ROCKVILLE, MD (January 21, 2019) — The Maryland Public Policy Institute today urged Maryland legislators to resist raising taxes on Maryland citizens to pay for $3. 8 billion in new K-12 education spending proposal. Recommendations released Friday by Maryland’s Kirwan Commission on public education reform would dramatically increase government spending and bureaucracy while delivering questionable results for Maryland students and families.

“Maryland has a long history of throwing more money at school systems without actually improving schools,” said Christopher B. Summers, president and chief executive officer of the Institute. “The Kirwan Commission’s recommendations will merely empower the education bureaucracy, stifle creativity in the classroom, and potentially result in $3.8 billion in new taxes on Maryland residents and small businesses.”

Advocates for expanded school spending have already endorsed the following tax increases to pay for them:

•         Middle-class income tax increase, including residents below $80,000
•         Income tax increases on “the wealthy”
•         Tax increases on small businesses
•        Expansion of the sales tax to new goods and services

“These are the same outdated tax-and-spend proposals imposed under the O’Malley Administration and which the citizens of Maryland rejected decisively in the last two gubernatorial elections,” Summers continued. “Moreover, public surveys commissioned by the Institute show that Marylanders do not support new school spending if it is paid for by raising taxes.”

The Institute in 2018 released a comprehensive analysis of the Kirwan Commission’s findings. Our analysis found that Maryland already invests big in education, the Kirwan findings will grow the bureaucracy, and Pre-K expansions like the one endorsed by the commission produce very mixed results. Read the full report at mdpolicy.org.

About the Maryland Public Policy Institute: Founded in 2001, the Maryland Public Policy Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research and education organization that focuses on state policy issues. The Institute’s mission is to formulate and promote public policies at all levels of government based on principles of free enterprise, limited government, and civil society.  Learn more at mdpolicy.org.