For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 8, 2016
Montgomery Councilmember Craig Rice
named to commission that will review
Maryland State education funding
County Council’s Education Committee Chair will serve
on panel making first major review of
State education funding in more than 10 years
ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. 7, 2016—Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice, who chairs the Council’s Education Committee and chairs the education subcommittee of the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), has been named to the 2016 State Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education. The commission, which was created by the Maryland General Assembly, will lead the first major review of education funding in the state since the Thornton Commission’s review more than a decade ago.
MACo is entitled to two representatives on the commission under the legislation. In addition to Councilmember Rice, Allegany County Commissioner Bill Valentine, MACo’s education subcommittee vice chair, will represent MACo.
The first meeting of the commission will be held on Thursday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in the Appropriations Committee Room (Room 120) of the State House Office Building at 6 Bladen Street in Annapolis. The commission is scheduled to issue reports in December 2016 and December 2017.
Education funding represents a large percentage of county budgets in Maryland. In total, counties provided $7.8 billion of operating funding to school boards in Fiscal Year 2016, representing 49 percent of all counties’ general fund budgets.
In 2002, an American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland lawsuit brought on behalf of under-served schoolchildren was a catalyst for a statewide review of education funding adequacy. That review was undertaken by a legislatively-appointed commission, commonly called the “Thornton Commission” after its chair, Alvin Thornton.
Many of the Thornton Commission’s recommendations were incorporated into the “Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act of 2002,” a plan intended to increase statewide education funding by $1.1 billion over five years.
One element of the Bridge to Excellence Act was a second review of the State’s education funding. The Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education is that second review.
“In every county in Maryland, funding for education drives creation of the annual operating budget,” said Councilmember Rice. “I am honored to be able to serve on a commission that will not only examine how much funding is needed to make Maryland one of the nation’s top states in education, but also how that funding can most effectively be directed for maximum benefit of our students.”
The commission must make recommendations in a number of areas including: