I applaud The Blueprint education plan given its vision and mission, its ideology, intentions and objectives to achieve advancements in public education. Albeit, any plan, government or private industry, must be affordable and sustainable within a given revenue stream and budget; if not, it is a bad plan, and should be the subject of an obligated review and amendment.

We all know The Blueprint education plan, now, is a fiscal disaster, creating financial chaos and discontent for not only Kent County, but every County in the State, and the State itself. Everybody gets it, including Gov. Moore, County Commissioners, County Executives, and every school system Superintendent of all 24 jurisdictions in Maryland. Members of the General Assembly, ahem, not so much.

As a matter of record, Moody’s revised its outlook for Maryland to negative, citing “expected structural imbalances and planned depletion of General Fund surplus through fiscal 2025, which threatens to undermine performance relative to peers.” The cash and structural budget outlook deteriorates through 2029 because the costs of education outpaces the availability of funds for The Blueprint.

The purpose with this comment to the above article is to share with readers what future fiscal years forecast funding projections for KCPS looks like, stressing the increased budget challenges not only year-to-year, but also on a with-vs-without The Blueprint plan comparison. I have presented this info before in various letters-to-the-editor and op-eds, but am using a different format this time to hopefully make the financial challenges more clear.

We know the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) has provided three Blueprint funding projections for the 12 years of implementation: the original January 2022 funding projections WITHOUT The Blueprint [it doesn’t exist, no Kirwan Commission, Kirwan Recommendations, nor Legislation creating The Blueprint]; the original January 2022 funding projections WITH The Blueprint; and new January 2025 revised funding projections WITH The Blueprint, showing a 28% increase.

This first analysis is a look at the DLS’s ever increasing funding projections to implement The Blueprint, year-vs-year, based on the January 2025 newly revised funding projections that start at FY26. These are funding projections, not actuals. For FY26, KCPS requested funding exceeded the DLS projection; $21,200,000 projection-vs-$21,499,813 actual, and that is with KCPS using $1,499,660 of a budget surplus fund balance from previous year.

DLS PROJECTED KCPS
FUNDING WITH THE INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS
BLUEPRINT (2025) FISCAL YEAR TO NEXT FISCAL YEAR
FY26 $21,200,000.00
FY27 $23,700,000.00 + $2,500,000.00 more than FY26
FY28 $25,100,000.00 + $1,400,000.00 more than FY27
FY29 $26,800,000.00 + $1,700,000.00 more than FY28
FY30 $29,300,000.00 + $2,500,000.00 more than FY29
FY31 $30,400,000.00 + $1,100,000.00 more than FY30
FY32 $31,400,000.00 + $1,000,000.00 more than FY31
FY33 $32,800,000.00 + $1,400,000.00 more than FY32
FY34 $32,800,000.00 + No increase

This second analysis is a look at a comparison of the DLS funding projections WITH The Blueprint – versus – the DLS funding projections WITHOUT The Blueprint [Kirwan/Blueprint does not exist, no Kirwan Commission, Kirwan Recommendations, no Legislation creating The Blueprint.

DLS PROJECTED DLS PROJECTED
KCPS FUNDING WITH KCPS FUNDING WITHOUT
THE BLUEPRINT[2025] THE BLUEPRINT Difference

FY23 $19,500,000.00 vs $19,500,000.00
FY24 $20,200,000.00 vs $19,600,000.00 + $600,000.00
FY25 $20,400,000.00 vs $19,700,000.00 + $700,000.00
FY26 $21,200,000.00 vs $19,700,000.00 + $1,500,000.00
FY27 $23,700,000.00 vs $20,200,000.00 + $3,500,000.00
FY28 $25,100,000.00 vs $20,800,000.00 + $4,300,000.00
FY29 $26,800,000.00 vs $21,600,000.00 + $5,200,000.00
FY30 $29,300,000.00 vs $22,400,000.00 + $6,900,000.00
FY31 $30,400,000.00 vs $22,900,000.00 + $7,500,000.00
FY32 $31,400,000.00 vs $23,500,000.00 + $7,900,000.00
FY33 $32,800,000.00 vs $23,800,000.00 + $9,000,000.00
FY34 $32,800,000.00 vs $24,200,000.00 + $8,600,000.00
TOTAL $55,700,000.00

The conversion rate for County Real Estate Tax Revenue-to-County Real Estate Tax Rate is approx. $360,000 of Real Estate Tax Revenue for every $0.01 of County Real Estate Tax Rate [per $100 of assessment]. You do the math as to what county taxpayers could see as a probable increase in County Real Estate Tax Rates on a by-year basis just to fund the implementation of The Blueprint, no other County expenses.

Being redundant, any business plan, government or private industry, must be affordable and sustainable within a given revenue stream and budget; if not, it is a bad plan, and should be the subject of an obligated review and amendment.