KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to provide policymakers and child advocates with reliable data, policy recommendations and tools to advance policies that benefit children. Goals include connecting children to quality education and health care, parents to economic opportunities, and communities to better ways of working on behalf of families. As the state's representative in the KIDS COUNT Network, the Maryland Center on Economic Policy assists in data collection, analysis, and distribution to elected officials and community leaders throughout the state.
Maryland’s budget provides the clearest reflection of our priorities as a state. Choices about where we invest our shared resources can help or hinder children’s education, economic security for families and communities, and public health and safety. MDCEP’s Budgeting for Opportunity series examines the ways our state’s current fiscal policy choices affect Black, Brown, Indigenous and other communities of color, and outlines detailed recommendations for removing barriers and creating a Maryland that truly offers opportunity for everyone.
All Marylanders – whether they’re from Ocean City or Baltimore City; from Cumberland or Columbia – want to live in communities that offer the things we all need so we can take care of our families, work, and contribute to our communities. In developing the Community-Powered Agenda, the Maryland Center on Economic Policy drew on our years of research and the policy expertise of our community partners and of working Marylanders from across the state who attended listening sessions in fall 2021. This document represents a roadmap to broadly shared prosperity and a future where our state’s economy is thriving because all Marylanders are thriving.
