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MEC 2022 General Assembly Session Brief
MEC, its twenty-five plus member organizations and individuals again had a successful 2022 session. Every bill or legislative initiative we advocated for did not pass, but several did. Others are in the FY 2023 budget. Thanks in part to a state budget surplus and federal stimulus funds not previously allocated, State Aid to Education had a net increase of $456 million to $7.209 billion. This would have been higher, but the state loss an estimated 25,000 students during the passed couple of years due to Covid-19 related issues.
Among our other accomplishments included protecting Blueprint funding including $125 million cut by the Governor for Baltimore City $99 million & Prince George’s $27 million, add $58 million in Transition Grant to supplement enrollment losses statewide; $90 million increase for Pre-K and a $73 million increase in funds for Concentrated Poverty programs. Funds for school construction nearly tripled from an estimated $425 million in FY 2022 to about $1.2 billion for 2023 statewide.
Several major policy issues also passed including funding, staffing, and funding for Child Care Programs, staff and resources and Juvenile Services staff and resources. A new law passed banning a wide range of discrimination in Pre-K to 12th grade public and non-public schools, improved policies, and funding for Support Professionals; new license policies for Audiologist, Speech Pathologist and Music Therapist; Student Privacy Policy Updates; Child Abuse and Neglect investigation and the eventual elimination of Physical Restraint & Seclusion.
Maryland Education Coalition comments and questions to the AIB regarding their draft plans
November 2022 - CLICK HERE
MEC along with many public education stakeholders and advocates statewide WON!
We were able to convince the Governor backed by a memo from the Maryland Attorney General's office to add
the $140 million he originally did not put in the proposed FY 2023 budget. These additional funds can be found in the 2022 - Analysis of Supplemental Budget No. 1 - Fiscal Year 2023, (page 4)The General Assembly had until April 4, 2022. So MEC and friends thank all who contacted our state officials. (See below for background)
During January 2022, MEC led by MEC member Strong Schools Maryland urged you to join us by saying ... #NOTTHISAGAIN
Maryland’s public school students need you to contact members of the Appropriations and the Budget & Taxation Committees and tell them to reject the governor’s budget, which ignores the Blueprint’s equity provisions and underfunds Maryland’s public schools by $140 million next school year! CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION TODAY!
WHY? During January 2022, Governor Hogan presented his state budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), which begins on July 1, 2022.
Even though the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is law, the governor submitted a budget that witholding funding in Baltimore City ($99 million) and Prince George’s county ($26.5 million) – funding specifically allocated to address resource equity. Nearly $15 million in other Blueprint programs (*ahem* programs that will support teachers), were also cut out of the proposed budget.
And that’s not all – the governor made these cuts to the budget when we have the highest surplus in state history. We’re talking multiple billions of dollars, here.
The final straw for us was that the governor chose to cut this funding for Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, school districts that educate roughly half of the Black and Brown students in the state and that have historically been underfunded by state leaders ( click to tweet this )
History keeps repeating itself, and we need your help to say “enough is enough.” Tell state legislators on the Appropriations and Budget & Taxation Committees to fight for a supplemental budget from the governor that makes the Blueprint and our school systems whole–so they can become world-class
MEC letter to Dr. Salmon and the MSDE Recovery Plan leadership team - July 22, 2020
- Equity Principles to Anchor Return/Recovery Plan (Excerpt)
Click Here to review the entire letter
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