(The Center Square) – Some school districts in Maryland receive funding for “ghost students” who don’t attend their schools, and the Maryland Public Policy Institute said the issue could be costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
 

Baltimore City Public Schools cost taxpayers $25 million in April 2021, the institute said in its request to the state’s Inspector General for Education to investigate enrollment discrepancies, a recurring problem in the city.
 

"The endemic enrollment fraud in Baltimore schools is a crime, not only against Maryland taxpayers who pay 70% of the city's education costs, but against the children these schools are meant to serve,” Sean Kennedy, a visiting fellow with the institute, told The Center Square.
 

An annual enrollment count on Sept. 30 determines per pupil funding for schools and their districts. Budgets can increase with special education, English learners and those with other needs, with more funding received for special purposes such as teaching aides, special staff and special programming.
 

Baltimore city's reported and actual enrollment/attendance are not in line, the institute said in its letter to the inspector general. Getting a handle on the scale of the problem is difficult. Anecdotal evidence, experience and school-level evidence suggests it might be a statewide problem with hundreds of millions or even billions in taxpayer funding being misspent due to incompetence and/or fraud.
 

“Fraudulently listing non-existent students is bad enough, but the school system has demonstrated cruel indifference toward those who are chronically truant or flat out missing, many of whom are vulnerable and potentially at risk of neglect, abuse and are being denied an education,” Kennedy said. “Worse, Baltimore's enrollment ‘irregularities’ are not new, but a tradition with evidence of at least 15 years of enrollment fraud in its schools.”
 

The Maryland Public Policy Institute called on the state to conduct independent and comprehensive audits of enrollment counts, attendance and student performance both in real-time and historically to identify the scale, scope and nature of the enrollment discrepancies. The letter to the inspector general said the investigation should determine how many non-existent students were counted and how many transferred and left the district. It should find out if those changes are reported and tracked, how long has this practice has been going on, who is responsible and why is it an endemic problem.
 

Though Baltimore City Public Schools spent $17,493 per pupil in the 2019-20 school year, it had the third worst test scores of all large school districts, The Nation’s Report Card reported.
 

Inspector General Richard Henry confirmed his office was aware of the problem and was investigating.
 

The problem in Baltimore is not new. In early 2016, at least 1,900 students were identified as “ghost students.” They were removed from enrollment figures, leading to a $25 million drop in funding for Baltimore City Public Schools.