School Boards adopt 2016 legislative positions and priorities.
At their most recent meeting, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education Legislative Committee adopted their 2016 Legislative Positions and Priorities, now available on the Association’s website.
Joy Schaefer, the Association’s Legislative Chair, provides a video highlight of the organization’s positions.
Key areas for overlap with MACo’s policy include:
- Support for robust State funding for school construction and renovation projects, and
- Support for sustained local government investments in education
On school construction, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) states,
MABE places a high priority on providing students high quality, healthy, and safe learning environments. Therefore, we greatly appreciate the State’s consistent investment in school construction and renovation projects. The FY 2017 school construction budget should provide at least $350 million to ensure that all Maryland schools are optimal learning environments to prepare our students to be college and career ready.
On local funding for education, MABE states,
Support for sustained local government investments in education – Funding from Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City plays a critical role in combining with state and federal funding to support teaching and learning. MABE strongly supports the Maintenance of Effort reforms enacted in 2012. MABE also supports sustaining adequate local capital funding essential to financing the construction and renovation of high quality school facilities in partnership with the State.
MACo’s 2016 priority in education advocates for strong and smart state funding for school construction, stating,
The State’s commitment to school construction funding needs to remain strong and smart – to best serve the modern needs of our schoolchildren, educators, and communities. State funding needs to recognize modern cost factors as we achieve new environmental and energy standards, satisfy heightened needs for technology, ensure student safety, fulfill community resource needs, and mesh with evolving teaching methods. County governments share responsibility for financing K-12 school construction with the State, whose funding depends on statutory formulas and regulations. MACo advocates reviewing and updating the State’s school funding formulas and guidelines to promote the smartest and most effective funding for modern schools, and urges State policymakers to retain the State’s strong commitment to this top funding priority.
