“Calculation of the Cost of an Adequate Education in Maryland in 1999-2000 Using Two Different Analytic Approaches.”

September 2001

Professional Judgment:

$12,060 per pupil in elementary school

$9,004 per pupil in middle school

$9,599 per pupil in high school

After removing services for at-risk, special education, and LEP students, the base spending average for all grades dropped to $6,612, with additional weights of 1.17 for special education, 1.386 for at-risk, and 1 for LEP students.

Total Statewide Cost: $8.796 billion

Successful Schools:

$6,161 per pupil in elementary school

$5,655 per pupil in middle school

$$5,910 per pupil in high school

After removing services for at-risk, special education, and LEP students, the base spending average for all grades dropped to $5,969. No weights were established for low-income, special education, or LEP students because of their low representation within the successful schools.

Total Statewide Cost (using weights determined by Professional Judgment): $7.939 billion

The authors of the study advocate using the Successful Schools funding level as a floor for foundation funding, and the Professional Judgment model as a ceiling. An appropriate level of funding may result from adding specific budget items to the Successful Schools amount, or from removing specific programs recommended by the Professional Judgment panels. Though the figures put forth by the study are not exact, using them to fuel debate over foundation funding levels would allow legislators to use sound research, rather than the availability of funds, to set spending levels.

The authors warn against mandating specific uses for the foundation funding, as doing so would limit the state's ability to demand accountability from school districts, and would ignore the inevitable demographic and geographic challenges faced by individual schools.

The study is part of a body of work Augenblick & Myer performed for the Thornton Commission.

The study was performed at the same time as one commissioned by the Maryland Education Council. Both studies use the same basic requirements and demographics to design prototype schools.

The weights arrived at within the study are unusually high. The authors recommend other ways of determining these weights, such as using several different special education weights, lowering the weight for at-risk students, and using a “concentration” weight when schools have high levels of students in poverty. They also recommend adjusting district allocations according to a geographic cost index.

A survey of the successful schools revealed that they all supplemented their funding levels by getting contributions from the students and other sources, as well as contributions of time from parents, etc.

The Thornton Commission made an extensive series of recommendations to the state legislature at the conclusion of their research. The Commission recommended an increase in the state's per-pupil funding, though they did not specifically recommend the levels determined by either of Augenblick & Myer's methodologies. They also incorporated Augenblick & Myer's recommendations on pupil weighting (though with some adjustments) and on providing block grants instead of targeted funding. After significant advocacy efforts, the Maryland legislature adopted the recommendations of the Thornton Commission. For more on this process, see our policy brief, “Maryland Enacts Modern, Standards-Based Education Finance System: Reforms Based on "Adequacy" Cost Study.”

Professional Judgment:

Seven teams of eight people each used statewide averages, that is, a district of 30,000 pupils, 31 percent of whom were low income, 13.5 percent of whom were special education, and 2 percent of whom were ELL to design elementary, middle, and high schools with between 500 and 1000 students and assign staff, technology, supplementary programs, and supplies, as well as district wide services. A final panel reviewed and adjusted their recommendations, and the researchers then determined appropriate costs for each recommendation, ultimately arriving at the total spending levels.

Successful Schools:

The Maryland State Department of Education identified 59 schools of all levels that met a set of standards. For this study, Augenblick & Myers rejected the more common Successful School Districts method because Maryland , with only 24 school districts, could not yield a sufficient sample of successful districts. Therefore, they collected data from individual schools using tailored surveys. The identified schools enrolled 46,000 students that tended to have a lower than average number of students in special education and very few students from low-income families. Funding levels at each school were adjusted according to a geographic cost index, and averaged to determine the recommended spending levels.

The Professional Judgment study excluded transportation, food services, and facilities. Experts speculated that the number of personnel recommended might not be accommodated by the current stock of facilities in the state. The costs of programs for special education, low income, and LEP students were considered separately in order to arrive at per-pupil weights.

The Successful Schools methodology excluded costs of facilities, food, transportation, special education, and federal programs, as well as “LEP programs, and programs and services for at-risk pupils.”

The Thornton Commission held a number of hearings to gather public input on the state's education financing. However, these hearings were not held directly in conjunction with the cost study.

Maryland Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Excellence (Thornton Commission)

Augenblick & Myers, Inc.