Boost stands for “Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today”.
BOOST has made a monumental difference in the lives of those receiving nearly 20,0000 scholarships since 2016.
Polling has shown 74% approval for parent choice programs such as the BOOST Scholarship Program. There were a mere 16% opposed. Those who SUPPORT these programs included 70% of Democrats, who make up the majority of Maryland voters. Additionally, 74% of African-Americans showed support for such programs in recent polling.
Last year, the majority of student-recipients were minorities (55.5%), including 32% Black and 15% Latino.
BOOST scholarship-recipient families collectively had an average income of just over $36,000 for their entire household.
BOOST scholarship recipients live in 21 of the 24 Maryland counties and Baltimore City, but the vast majority are low-income students from Maryland’s four largest jurisdictions.
In Governor Moore’s first budget, he proposed cutting the BOOST Scholarship Program funding from $10 million to $8 million. However, more detrimentally, he called for the BOOST Program to be “phased out” of existence, by preventing new students from receiving scholarships.
PGCMC will work with our Muslim schools such as Al Huda and M&M in Prince George’s County and Ar-Rahma School in Baltimore County to preserve the Boost program and keep it available to the highest number of students from needy families.
