* Warning: This is an unofficial, introductory copy of the bill.
Introductory*
City of Baltimore
Council Bill R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: President Scott
A Resolution Entitled
A Council Resolution concerning
title
Informational Hearing - Baltimore’s Fiscal Readiness for Kirwan
For the purpose of requesting the Director of the Baltimore City Department of Finance to brief the City Council on the City’s fiscal readiness for any recommendations that the Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education may put forward to alter public school funding formulas for Baltimore City, and requesting the CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System to discuss the implications to City schools if the Kirwan Commission’s recommendations are not passed or, if passed, are inadequate to ensure that Baltimore City public schools receive the State funding they deserve.
body
Recitals
The Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education is an initiative to develop funding and policy reforms for Maryland schools. The Commission will make recommendations to the Maryland General Assembly for improving education in Maryland to prepare students “to meet the challenges of a changing global economy, to meet the State's workforce needs, to be prepared for postsecondary education and the workforce, and to be successful citizens in the 21st century.”
Comprising elected officials and other stakeholders, the Commission has been methodically researching and developing recommendations to provide a more equitable public school funding formula, which will determine how state and local resources are allocated for the next decade. However, this funding formula must account for the decades of chronic under-funding that Baltimore City Public Schools have suffered from.
Two years ago, a report to the Kirwan Commission documented that City schools need an additional $358 million annually to ensure an adequate education for Baltimore’s students, while an analysis by the State’s own Department of Legislative Services found that elimination of the inflation factor from the funding formula has resulted in under-funding the City schools by $290 million per year.
The official copy considered by the City Council is the first reader copy.
The upcoming legislative session in Annapolis will be critically important for the fate of Baltimore’s children and public education system. Fighting for Baltimore's public schools as the Kirwan Commission finalizes its recommendations must be our top priority for the upcoming legislative session, to ensure that Baltimore receives a fair, equitable outcome in these statewide recommendations.
While the new formula has not been finalized, we know it will require that the City invest more local dollars into our school system. The purpose of this resolution and the hearing it calls for is to ensure that we, as a City government, are adequately prepared for these dynamic changes to our public school financing requirements.
Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of Baltimore, That the City Council requests the Director of the Baltimore City Department of Finance to brief the City Council on the City’s fiscal readiness for any recommendations that the Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education may put forward to alter public school funding formulas for Baltimore City, and requests the CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System to discuss the implications to City schools if the Kirwan Commission’s recommendations are not passed or, if passed, are inadequate to ensure that Baltimore City public schools receive the State funding they deserve.
And be it further resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Director of the Department of Finance, the CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System, the Mayor, and the Mayor’s Legislative Liaison to the City Council