Hogan, top legislators discuss cost of Kirwan

ANNAPOLIS — “Kirwan” has been one of the words of the week as Gov. Larry Hogan and the new presiding officers of the Maryland General Assembly attempt to set the tone for this year’s legislative session, which began Wednesday.

Hours before the session officially began, Hogan, new House Speaker Adrienne Jones and new Senate President Bill Ferguson spoke about the Kirwan plan for improving public education in Maryland during the traditional “Annapolis Summit,” a 90-minute radio special sponsored by the Baltimore-based Daily Record.

The Daily Record and Herald-Mail Media are both owned by Gannett.

Last year, the Legislature adopted in April a “blueprint” for reforming education in Maryland that was recommended by the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, also known as the Kirwan Commission for its chairman, William “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland.

But the “blueprint” comes with a multibillion-dollar price tag, and Hogan said he’s still waiting to hear ideas for paying for it.

“There is no formula for where the money comes from,” he said during the broadcast. “I’m anxious to try to see if somebody can figure out that, but nobody’s proposed a single idea about where the money comes from.

“I’m not arguing with the fact that we need to improve; many of the ideas are good, that we need to invest in education. We’re just running around in circles here. If we’re going to invest $33 billion more, and you’re not going to raise taxes, where is the $33 billion going to come from? What are you going to cut?”

During his own appearance on the broadcast, Ferguson said, “I think it’s really, really important that we start at the right point and the right point of the conversation, which is not necessarily what is the ongoing cost; we will have to get to that. I think what the cost of doing nothing is, is something that the state of Maryland cannot bear.”

Ferguson noted that only 25% of Maryland’s high school graduates are obtaining college degrees or industry-recognized credentials within 10 years of graduation. At the same time, he said, two-thirds of the new jobs created in the state require such training “to even apply.

“One out of four kids are achieving it; two out of three jobs require it. You fast-forward that 10 years and we don’t have an education problem; we have an economic crisis.”

He added funding has been set for the first three years of the 10-year Kirwan recommendations, but there’s a funding gap for the fourth.

“I believe that at this session, what we really have to do is focus on those first four years,” he said. “The first four years of this plan that lead to a 10-year implementation are absolutely critical, because it’s the intentional reforms and system changes that have to be set up the right way.

“When you build a house, you don’t start with picking the paint color. You build a foundation, right? And that’s what these first four years are. I think for the first four years, we know where the first $500 million is coming from. We’ve already identified it.”