Student Enrollment & Funding Implications
Originally Published: January 17, 2024
Staff May Be Moved Says Superintendent
A presentation at the November 29, 2023 meeting of the St. Mary’s County Board of Education explained, in detail, the student enrollment numbers and their funding impact under the new Blueprint for Education formula. It’s been widely covered that the Blueprint formula is negatively impacting more rural, wealthy counties, like St. Mary’s. The formula is based on wealth equalization, so Maryland calculates funding it provides to school systems based on what it believes the county government can afford to allocate. A county’s overall wealth is measured, in part, by the assessable property tax base and income tax generated. As Board of Education Chair Karin Bailey said, “the State is taking into account the fact that the County is not using its full capacity to tax” and cover more of the funding.
Enrollment numbers across the past ten years show a relatively stable population of students, ranging from a low of 16,698 to a high of 17,154. The three year enrollment average shows a decrease of 147 students, to 16,755 students. This is the number the state uses to provide funding. Much of the funding provided by the state must be allocated for certain uses including:
-Foundational funding, or the base amount per student;
-Compensatory Education, or funding for additional services to meet needs of economically disadvantaged children;
-English Language Learners, or funding for those students whose 1st language is not English
-Transition Supplemental Instruction, funding for academic support for struggling learners in K-3;
-College and Career, or funding for career and technical education;
-Special Education.
Special Education funding is “by far not sufficient” said Tammy McCourt, SMCPS Assistant Superintendent of Fiscal Services & Human Resources. In fact, “across the state, LEAs (Local Education Agency, or Board of Ed) are funding $1B in excess” of what the Blueprint formula provides. Superintendent Scott Smith called this a “stop-gap.” Transportation funding is also propped up with approximately $500M in local funding, above what the state statute calls for, said McCourt.
Because of the Blueprint formula, McCourt estimated a decrease of $612K in State funds. The County Commissioners are required to provide Maintenance of Effort (MOE), at least what they provided per student the previous year. The FY24 BOE budget included $127.3M in County funding split across 16,901 students equaling roughly $7500/student. The new enrollment number used by the State is 16,755. Multiplying that by the $7500/student amount means the FY25 MOE is $126.2M. That is a decrease of $1.1M.
To illustrate how Blueprint funding follows the student, funding per pupil was broken down by high school. Each block shows the number of students per school, as well as what percentage of those students receive Free And Reduced Meals (FARMs), are in Special Education, or are English Language Learners (ELL). Also shown are the amount of teachers in each school. Ultimately, the funding shows a difference of $2K in per pupil funding between Great Mills and Leonardtown High Schools. As Superintendent Smith succinctly put it “The Blueprint funding formula means we spend the least amount on the kids at our most populated school.”
Another requirement of the Blueprint is for starting teacher salaries at $60K per year beginning on July 1, 2026. A graph showing compensation across all three high schools shows a similar distribution of salaries between CHS and LHS, while GMHS has many more teachers under the $60K salary. Superintendent Smith said this was because GMHS has more teachers who are within their first 4 years, and a greater number of provisionally certified teachers who start at a lower salary. Teachers do not earn $60K a year, currently, unless they have been with SMCPS for more than 4 years. If they’re hired with a Masters degree, it’s only 2-3 years before they reach $60K.
Superintendent Smith said “the earlier they cross that $60K threshold, the better the compensation for the school.” The amount of Blueprint funding received from the state is affected by the salaries of teachers in the school. In order to receive the appropriate amount of funding from the State, there are two solutions to the situation according to Smith. First, raise all teachers to $60K per year in FY25 so SMCPS meets the deadline in 2026, which will require funding from the County Commissioners. As the second option, Smith said teachers could be moved to achieve a greater equalization of salaries across all schools which would limit any potential decrease in Blueprint funding. All told, about one fifth of teachers in St. Mary’s earn under $60K a year.
There is a Commissioner Public Forum on January 30th.
Thank you to the person who suggested I review this information!
