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Sunday, March 08, 2020

Marylanders Can't Afford Kirwan's Myths

A Dose of Reality: Kirwan is Expensive, Ineffective, Misguided


Myth
Reality
Maryland’s schools are underfunded
Per pupil, Maryland spends 22% more than the national average (as of 2017, the latest year for which nationwide data are available)

Maryland’s teachers are underpaid
Per pupil, Maryland teachers are paid 28% more than the national average

Maryland’s poorest jurisdictions are inadequately funded and unfairly treated by current school funding formulas
Per pupil, Baltimore City spends 10% more than the state average and gets 79% of its budget from federal/state sources; Prince George’s County spends 5% more than average and gets 64% of its budget from federal/state sources.

The Kirwan reform plan (“Blueprint for Maryland’s Future”) would “cost $4 billion over ten years”
Kirwan’s estimated costs total $32 billion over ten years, rising to $4 billion per year by the plan’s tenth year.  And that’s optimistic, reflecting billions in hoped-for “savings” and “offsets” unlikely to eventuate.

The Kirwan Commission’s spending recommendations are new ideas.
In 2002, the Thornton Commission recommended hiking state aid to education by 60% to create a “Bridge to Excellence” in schools. Billions in spending later, Maryland students’ test scores have been virtually flat – yet Kirwan advocates say again that more money is the key to “excellence.”

The Kirwan recommendations can be implemented without significantly raising taxes.

The 2020 Maryland General Assembly is considering a 51% increase in the sales tax burden – a highly regressive tax – as well as possible income, estate, and digital tax hikes to come up with the money for Kirwan.

The Kirwan reforms would not impose heavy financial burdens on Maryland’s local jurisdictions.

About 1/3 of Kirwan’s eventual costs will fall on localities; the most cash-strapped (Baltimore CityPrince George's County,   others) simply can’t afford Kirwan without major increases in local tax rates.

The Kirwan recommendations are necessary to reduce education inequality and opportunity gaps in Maryland.
Kirwan ignores school choice, which is the key to empowering poorer parents and addressing education inequality.

The Kirwan reform would certainly improve student outcomes.
Thornton’s payoff was almost imperceptible; Kirwan would continue Maryland’s legacy of high spending and poor student outcomes by limiting parental choice and encouraging education bureaucracy to grow.

Kirwan would make Maryland’s education system more transparent and accountable.
There’s very little accountability in Kirwan: annual spending for “Governance and Accountability” is less than one-tenth of one percent of the plan’s budget (per Kirwan Exhibit 5.1).

Kirwan recommends expanding pre-K programs; universal pre-K is very popular, and it would improve student outcomes.
Studies show that pre-K does not improve student outcomes beyond kindergarten. Survey shows that over 70% of Marylanders do not want to expand pre-K at the expense of other spending priorities.

The Kirwan proposal is very popular.
Polls that show support for Kirwan often fail to disclose the taxpayers’ cost of the plan; when costs are mentioned, the majority of Marylanders turn thumbs down.

20 comments:

  1. Dear readers,

    I worked in public education during the Thornton Commission time period. Some of the recommendations made the were sound, and I did not agree with others. That said, I do not agree with the Kirwan report on any level, and fully support rejecting it on all levels. I personally find it irresponsible that the report was even funded, much less its conclusions and personally believe it would place an additional tax burden on an already overly taxed populace.

    Regards,

    Paladin

    ReplyDelete
  2. What 'works' for Baltimore or PG County won't work for the Eastern shore. We're more rural for starters. Their current solution is to tax services. Something that will near impossible to regulate and enforce. Yet that tax money will go mostly to places like Baltimore or PG. Not the shore we will be quietly funding hoodrat schools.

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  3. No accountability for the money is the problem.It will end up funding the pension shortfall and the children will see zero.

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  4. No matter what the tax increase it's always for the children

    Lottery in the mid 70s never have to worry about school building cost funds go to Baltimore

    Lets have gambling funds go to Balt

    This tax increase to kill business funds go to Balt
    Black hole that eats money Balt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly placed lottery funds in an education lock box

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  5. Soooo the first few "myth vs fact" boxes are misleading. Regional differences in cost of living alone explains much of that.

    As for the rest; you are the same clowns that believed tax cuts would be some kind of economic panacea. What we got are similar rates of growth as before but ballooning debt. You can sit this one out guys.

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  6. Hey! Teachers deserve a new SUV. Maryland and other states lost revenue with Trump’s tax reform. They are just trying to replace that revenue. This has nothing to do with education.

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  7. I'm a teacher and we don't have a money problem. We have leadership issues. There is plenty of money to properly teach our kids, but too many other agendas from the superintendent and the central office staff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 8:48
    Sometimes blogger has a mind of it's own. It displayed fine earlier. When I saw your comment I checked and it was not displaying correctly anymore. Thanks for the heads up.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The problem always was and always will be morals, not money. There is no discipline in school because there is none at home. They have morning breakfast now because they are not getting it at home.

    Stop enabling people by having the state government schools taking over the jobs that parents used to do. Lower taxes, and bring back a sense of shame, so mommy (or daddy, I suppose) can stay at home and take care of the damn kids. Teacher are supposed to teach, not be a surrogate mommy.

    But, once again, liberals destroy the family by telling us that morality and clean living was "uncool" (remember the 1960's and 1970's?) and then create programs to make up for what they destroyed. You cannot tell me it wasn't intentional.

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  10. I can't support any increase of any kind to WCBOE
    Until they are accountable by law to the County council and Exc
    With out a change in the law Wicomico County funds the BOE but the BOE has no accountability to the County Council or Exc Office.
    Must change
    Couple that with drug using teachers and Day isn't the only one
    Do you hear me BOE do something with the one at Northwestern

    ReplyDelete
  11. I raised 4 kids in various systems on the east coast of the US.
    They were fed breakfast, made lunches or given funds for lunches at
    school. all of this was done on an income far below todays standards.
    I did not rely on nonexistent gambling funds or donations other than
    the normal school taxes.
    Taxes now are only supporting the salaries and pipe dreams of our
    educators, not the teaching of the children.
    Lets get real folks, and get some accountability for exorbitant taxes
    we are paying.
    I am 85 and don't have income that will support these crazy increases.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 9:59 nailed it. Most of our taxes at the state level go to pay wages for state workers.
    Cut their payroll and start having ONE person do the work of ONE person instead of having EIGHT people to do the work of one person.
    Go to the MVA if you don't believe it. Or the local courthouse. Or any government office, especially any social services office.

    Keep cheering (as they rip you off daily and laugh at your stupidity for cheering their incompetence).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Teachers should feel ashamed of themselves for continuously supporting and allowing the MSEA teachers union who is the main powerhouse lobbying group pushing this through

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  14. 2:11 true...but can anyone tell me WHY the teachers aren't speaking out against the U.N. Agenda 21/30 Common Core? The problem is the Teachers aren't Educated but Indoctrinated into Common Core as well. Until this is changed, Public Schools will NEVER succeed on any level. Worldwide we are DOWN in Every area of classic education. duh...why do you suppose that is? Admit it folks; our Public School system is a miserable failure and has nearly destroyed out nation...Wonder why half of our young people are for Bernie Sanders; a Communist. For heavens sake Wake Up parents. Why are you so stupid???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teachers have absolutely no say. Most teachers oppose it but if you do not go along with the agenda, you are out. And of course the teachers union was all for it. Maybe teachers should get rid of their union. They pushed the legislation in Maryland for less discipline, common core, Kirwan, and so much more that has been detrimental to the public school system and has made it more difficult for teachers to do their jobs. Hell they can’t even keep young teachers in this profession because of it!! The MSEA teachers union has the MD politicians in their pocket due to the millions they give out to elect these idiots. In my opinion, teachers would be much better off without the union. Just look at the Maryland State Education Association’s Facebook page and you will see who is kicking up the $$$ to push this Kirwan crap through. Sure, they advocate for higher salaries for teachers because it will only be working middle class that will be responsible for paying for this. Yeah! Give the teachers a raise so they can fund Kirwan😂😂😂 Teachers can be so dumb but the only reason they are dumb to their union is because they never stay informed about what the union is actually doing not do they ever question the union’s agenda.

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  15. so already losing thousands of $ in federal tax deductions cause I live in this shithole state. Lets tax the citizens more! Few more years and I'm outta here! the freaks can have it!

    ReplyDelete
  16. The state cannot spend its way to better education.
    Does anyone remember the Thornton Commission? 2002
    Has student education improved?
    Remember the no child left behind program?
    What it really was no child will get ahead.
    How many more of these spend and wast programs can we afford?
    Define the problems first. One is a parent problem and no amount of spending will solve this.

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  17. If a person was drowning in a pool, politicians would throw tax dollars into the pool to soak up the water.

    ReplyDelete

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