Governor Hogan believes that every child should have access to a world-class education regardless of the neighborhood they happen to grow up in. That is why he provided record funding for education in each of his four budgets. In total, the governor committed over $32 billion for K-12 education over the past five years , more than any other governor in Maryland history.
In 2007, the O’Malley administration promised voters that revenues from casinos would be used to grow education funding. After years of inaction by the previous administration, Governor Hogan lead the fight to pass an education lockbox which would finally deliver on that promise, increasing education funding by $4.4 billion over the next ten years.
In addition to record K-12 education funding, Governor Hogan is committed to advocating for innovative solutions to improve education outcomes with initiatives such as P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) Schools. P-TECH schools are a nationally recognized approach that blends high school, college, and on-the-job work experience into one. Maryland now has eight P-TECH school programs.
The governor is also committed to expanding educational opportunities to historically underserved students throughout Maryland. In bipartisan partnership with the General Assembly, the BOOST scholarship program now provides tuition assistance to students from low-income families. The governor’s ACCESS initiative expands access to K-12 computer science education, especially among girls and minorities who are traditionally underrepresented in high-paying technology jobs. And because research proves that the years between birth and kindergarten are a critical time for learning and child development, especially for children facing risks to school success, Governor Hogan has made the most significant investment in high-quality child care in more than a decade.
Governor Hogan also understands that you cannot have a top-rated state education system without real accountability at the county and local level. As widely reported in the media, corruption, mismanagement, and incompetence are too prevalent in far too many of our local school systems. That is why Governor Hogan signed an executive order creating the Office of Education Accountability and introduced legislation to create an Office of the State Education Investigator General to investigate complaints of unethical, unprofessional, or illegal conduct in our public schools. Governor Hogan will not allow our children to be cheated out of the quality education they deserve. Governor Hogan will not allow our children to be cheated out of the quality education they deserve.
While the General Assembly is blocking the governor’s efforts to fix persistently failing schools, the governor is fighting for his Protect Our Students Act to put more emphasis on student achievement, ensuring that Maryland maintains its reputation as a national leader in public education.
Governor Hogan also committed $9 billion to higher education, limiting tuition growth to just two percent, so more Marylanders can afford to attend college without assuming a lifetime of debt. He also launched the Maryland SmartBuy program, which enables homeowners to purchase their home and pay off their student loans at the same time, the first program of its kind in the nation.