Maryland education leaders are responding after a Fox45 News investigation found taxpayers, in 2024, gave more than $150 million to schools to educate students who could not be found.
Now, change could be coming for how schools are funded.
Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Carey Wright and the Maryland State Board of Education President, Dr. Joshua Michael, both agree that a recent Project Baltimore investigation into the funding of students who cannot be found is troubling.
“That’s concerning when you can’t find a child,” said Wright.
“Certainly we want to learn more,” agreed Michael. “It is a notable trend, and I’m really glad you’re asking the questions.”
Fox45 News broke the news earlier this week. In 2024, Maryland taxpayers gave public schools statewide, an estimated $168 million to educate 8,448 students who could not be found – a number that has dramatically increased in recent years.
“The numbers are climbing, that is concerning to me, and we need a strategy for that,” stated Wright.
In Maryland, public school funding is based on the number of students enrolled on one day, September 30.
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But many students are unenrolled following that day. Documented reasons range from illness to employment. But thousands simply stop showing up and are categorized as “whereabouts unknown”.
Throughout 2024, according to the Maryland State Department of Education, there were 10,997 instances of students being unenrolled because their whereabouts were unknown. Of that number, 8,448 students were funded and schools received your tax dollars to educate them.
Instances of students being unenrolled because they could not be found have nearly doubled since 2019. Dr. Michael said that’s, in part, due to better bookkeeping.
“From an accountability perspective, for government, seeing some increase in this number is not necessarily a bad thing,” explains Michael. “It means that we are being much tighter from an integrity perspective.”
Has Maryland been keeping bad enrollment books, costing taxpayers? Project Baltimore, in 2021, first began reporting on the funding of students whose whereabouts were unknown. Our reporting caught the attention of Maryland’s Inspector General for Education, Rick Henry, who issued a report in 2022 which found millions of dollars were going to schools to fund students who should not have been funded.
Henry, in his report, offered recommendations to the state to help ensure more accurate enrollment counts. Wright and Michael told Fox45 News several of the recommendations were implemented. But that doesn’t fully explain why the number of students who cannot be found now has grown so much. Wright and Michael said they need to take a closer look.
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“Some kids just moved out of state and never bothered even notifying the schools,” said Wright. “There are all kinds of reasons that you can’t find somebody. But that should not hamper our process of ensuring to the best of our ability that we are tracking each and every child in our care.”
To provide more accurate student enrollment counts, bills have been introduced in Annapolis. In 2022, in response to Fox45’s reporting, Carroll County Delegate April Rose sponsored a bill to count student enrollment four times a year. It did not pass. Opponents, such as Anne Arundel County Public Schools said it’s against, “any revenue reductions.”
But Wright and Michael tell Project Baltimore they are willing to have the conversation.
“I need to look into it a little bit more. I think it logically makes sense,” remarked Wright.
“It’s certainly something we should be considering as we look at our practices each year as a part of that broader conversation about increasing transparency and accountability,” stated Michael.