The Department of Legislative Services and the State Department of Education confirm all 24 jurisdictions met the FY25 education funding mandate while it was almost $340M over forecast with about 30,000 fewer students enrolled.

In a recent report released by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, with data from the Maryland State Department of Education, state officials outlined the fiscal outlook and challenges for funding education in Maryland. A portion of that analysis focuses on local funding. State officials confirmed that all 24 jurisdictions have met or exceeded the statutory requirement even though funding statewide was mandated at $338M over the forecast with enrollment down by about 30,000 students.

From the report:

As of October 2024, the Maryland State Department of Education has certified that the school appropriations of all 23 counties and Baltimore City have met or exceeded the fiscal 2025 local effort requirement. In total, 15 counties (Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Worcester) exceeded their local effort requirement by over 2.0%.

According to the most recent DLS estimates – citing data from August 2021 – local education contributions were meant to be about $7.6 billion but came in a little over $7.9 billion for FY25. To date that brings the annual investment amount for education almost equal to what the expected costs were for FY28, three years early, while implementation continues to lag according to education experts at the state and local level.