Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday vetoed a sweeping plan to overhaul public schools that proponents said would fix generations of inequity, saying the coronavirus pandemic made the costly education proposal “irresponsible” to enact.
“The economic fallout from this pandemic simply makes it impossible to fund any new programs, impose any new tax hikes, nor adopt any legislation having any significant fiscal impact, regardless of the merits of the legislation,” Hogan (R) wrote in a veto message as he struck down 22 bills that carried a price tag. Among them was a $580 million disbursement to the state’s historically black colleges and universities, key to settling a long-running lawsuit over inequitable funding.
Hogan warned weeks ago that high unemployment and widespread economic pain made it unlikely he would approve any legislation that forced the state to spend more money. Maryland has already spent as much as $2 billion on the pandemic and seen losses so large that the state could lose 15 percent of its annual revenue by the end of June.
The $4 billion annual price tag for the education plan, known as Kirwan, made it a prime target of his veto pen.