Building the Nation’s Best K-12 Public School System

Education Week declared Maryland the “Best Public School System in America” in January of 2009—a testament to Governor Martin O’Malley’s tireless efforts to improve Maryland’s public schools.

Boosting funding for our children’s future: For the third consecutive year, Maryland has set a record for the level of funding for K-12 public education. This includes fully funding the Geographic Cost of Education Index, which was done for the first time since the passage of the Thornton Bridge to Excellence Plan.

Investing in new schools and new classrooms: With a commitment of over $1 billion over the last three years to create new schools and new classrooms, Gov. O’Malley is ensuring that Maryland’s students are learning in state-of-the-art facilities. The financial commitment is more than double what the previous administration spent on school construction in a similar amount of time. New classrooms will save energy, emphasize natural lighting, and will feature cutting-edge Smartboards and technology labs.

Maryland students achieving at record levels: Maryland elementary and middle school students scored higher than ever on the MSA this past year. Several schools displayed increases of ten or more percentage points in both math and reading. On the high school level, College Board ranked Maryland first in the nation– for both having the highest scores and the highest percentage of test-takers in the country. And Maryland’s pre-k program was ranked in the top tier by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Governor O’Malley is extremely proud of the achievements of the Maryland public school system, and he will continue to fight for improved public education by:

Tracking development from pre-k through high school: Maryland must develop a single data system that can track our student’s progress from Pre-K through high school and beyond.

Implementing STEM and CTE in every school: Focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and critical workforce skills by bringing these programs to every school in the state, and expanding the programs to include financial and environmental literacy.

Recruiting and retaining the best teachers and principals: By fully funding pensions on the state level and fostering a healthy dialogue with school staff, Maryland is investing in retaining our schools most valuable resources.

Closing the college readiness gap: Maryland will work with higher education and workforce leaders to better prepare high school graduates for the necessary skills to enter and succeed in college.

Training students for the 21st century workplace: Maryland needs to better provide students with valuable skills in careers that are projected to have workforce shortages in the future – such as healthcare and biosciences.

Securing economic stimulus funding: By working together with our schools and counties we can make sure that every Maryland school has a chance to increase their chances at receiving grants made available by President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Easing the transition for children of military personnel: Gov. O’Malley and Lt. Governor Brown joined an innovative interstate partnership that allows students in military families to easily and efficiently transfer to other schools.

Global competition benchmarks: Maryland will now set its standards by comparing students against their peers in some of the other high-achieving public school systems around the world, including: Asia, Africa, Europe, India and others.