In Maryland, teacher pension spending increases inequities between high and low poverty school districts. The problem is only getting worse as the state's pension debt costs continues to grow. In 2018, Maryland spent approximately twice as much per pupil on teacher pension debt than it received in federal Title I funding. The state’s pension spending blunts the effect of federal education spending designed to provide greater support to high-poverty school districts. If Maryland were to improve the financial health of its teacher pension system, students attending high-poverty districts would receive greater per pupil funding overall even if the state didn’t increase the equity of its own school funding system.
