ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers are scrambling to figure out their education budget this spring after learning that $418 million they’d been expecting for public schools from the federal government may not come through.
Senate President Bill Ferguson says the state had already spent approximately $300 million of the money when they learned that President Donald Trump’s education department may not reimburse them as previously planned. The money was supposed to come from a special pandemic-era fund.
Senate Democrats had already proposed cuts to the state’s education plan, known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, but now Republicans say it’s even more important to make significant trims to it.
“We don’t have an extra $300 million to spare, and it is foolish to double down on Blueprint spending when there are obvious accountability issues coupled with the concerns of our local school districts who are struggling to meet both the financial and the policy mandates,” said Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, a Republican representing Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester Counties.
Word of the $418 million gap came late last week in a letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, informing states that the fund’s liquidation period would be coming to an end that day. Extensions of the pandemic-era fund, she said in the letter, were “well past the period of performance” and were “not justified.”
The letter specified that there may be exceptions on an individual basis, and Office of the Attorney General Spokesperson Jennifer Donelan said in a statement they are “reviewing the matter and weighing our options.”
“Protecting the state’s schools and Maryland students is a top priority,” read the statement.
But on Monday, Carozza introduced an amendment to the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act, a bill aiming to reduce Blueprint funding, to pause implementation of the plan for the next two years.
“It’s never been more clear that we need a pause in the Blueprint when it comes to affordability and implementation,” Carozza said.
To balance the state’s budget and bridge the structural deficit, the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act would make numerous cuts to the state’s plan for hiking the investment in public education. While many Democrats still believe the Blueprint is necessary for the future of Maryland public schools, Republicans like Carozza are pushing for further cuts.
“There’s no question that we’ve increased spending dramatically in education for the last 25 years, and our SAT scores are worse, our reading scores are worse, math is worse,” said Sen. Justin Ready, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick Counties, on the Senate floor Tuesday. “While we’re not suggesting you want to cut education from where you are now, we are saying we should slow down how fast we’re going and not raise taxes on working Marylanders for a little while longer.”
Ready and numerous other Senate Republicans fought against tax increases in the budget bill, and many advocated instead to cut education even more.
But cuts have already been proposed. Senate amendments to the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act include pausing for four years the requirement for “collaborative time,” or the allocated period each day when teachers get for planning. The act would also maintain some reduction in funding for the Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports, a program providing mental health support in schools under the Blueprint.
Some Senate Democrats, however, are in staunch disagreement with Republicans regarding the bill. Sen. Jim Rosapepe, a Democrat representing Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties, was the first to speak about the budget on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.
“We’re not rolling over for the attacks on Maryland,” Rosapepe said. “We’re protecting health care, we’re protecting education, we’re protecting public safety, we’re protecting transportation … We’re making the tax system more fair.”
Like Rosapepe, many senators mentioned the necessity of education funding. State Democrats pushed to protect funding for low-income students and English Language learners.
Sen. Guy Guzzone, a Democrat representing Howard County, echoed Rosapepe on Tuesday.
“We could cut the Blueprint in half,” Guzzone said. “Why don’t we do that? We do it because we still have hope that we can accomplish those great goals that we established, because we decided that every child deserves a world-class education.”
These debates and federal cuts, however, extend beyond just education.
Attorneys general from 23 states, including Maryland, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Trump administration’s decision to cut $11 billion in “critical public funds.” The money was previously going toward pandemic initiatives at the Department of Health and Human Services.