February 7th, 2012 by WCBC Radio
In order to avoid western Maryland schools being hit with significant reductions in state aid on an annual basis- State Senator George Edwards said its necessary to examine, and make changes to the so-called “wealth index formula”. The local school system expects to lose $3.5 million this year in state aid due to the wealth index formula, which takes into account real property values, personal property values and taxable income from tax returns. That number is divided by the number of students to compute a wealth per-pupil statistic, which is measured against other Maryland school districts in an attempt to equalize wealth among districts. Allegany County ranks second in Maryland for state aid per pupil, behind only Baltimore City. This past year Allegany County’s wealth rose 5.8 percent while the state actually decreased in wealth- so even though the county is the poorest district in the state in terms of per-pupil wealth, the disparity is not as great. Edwards said band-aid solutions can only help so much. He says it’s clear that the current formula needs revised…
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