A consultant hired by the commission to review the current funding formula, known as the Thornton formula, determined that Maryland would need to spend about $2.9 billion more each year on K-12 education if all students were to have equal access to high-quality schooling. About $2 billion of that amount would need to come from the state, consultants said. About $7.9 billion of of the state’s roughly $43 billion annual operating budget is spent on K-12 schools.