The Maryland Eastern Shore saw a number of projects get funded this year in the state budget, including a new special education school. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this look.
Kevin Diaz:
There are 70 privately run special education schools in Maryland, but only one is on the Eastern Shore. Seeing a growing need. A consortium of educators and business leaders spent several years advocating for another facility to serve local families. This month, they won a $5 million state grant for the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a Baltimore based nonprofit, which will open up a new school in Wicomico County to serve the entire lower shore. Here's Dr. Bradley Schlaggar, president and CEO of the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
Dr. Bradley Schlaggar:
We have now five schools throughout the state of Maryland serving publicly funded students. However, the Eastern Shore, a large expanse of the state, has but one such school that serves students that need services beyond what the local school system is able to provide. So our intent is really to work out our mission by bringing services to where people live, including special education services.
Kevin Diaz:
The effort was a long time coming, and with no shortage of backers. State Senator Mary Beth Carozza, a Republican whose district lies in Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester Counties, was the lead sponsor of the funding request.
Sen. Mary Beth Carozza:
This is something that the Healthy Minds for Shore, a local organization organized by the Greater Salisbury Committee with the Wicomico Public Schools and Title Health and other providers worked very hard over the past three years to identify projects that would increase the behavioral health services for our shore residents.
Kevin Diaz:
The need on the Eastern shore, she said, was evident.
Carozza:
When you look at the behavioral health schools across the state of Maryland, there are 70 of them. There's only one on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Caroline County. So we were able to make the case that we needed one on the lower shore that would serve the entire region.
Kevin Diaz:
The special education funding for the lower shore came even as the State's Developmental Disabilities Administration faced budget cuts as part of a $70 billion budget that closes a projected 1.5 billion deficit without raising taxes.
Carozza:
So there's a couple bigger issues there, but I can say that this issue with bringing the Kennedy Krieger Behavioral Health School does fit certain needs. There's again, a population of students that their needs simply cannot be met in the public school system.
Kevin Diaz:
All told, the state's new slate of capital expenditures includes millions for projects across the Eastern Shore, from an expanded veteran service center in Worcester County and an oyster processing facility in Dorchester County to a workforce training center at Washington College in Kent County. That's in addition to some 74 million in community revitalization projects across the state. Of that nearly 7 million is aimed at infrastructure initiatives for Eastern Shore communities, including a new performing arts center in downtown Salisbury. Here's former Salisbury Mayor Jake Day, now Secretary of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.
Jake Day:
Those are the types of investments we want to make to grow those places that produce an economic multiplier effect. There’s $20 of economic impact for every dollar of state money invested into a project. That includes permanent jobs, that includes construction activities, sales and income taxes, and local property taxes as well.
Kevin Diaz:
In a tough budget year, lawmakers in Annapolis were forced to juggle priorities. Every project had its backers or detractors. But for politicians in both parties, funding special education on the shore turned out to be an easy choice.
For Delmarva Public Media. This is Kevin Diaz.
