On January 5, 2006, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. announced an initiative to spend an additional $462 million on state education programs, and an additional $281 million on public school building rehabilitation and construction.[1] This new education spending proposal comes just a few years after the record amount of Thornton Commission money was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2002, which was supposed to provide more than a billion additional dollars to Maryland’s 24 public school districts.[2]
K-12 education spending continues to be an emotional subject in Maryland, especially because it usually is the largest single budget item in county budgets, and one of the top spending items in the state budget.
In the debate over ever-increasing education spending, a legitimate question emerges: has education spending been shortchanged over the past few decades? Is it being shortchanged now? The best way to evaluate this question is to look at the history of education spending in Maryland, and on average in the United States.
[1] Liz F. Kay, “Ehrlich Announces Additional Education Dollars: Spending Increases to Fund Various Initiatives, Public School Construction,” Baltimore Sun, January 5, 2006.
[2] This law is known as the “Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act.”
