 2018 statewide ballot amend the State Constitution to shift more than $500 million in casino revenues to actually increase school funding above present levels. Senate Bill 1122 (2018) called for the referendum. (Increased funding = $125 million in 2019-2020, $250 million in 2020-2021, $375 million in 2021-2022, and at least $500 million in 2022-2023)
• The Kirwan Commission’s Interim Report: Issued in January of 2019, based on the NCEE framework, and building on the Adequacy Study through the continuing assistance of APA.
• The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future: Senate Bill 1030 is the legislation enacted in 2019 to launch three-years of increased funding for PreK, special education, teachers’ pay, and other programs. ($255 million in 2019-2020, $355 million in 2020-2021, and at least $370 million in 2021-2022) 
• The Funding Formula Workgroup: Meeting in the summer and fall of 2019 to develop final recommendations for the full Commission to receive in November to incorporate into final legislative recommendations.

The next legislative session, convening on January 8, 2020, is highly anticipated for the passage of the full Kirwan Commission bill including the 10-year phase-in of NCEE’s policy framework and the state and local cost shares of the overall funding increases. Another key component of this work will be legislation identifying sources of State revenue to meet the State’s funding obligations.

The following information is intended to provide background and links to resources relating to all of this work.

“The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” – Senate Bill 1030

This landmark legislation was enacted earlier this year to establish “The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” as State education policy, based on the recommendations of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education (known as the Kirwan Commission in recognition of commission chair, Dr. William ‘Brit’ Kirwan). The bill provides significant funding increases for several programs and establishes the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund. The bill provides funding in FY 2020 per the Governor’s discretion; and mandates that additional funding be included in the Governor’s budgets for FY 2021 and FY 2022.

During session, MABE leadership provided testimony in support of the legislation at the initial bill hearings.  Julie Hummer, MABE’s Legislative Committee Chair, outlined the key provision’s of the legislation and MABE’s support the proposed increases in funding for prekindergarten, special education, programs for students living in areas of concentrated poverty, and state support for teacher salary increases.  Other organizations testifying in support included the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland, the Maryland State Education Association, Strong Schools Maryland, Maryland PTA, Advocates for Children and Youth, ACLU Maryland, and the Maryland Association of Counties.

The bill was crafted to incentivize passage and full funding by making the creation of the office of inspector general contingent on the release of the $200 million in 2018 income tax funds already residing in the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education Fund (renamed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund). In addition, the bill stipulates that any funds restricted for purposes of the bill in the FY 2020 budget not transferred or released by the Governor must be distributed in FY 2021, in addition to other funds required to be distributed by the bill in FY 2021.

On May 15, 2019 Governor Hogan announced and provided a letter to legislative leaders explaining his decision to release the funding for FY 2020 and to allow the Kirwan bill to become law.

The bill takes effect June 1, 2019. For more detailed information, see the 90 Day Report. 

• Funding – The bill distributes $255 million in FY 2020 (at the Governor’s discretion) consistent with the funding priorities identified by the Commission and mandates a total of $355 million in FY 2021 to begin to implement the recommendations. The bill also mandates that $370 million be distributed to The Blueprint Fund in FY 2022, as well as an additional $130 million contingent on revenue made available as a result of legislation enacted in the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions to implement the Commission’s recommendations. Note: $134.5 million of the $255 million budgeted in FY 2020 was contingent on the Governor releasing this amount from the $200 million in income tax revenues set aside last year.
  
   

 

• Teacher Salary Incentive Grant Program – This program, administered by MSDE, provides grants to county boards to increase teacher salaries to improve recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. In each of FY 2020 and FY 2021, the State must provide a grant to a local board in the amount specified in the law if the local board provides a negotiated and funded average “salary increase” for teachers of at least 3.0% in FY 2020. “Salary increase” may include salary increases for cost–of–living adjustments, increments, step increases, interval movements, pathway movements, or similar salary increases received by employees as a regular part of the operation of a personnel system or negotiated schedule between a public school employer and exclusive representative for an employee organization. “Salary increase” is further defined as “the average percent increase in the salaries for teachers in the county over the prior fiscal year that does not include one–time stipends or payments, promotions, retirement benefits, or other benefits.” A significant amendment was adopted to define “Teacher” as “a certificated public school employee who: (i) is not an administrator; and (ii) as of April 1, 2019, is part of a collective bargaining unit that includes classroom teachers.”
   

• Mental Health Services Coordinator – For both FY 2020 and 2021, $83,333 is provided to each local school system to fund the mental health services coordinator that each local school system must appoint pursuant to the Safe to Learn Act of 2018. 
   

• Concentration of Poverty Grants – This program provides grants to public schools in which at least 80% of the students were eligible for free and reduced-price meals (FRPM), in accordance with standards for community schools, wrap-around services, and the positions of community school coordinator and full-time professional health care practitioner. For both FY 2020 and 2021, the State must distribute a grant to each local school board equal to $248,833 for each eligible school, to be distributed to each eligible school. The FY 2020 $54.6 million estimate for concentration of poverty grants is based on 2017-2018 school year data indicating that 219 schools (mostly in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County). For FY 2021, additional schools are eligible for the grant based on the 2018-2019 school year data.
   

• Special Education Grants – In both FY 2020 and 2021, an additional $65.5 million is provided for the education of students with disabilities, with specified allocations to each local school system. The bill provides that if any of this funding is “not needed to fully implement individualized education programs (IEPs) and 504 plans for students with disabilities” each local board of education must use the remaining funding to implement other recommendations made in the Kirwan Commission’s January 2019 Interim Report.
   

• Transitional Supplemental Instruction for Struggling Learners Grants – For each of FY 2020 and 2021, the State must distribute to local boards funds totaling $23 million, as allocated by the bill, for the provision of TSI for struggling learners, including  additional academic supports using evidence-based programs as defined in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). TSI includes one-on-one and small-group tutoring with a certified teacher, a teaching assistant, or any other trained professional; cross-age peer tutoring; and screening, identifying, and addressing literacy deficits. Struggling learners are students who perform below grade level in English/language arts or reading in kindergarten through grade 3.
   

• Teacher Collaborative Grant Program – MSDE, in consultation with the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), to award grants totaling $2.5 million in each of FY 2020 and 2021, to teacher collaboratives to develop model, state-of-the-art, professional development programs for prospective and current teachers. A collaborative must constitute a partnership of at least one local board, one teacher preparation program, and one exclusive employee representative. 
   

• Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education – The bill establishes the office as an independent unit of the State and establishes the Inspector General (I.G.) position within the office. The bill specifies the qualifications and experience that the I.G. must have, provides for the appointment of the I.G. to five-year terms, and specifies conditions for removal of an I.G. The I.G. is responsible for examining local boards of education, local school systems, and public schools; nonpublic schools that receive State funds; MSDE; and the Interagency Commission on School Construction. The I.G. may investigate complaints concerning: fraud, waste, and abuse involving the use of public funds; violations of the civil rights of students and employees; whether policies and procedures governing the prevention and reporting of child abuse and neglect comply with federal and State law; and compliance with other federal and State law.  This was a contentious issue during session, including the legislature rejecting the Governor’s bill to create such an office, a March 14, 2019 letter from the Governor insisting that greater accountability measures be included in the Kirwan bill, and the legislature’s subsequent decision to amend the bill to do so. Similarly, Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management David Brinkley’s March 14, 2019 letter to legislative leaders urged fiscal restraint in adopting increases in mandated funding. The amounts of mandated funding in FY 2021 and 2022, as enacted, are much less than initially passed by the House at the time of Secretary Brinkley’s letter.

The 2019 Kirwan bill is a major accomplishment, representing a $1.1 billion funding initiative spanning 3 years, and yet is only the first step toward adopting more comprehensive educational program reforms and a 10-year state and local funding implementation plan. Therefore, following the 2019 session, the Commission’s work is being complimented by a “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Funding Formula Workgroup.”

In addition, the full Commission will reconvene in October of 2019 to finalize the long-range policy and funding recommendations to be included in 2020 legislation.

Full Commission Meeting Calendar (Updated 9/3/19) 

Funding Formula Workgroup

On June 4, 2019 Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones announced membership of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Funding Formula Workgroup. Today’s announcement is a result of a request from the presiding officers to the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education that a special workgroup determine funding formula decisions before the 2020 legislative session.

The Funding Workgroup will:

• Make recommendations for the distribution of funds recommended by programmatic area included for recommendation of the Kirwan Commission policy report by the LEA and State/local cost share;

• Prioritize order of funding for programmatic recommendation of the Kirwan Commission policy report; and

• Make recommendations for specific funding formulas for ongoing costs within each Kirwan Commission policy recommendation.

 Funding Formula Workgroup Meeting Calendar (Updated 9/3/19)

The Workgroup held it’s first meeting on June 20, 2019. 
Highlight: Presentation on “Building the PreK-12 Funding Formulas“
Meetings were also held on July 24, August 1, and August 22.
All Workgroup agendas, videos and meeting materials are available on the Kirwan Commission’s homepage. 

MABE Takes Positions on Key Workgroup Issues