Maryland's school finance system experienced a restructuring in 2002 with the passage of SB 856, the "Bridge to Excellence Act." The "Bridge" Act set the funding amount for "base" students, brought state funding for kindergarten students on par with students in grades 1-12, and collapsed about 50 school funding…

Provided are guidelines and background information for use in applying for guaranteed loans through the Day Care Facilities Loan Guarantee Fund (the "Fund"), which is administered by the Maryland Department of Economic and Community Development. The purpose of the Fund is to guarantee loans made by lending institutions to finance the…

The law establishing Maryland's program of full State funding of public school construction costs became effective as of July 1, 1971. This report describes the beginnings of the program, traces its development, and attempts to appraise its effectiveness. In preparing the report, the author reviewed minutes of the various agencies and committees…

For the past 8 years, Research for Better Schools, Inc. (RBS) has prepared an analysis of state-wide trends in student achievement in the mid-Atlantic states (i.e., Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania). For this year, instead of quantitatively examining trends in student achievement scores, RBS decided to…

Farm to school (FTS) programs have been getting more and more attention these days. FTS programs aim to increase the supply of fresh, locally grown farm products served for meals and snacks in K-12 school environments, and tend to incorporate educational and experiential components designed to increase students' understanding of and engagement…