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MARYLAND ISSUES

By allowing schools to go underfunded, Hogan has let school quality slip and the achievement gap widen.

Larry Hogan's education agenda has focused on limiting funding for public schools to create money for his new private school voucher program. In his first budget, he tried to cut $144 million from schools, and successfully withheld $68 million resulting in larger class sizes, slashed programs, and cut educator positions in 13 Maryland counties. In total, he has withheld nearly $100 million from schools that are now underfunded by billions of dollars. After meeting with Donald Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Hogan created a private school voucher program, diverting $20 million from public schools to subsidize private school tuition. As public schools have gone underfunded, their quality has slipped. Recently ranked best in the nation five years in a row, Maryland schools have now fallen to 6th in Education Week's national rankings. Between 2015 and 2017, Maryland’s national ranking has dropped 6 spots for 8th grade reading achievement and 11 spots for 8th grade math on the National Assessment for Education Progress. This drop in educational quality has resulted in a wider achievement gap. According to the Maryland State Department of Education, the achievement gap has widened between white and non-white students since 2015.

Hogan Supports DeVos Policies: Charter Schools and Program Vouchers