What is it?
Maintenance of effort is a state law designed to protect the quality of our children’s education by discouraging local governments from shortchanging our schools and students.
Recently, weaknesses in how the law was written have been abused. This abuse will shortchange students, schools, and communities if the maintenance of effort law is not repaired.
Click here to see how students and schools in your county could be impacted by the broken MOE law.
MSEA, MABE, and PSSAM release blueprint for fixing MOE
MSEA, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, and the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland have released a blueprint for how to fix the state’s broken maintenance of effort law. The blueprint reflects a number of important principles for reform, including: creating predictability and a consistent funding floor without a permanent funding ceiling; accurate accounting of MOE; preserving school funding for education rather than retirement costs; accountability and a mandatory waiver process; increased flexibility for county governments; fairness; and assistance in finding and applying new revenue. Read the blueprint here.
Download the report
Learn more in the MSEA report, Maintenance of Effort: Repairing Maryland’s School Funding Safeguard. Download it here.
Urge legislators to fix maintenance of effort
Contact Governor O’Malley and your legislators today and ask them to repair this broken law. Students, educators, and parents are all counting on our elected officials to protect the critical investments that we’ve made in our schools.