I am hopeful that out of the next legislature, which is just a little more than two months away, will come some significant progress to increase educational funding for our schools. Then Maryland School Superintendent Dr. Nancy Grasmick responded with her own view that whatever extra money is available should be spread around the 24 school systems because each system has wants and needs. I support Dr. Grasmick's position. We can't every year throw money at one school system as we did last year for Baltimore City. Our funding should be designed to create equal opportunity for every student in every public school in the state to receive a good, basic education.
Rich counties can provide the frills on their own.
The system of providing state aid to local school systems should be a system based on the needs of the school systems and the financial wherewithal of each county to fund them. It should not be a system based on which county has the most voters. That's the way it used to be. And that was the system which got the state into a predicament of having disproportionate educational opportunities from county to county. We've gone beyond that.