Today, Gov. Hogan announced his support to Fix the Fund—an effort led by state legislators and educators to ensure that money raised through casino gaming into the Education Trust Fund goes to increasing education funding, rather than displacing general funds already going to schools.
Sean Johnson, MSEA Director for Legislative Affairs, released the following statement:
“It took four legislative sessions, but today the governor finally admitted that our public schools have billions of dollars in unmet needs. The truth is, Gov. Hogan has used the Education Trust Fund shell game gimmick to shift $1.4 billion away from education during his time in office. There’s some real hypocrisy in proposing legislation to make you do something you’ve refused to do on your own.
“If the governor really thinks this promise should no longer be broken—as he’s done four times—then he should send down a supplemental budget this year for public school funding that equals the difference between the increase in education funding ($139 million) and the amount of revenue raised into the Education Trust Fund ($503 million). That comes out to $364 million.”