Why Does the State’s School Enrollment Count Matter?

How Maryland counts full time students enrolled in the state’s public schools has long factored into how the state funds public education, namely at a per pupil required funding minimum.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future — Maryland’s major education policy reform initiative — altered the school enrollment count and subsequent funding processes, namely how we determine the state/local split in public education funding. Here, we provide an overview of that process, how it impacts funding, and what is to come.

Current law on enrollment and per pupil funding 

Maryland conducts an annual enrollment or “head count” of all students enrolled at a full time equivalent (FTE) in the state’s public schools on the same day every year — Sept 30. That head count is important not only to inform statewide education policies and data, but also for counties as a major funder of our public schools.

The enrollment count plays a crucial role in school funding formulas in Maryland and is ultimately one factor in determining how much funding local school districts will get in the state’s budget via “per pupil” spending. This happens through the Foundation Program Formula — the main program in general education aid and accounts for about half of state-funded aid.

Also known as the “Foundation Formula,” it ensures a base level of funding per pupil via the basic formula:

per pupil foundation amount X local enrollment

The Foundation Formula is designed to have the state pay about 50 percent of public education program costs, with some adjustments depending on local wealth. Maryland uses two factors to determine each county’s “wealth” – a blended value of the county’s property assessments, and the total net taxable income for county residents. The intended result is pretty common sense funding values:

• Wealthier jurisdictions receive less in state school funding, less wealthy counties receive more.
• That said, there are guardrails in place in law to ensure that regardless of local wealth, no jurisdiction will receive less than 15 percent of state share for total educational program costs.

In a nutshell: up until The Blueprint, state aid to education was based on two factors: full time enrollment and local wealth — and that was true for a very long time...

Why Does the State's School Enrollment Count Matter? – Conduit Street (mdcounties.org)