A record $2.2 billion could be poured into replacing, repairing or expanding Maryland’s aging school buildings, the General Assembly’s new legislative leaders announced Wednesday.
The plan would jolt progress on backlogged projects statewide, providing more than five years’ worth of funding in one shot.
Recently elected House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) joined outgoing Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and his designated successor, Sen. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), in Prince George’s County to announce the initiative, which requires General Assembly approval.
Miller called the proposal “a big deal” and repeated his pledge to spend the final years of his nearly five-decade legislative career working to dramatically enhance education funding.
The construction initiative focuses only on buildings and is separate from the broad overhaul of classroom instruction proposed by the Kirwan Commission. Both proposals will be considered in Annapolis in the coming year, and Miller promised that the legislative leaders around him were prepared to “take a tough vote” to enact both.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Erin Cox over at the Washington Post