An “advice of counsel” letter shared by the State Superintendent and the Director of the Accountability and Implementation Board spells out a legal interpretation of statutes governing funding to public and private pre-kindergarten providers.
The letter, in response to an inquiry from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education president Michelle Corkadel, offers a technical walk-through of laws governing pre-kindergarten providers, a central component of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future multi-year education initiative.
The issue at hand regards Section 5-229(d) of the Education Article, spelling out the envisioned program for pre-kindergarten services across both public and private providers. That section of law is available online through the Maryland General Assembly website.
From the letter:
For public providers, the statute requires the State to distribute the State share1 of prekindergarten funding to each “county board”2 and the “county board” is then required to distribute to each public provider the minimum school funding amount for prekindergarten as calculated under §5-234 of the Education Article. Md. Code Ann., Educ. §5-229(d)(1). For private providers, the statute requires the State to distribute the State share of prekindergarten funding to MSDE and the “county”3 to distribute the local share4 to MSDE. Md. Code Ann., Educ. §5-229(d)(2).
The letter details the clear State law regarding the required funding of school boards by counties, through the well-known “maintenance of effort” and more recent “local share” calculations, located in Section 5-235 of the Education article.
Later in the short letter, the authors advise that “Counties and county boards may work together to determine who will distribute the local share for private
prekindergarten providers to MSDE.”
