State Aid to Public Schools (Operating)

($ in Millions)

 FY 2019     FY 2020      Difference     % Difference

 $5,801.6     $6,236.0     $434.4                7.5%

The local impact in fiscal 2020 of discretionary enhancements to State aid, resulting in a gain for local governments of $269.7 million.

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Education Enhancements
Senate Bill 1030 (passed), The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, enhances State aid to local school systems by $251.6 million in fiscal 2020, consistent with recommendations of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education (Kirwan Commission). This includes $75.0 million in incentive grants for increased teacher salaries, $54.5 million directed to schools serving a student population of 80% or more who are from low-income families, $23.0 million for transitional supplemental instruction for struggling learners in kindergarten through grade 3, and $2.0 million to provide each local school system with $83,300 to fund the mental health services coordinator that must be appointed, pursuant to the Maryland Safe to Learn Act (Chapter 30) of 2018. Fiscal 2020 State aid increases under Senate Bill 1030 also include the equivalent of a $65.5 million enhancement to special education formula funding and $31.7 million resulting from an expansion of eligibility within the existing prekindergarten supplemental grant program.While provisions in the annual State operating budget, House Bill 100 (passed), and in the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA), House Bill 1407 (Ch. 16), restrict and direct sufficient amounts to cover the $251.6 million increase, funding of these fiscal 2020 enhancements is at the discretion of the Governor.

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Senate Bill 1030 also mandates a total of approximately $294 million in State aid for fiscal 2021, including funding for each of the programs mentioned above, and funding to extend declining enrollment grants that had been set to expire in fiscal 2020 into fiscal 2021. Further, it is assumed that the great majority of the $58.0 million in fiscal 2021 that must be appropriated to The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, as well as the great majority of between $370 million and $500 million made available for fiscal 2022, will be expended by the State in the form of aid to local school systems.