State Funding Per Pupil
The state’s per-pupil funding for Baltimore City Public Schools increased 34.6% between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. That’s the tenth smallest increase among all 24 Maryland public school districts.
Per-pupil funding is based on a formula that utilizes the district’s total enrollment and the characteristics of its students. It’s too soon to know what the per-pupil funding level will be in the later years of the Blueprint.
Here’s the district’s initial Blueprint Implementation Plan. And here’s what the state Accountability and Implementation Board – which oversees the Blueprint – had to say about Baltimore City Public Schools’ Blueprint Implementation Plan:
Strengths:
- The district already has a Pre-K program for 4-year-olds and plans to expand the program to 3-year-olds in the 2024-24 school year.
- Baltimore City schools are implementing strategies to address teacher shortages and to create a diverse workforce, such as a teacher preparation program.
- The district is implementing new literacy and math plans and offering development programs for teachers on instructional strategies.
- The district is increasing coaching positions and has installed a literacy coach in every school beginning in the current school year.
Needs improvement:
- The district won’t have a centralized Pre-K enrollment portal in place until the 2024-25 school year.
- Baltimore City is struggling to bring private providers into its Pre-K program.
- The district needs to work with the Teacher Academy of Maryland to encourage students to explore an education career.
- By Sophia Slaughenhoupt and Divya Vakkalanka