ANNAPOLIS – Gov. Wes Moore’s proposal to freeze and cut funding to some programs under Maryland’s 10-year education reform plan is running into major objections from advocates.
These cuts could alter the existing law under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, but controversial measures like freezing funding for schools in high-poverty areas have left the fate of both the bill and the state’s budget unknown.
“This is a cut to everyone, but it’s a specific cut to students living in poverty, black and brown students, multilingual students,” said Riya Gupta, interim executive director of Strong Schools Maryland. “But it’s going to hurt every single student and teacher in Maryland.”
Overall the bill would slow the implementation of the Blueprint, an ambitious expenditure plan targeting schools set into motion in 2021 by the legislature without a solid payment method. The move targets the budget crisis by generally reducing state spending on public education. Moore’s bill would decrease state spending in public education by $52.6 million for fiscal year 2026, with $727 million in decreases by 2030, according to the fiscal and policy note on the measure.
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Major actions in the proposal include freezing funding increases that community schools, or schools that qualify for a concentration of poverty grant, had expected to see. It also pauses the implementation of an initiative giving teachers more collaborative planning time during the workday.
Nearly every seat in Annapolis’ joint-hearing room was filled at a hearing this week, flooded with students in blue shirts wearing their support for the Blueprint. High school students, parents, education advocates and eight Maryland school superintendents testified in opposition to some or all actions in the bill.
Gupta is concerned about the funding freezes for concentration of poverty grants. These grants are based on a formula calculating the amount of funding required per student. While community schools were set to see a significant increase in funding per student in the initial law, this bill proposes keeping funding at the same level it is currently.
“We know anytime we disinvest in schools, bad things happen, and that’s just a fact,” Gupta said.
Like Gupta, some lawmakers are worried about Moore’s proposal, specifically the cuts to community school funding.
“It seems that this is the time that we should be wrapping our arms around our children who are in poverty, who are disproportionately kids of color, and we should be lifting those kids up,” Committee Chair Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, a Democrat representing Howard County, said to a panel supporting the bill, including Moore’s chief of staff Fagan Harris.
“I don’t like to say pause, it’s a cut,” Atterbeary continued, referring to the proposal to freeze funding to community schools. “When you cut the funding you are leaving a gap where some kids are quite frankly going to be caught out there and left behind.”
Along with the funding freeze, the bill would also delay the phase-in of collaborative time, a blueprint initiative requiring that teachers spend 60% of their time with students and the other 40% of their time planning. While this initiative would save the state money, Harris said the delay is due to a teacher shortage.
To combat that shortage, the bill proposes establishing a national teacher recruitment campaign. While some lawmakers argued that implementing collaborative time could help boost teacher retention numbers, Harris argued schools do not currently have the bandwidth to implement the program.
“This proposal gives us the time to build the community of practice in our schools and across our districts that make our teaching profession stronger,” Harris said, in reference to pausing the collaborative time initiative. “It also avoids, frankly, stressing a system where we have a profound teacher shortage.”
While many Democrats are worried about cutting funding for impoverished students, Republicans are worried about the overall spending.
“The largest takeaway for everyone today should be that Governor Moore’s Administration and the Democratic leaders in Annapolis acknowledged what has been obvious to us for years – that taxes will have to be raised significantly to pay for the Blueprint,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, a Republican representing Allegany County, said Wednesday. “This certainly counters the ongoing fallacy that the Blueprint does not contribute to Maryland’s budget crisis.”