Hi Folks,
I am wondering how this is affecting your districts and local tax support:
Governor Larry Hogan held a press conference on Thursday, May 14, 2015 at which he announced he would not restore full funding for the Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI). In his remarks, he emphasized his budget’s substantial investment in public education, including the funding of GCEI at 50 percent. He stated, “At $6.1 billion we have invested more money in education than ever before in the history of our state. A $109 million increase over last year is not a cut, it’s an increase.” Regarding GCEI, he stated, “We added an additional $68 million in optional GCEI bonus funding; marking the first time in history that any administration has ever provided any of this discretionary supplemental funding in their first term.”
The Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) has advocated since the final days of the 2015 legislative session to urge the Governor to allocate the funding identified by the legislature in order to fully fund the $136.2 million GCEI program. MABE joined a coalition of supporters for GCEI funding, including: the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland (PSSAM), Maryland State Education Association (MSEA), Maryland PTA, Baltimore Teachers Union, Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals, Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and League of Women Voters.
As school budgets are being adopted for the 2015-2016 school year, the decision to withhold $68.1 million from 13 of Maryland’s 24 local school systems will have severe negative impacts on their abilities to retain teaching and staff positions and provide educational programs and services to students.
At the same time, the Governor will allow legislation to mandate full funding for GCEI in future state budgets to become law. As session ended, legislators feared that GCEI funding would not be restored by the Governor, and they rushed to enact legislation to make GCEI mandatory rather than discretionary beginning next year in FY 2017. This bill was drafted to take effect only if full funding for GCEI was not provided for in the FY 2016 operating budget. Now that this bill has passed, and full funding has not been provided, future funding for GCEI, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, appears to be on much stronger footing.
Link to Governor Hogan’s Press Release (May 14, 2015)
Link to MarylandReporter.com article (May 14, 2015)
Link to the bill to mandate full GCEI funding in future budgets (Senate Bill 183):
Please share what is happening and what you are doing about it in your districts.
Thanks!
Amber
------------------------------
Amber Keller
Business Development Manager
Higher Logic
ND
------------------------------