Gov. Wes Moore moved to cut a Hogan-era school voucher program.
A voucher program championed by former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) that allows low-income students in the state to attend private schools using state money is quietly causing friction among Democrats in Annapolis.
On one side is Hogan’s successor, Gov. Wes Moore (D), who, backed by top leaders of the House of Delegates, moved to slash 20 percent of the $10 million in state-funded scholarships from his first budget, with the goal of phasing the program out, saying public dollars should go to public schools.
On the other side are some top Senate leaders who see the Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today, or BOOST, program as a vehicle for equity that affords choices to students living in poverty and attending failing school systems.
“I’ve seen a number of low-income students in my own district really excel and succeed in schools that are doing really great work for them, both academically and socially, and emotionally,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said Friday. “And so, my thoughts are that so long as we are fully funding our public schools and doing more than is expected for our public schools that we should help students in different sorts of circumstances.”
Some Black Democratic leaders find themselves at odds over the fate of the program, which will be decided as lawmakers hammer out a spending plan in the final weeks of the General Assembly’s 90-day session. The rift highlights ideological differences within Maryland’s supermajority in the legislature and lays bare challenges the governor, a political newcomer, faces within his own party as he advances his agenda.
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The program has for years drawn the ire of the Maryland teachers union, which views public support of any voucher program — even one whose beneficiaries number in the thousands — as a toe in the door toward privatization that imperils state support of public education. Proponents of BOOST, whose participants, according to the state, come from families with an average income of about $34,600, say the program is modest and comes as lawmakers are earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, an educational plan designed to improve public schools across the state.
House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said in a statement Friday that investing in public schools is the state’s constitutional responsibility and is a focus that “rises above funding new scholarships for private schools.”
Jones said that phasing out the program, rather than ending it immediately, will allow current students and their siblings to continue to participate in the scholarship program.
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More than 1 in 3 BOOST program students came from Baltimore County this school year, according to the Maryland Department of Education. Most of the others are from Baltimore City and Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, at a total cost of $10 million, according to the department.
Seven years ago, when he was a delegate from Baltimore City, Antonio Hayes (D) was one of two Black state lawmakers who encouraged House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D) to consider a state-financed scholarship program for students in low-performing schools.
“I’ve always seen it as a small investment in making sure that young people who might not otherwise have an opportunity for education on that level to be afforded an education,” said Hayes, who now serves in the state Senate. “And so I get some of the opposition to it, but to families and young people and the heart of West Baltimore in places like Sandtown, Park Heights and Penn North, it means a great deal to them.”
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In the program’s first year, the state awarded nearly 2,500 private-school scholarships, totaling $4.8 million, to students who were eligible for free and reduced-price meals.
Under BOOST, families apply and eligible students are given grants funded by the state to attend the school of their choice. After a decade of resistance and opposition from the teachers union, Maryland lawmakers opted to create the state-run, state-funded grant program. At the time, Hogan was promoting a tax credit to businesses and individuals who donate to subsidize private school tuition.
The program, which started in 2016, originally received $5 million in taxpayer money. The funding has since doubled, a jump that reflects an increased interest in vouchers and a growing trend in Republican-led states where families are using public funds to pay for private schools.
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Moore, who was strongly backed by the Maryland State Education Association, made improving public schools a central part of his campaign and his goal of closing the wealth gap and ending child poverty.
“The governor has made it clear that he’s going to do whatever it takes to fund Maryland’s schools, help its educators and give its students the resources they need to succeed,” said Carter Elliott IV, a Moore spokesman.
Republican delegates argued during the floor debate that they think there should be school choice for every Maryland student and that absent that, a voucher program for some of the state’s poorest children should be viewed as an appropriate compromise.
Del. Rachel Muñoz (R-Anne Arundel) used Moore’s own words from his best-selling book, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” about his life story, which included attending private school, and his inauguration speech to make her argument to restore the funding for the program.
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“We have been offered a false choice regarding the fact that a program that supports the poorest, most vulnerable children in Maryland and gives their families the opportunity to send them to a school that will change their life forever, takes something away from any other child in Maryland,” she said.
Del. Stephanie Smith (D-Baltimore City), who led the House floor debate against GOP efforts to restore funding, told her colleagues that at the start of the program the majority of the participants were already enrolled in private schools. According to state data, only about 600 of the program’s initial recipients were in public schools.
“On the whole, it’s not magical that because you participate in the BOOST experience that you’re getting a better product,” she said. “It’s concerning to me that the only way some institutions are saying that they can help the less fortunate receive a private education is through a government subsidy.”
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