After months of uncertainty, Maryland legislators left the state’s landmark education law largely intact, mostly gutting Gov. Wes Moore’s bill to cut school spending by $1.6 billion over four years.

The outcome put some education advocates at ease, reassuring them that school system budgets — already stretched by inflation — won’t take as big a hit as they’d feared. Funding for students living in poverty, special education students and students learning English won’t be significantly reduced, as Moore had proposed.

“I think there was a collective sigh of relief,” said Mary Pat Fannon, executive director of the state superintendent’s association. “We have never had to work so hard to keep the status quo.”

The Democratic governor had proposed rewriting portions of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the multi-billion-dollar plan to make the state’s schools the best in the nation, in an attempt to keep education costs under control in the coming years. However, in the final day of the legislative session, lawmakers in the Senate and House struck a compromise that preserved the money promised to schools next year. That buys advocates more time to get the rest of the money restored in future years.

The Blueprint had promised gradual but significant increases in the basic amount of money schools receive for each student they educate, rising from slightly more than $9,000 to about $12,000 over a decade. Lawmakers allowed that amount to rise as planned next budget year, but changed the plan so it would increase only by inflation for the following two years, essentially pausing the promised increases. In 2029, the basic per-student amount would increase by $334.

Local school leaders had hoped they could convince the legislators that the basic per-student funding should increase even more quickly because, they argue, it is too little and does not cover enough of the rising costs of staff salary increases and electric bills.

Fannon said the superintendents realized “there was no way we were going to get traction when we’re facing the cuts” to the state budget.

She said she believes legislative leaders have heard their pleas and recognize that inflation is hurting school budgets.

Riya Gupta, interim director for Strong Schools Maryland, an advocacy organization focused on protecting the Blueprint, said advocates will work in the next legislative session to change the provisions in the bill that would pause increases in that basic funding for each student.

“We still have time to advocate and make changes in the next year,” she said, adding that the bill as proposed was “bad policy that would take away from the transformational vision of the Blueprint.”

Moore had wanted to cut about one-fifth of the increases in funding the Blueprint promised to the school districts by 2029. The governor also wanted to stop increasing the funding for students who live in areas with concentrated poverty. Legislators restored that funding, which was intended to provide extra services for students at community schools.

The governor had proposed pausing a provision to give teachers more time outside of the classroom to plan with colleagues. That provision was tied to funding increases for educating each child, and pausing it would amount to significant savings for the state over time. While the legislature allowed the policy pause, it put back the most important part: the funding increases for next year.

Blueprint money for next year is already set aside in a fund designated for education, but in subsequent years, the state will have to dip into the general fund to pay for the increases that the Blueprint promises.

The Moore administration said in a statement that it had “worked in partnership with the members of the General Assembly to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future.”

The administration said it would continue to work with the legislature “to ensure we are living up to the core tenets of the Blueprint while making the necessary adjustments to ensure that every Maryland child has access to the best public schools possible.”

Paul Lemle, president of the Maryland State Education Association, the union that represents most of the teachers in the state, acknowledged that the legislature and the governor faced a challenging budget time that included uncertainty from Washington, D.C.

“This session has seen dramatic progress [in] restoring the vast majority of the proposed cuts to our schools and ensures that everyone pays their fair share and more sustainably funds our public schools and services,” Lemle said in a statement.

The union expressed relief that the legislature avoided imposing the Moore administration cuts that would have largely fallen on poor and Black and Brown children.

Moore’s bill also proposed redirecting about $100 million in funding that the Maryland State Department of Education had asked for, including $17 million to train reading and math coaches to help improve teaching in schools. The legislature added the program, but did not include any funding for it.

It did, however, provide money to help recruit and train more fully licensed teachers to Maryland — a small portion of the money Moore had originally sought for additional programs outside of the Blueprint.

 Education department officials said that while they are glad about the continued funding of the Blueprint, “the final bill and budget did not include critical provisions designed to accelerate student achievement in literacy and mathematics.”

Department officials said in a statement that they would work with the legislature in the future to get funding for the coaches.

Maryland READS, a nonprofit that advocates for better reading instruction, expressed disappointment in the decision.

“We are aware that difficult decisions had to be made but, in this instance, the legislature got it wrong,” a statement released by the organization said. The nonprofit noted that coaches were critical to improving reading in Mississippi, where Maryland Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright led major academic progress.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of the Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.