This week, Maryland General Assembly House and Senate budget committees heard briefings on aid to education.

The Department of Legislative Services provided the briefing, which included an update on education funding from county governments to local school systems.

In FY 2016, county governments together provided almost half of their budgets to local school systems. According to MACo’s Budget and Tax Rate Survey, they provided $7.8 billion out of county budgets totaling $16 billion to Maryland’s school systems.

This year every county met state funding mandates for education appropriations and fourteen county governments exceeded their previous year’s funding for their local schools by an average of 1.4%, according to the Department of Legislative Services.

As described in the Analysis,

The State Board of Education has certified that the school appropriations of all counties have met the fiscal 2015 MOE requirement. In total, 14 counties exceeded the MOE by an average of 1.4% more than the required appropriation.

For more information, read the Operating Budget Analysis – Aid to Education.