Gov. Wes Moore is proposing to rewrite major portions of Maryland’s landmark education law, cutting nearly one-fifth of the new funding the state promised schools by 2029.

While Moore has portrayed his bill as “pausing” pieces of the 10-year plan, the effect will be felt most by students living in poverty and immigrant students learning English. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future was designed to boost achievement for all students, but it particularly concentrated money at schools with the largest numbers of poor children and the lowest achievement.

Neither the governor’s office nor the Maryland State Department of Education have released figures on how much less each school district would receive than was promised under the Blueprint. But according to rough calculations by the state’s largest teachers union, Baltimore City and Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties — all districts with significant numbers of poor students — stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars each over four years in both state and local money.

At the same time, Moore would redirect $110 million a year toward new education initiatives to grow and train the teacher workforce, ensure children read proficiently by third grade and improve math instruction, all of which are priorities for Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright. Those initiatives aren’t specifically targeted toward poor children.

If the legislature agrees to redirect the money, Moore would have an education program he could call his own as he runs for reelection next year, with people across the country watching him as a 2028 presidential possibility. If there are improvements in test scores, he could also claim some credit.

But before Moore was elected governor and Wright became superintendent, Democrats in the legislature, including the leadership, enthusiastically committed to the 10-year plan to make Maryland schools some of the best in the nation. The Blueprint was carefully crafted by a panel of Marylanders from across the state. Known as the Kirwan Commission, the panel spent three years researching what works in high-performing education systems across the world and recommended spending on those areas that it believed would improve schools.

Most of the state’s education leaders — from superintendents to local school boards and teachers — have not weighed in on Moore’s proposal, but privately, they say they are trying to understand the implications of each specific cut and gauge whether to speak out against a bill introduced by a popular Democratic governor whose goodwill they may need in the future.

Legislators have already expressed some skepticism.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore City, at a press briefing Friday, said he supports some of Moore’s proposed changes to the Blueprint and that the state also has to live within its means. He has shared some of his concerns with the governor, particularly the loss of funding increases for students in areas of concentrated poverty.

Ferguson said he’s seen the payoff from investments in schools in his district, noting there are now music and arts programs and a social worker who helps children process the trauma they’ve experienced in their neighborhood.

“The idea of slowing down in the investments for schools with concentrated poverty, I think, is something that we’re going to have a hard time moving forward,” he said, earlier last week.

And Del. Ben Barnes, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, speaking during an education briefing on Wednesday, reiterated that Democratic leaders support the Blueprint as it was originally envisioned. Barnes noted that there’s been progress already, just three years into the Blueprint’s 10-year implementation plan. That’s why, he said, House leaders have had “such reticence” about having to “pause or roll back any of the provisions now, particularly given the progress we’re finally starting to see.”

And at a Friday morning meeting of the Baltimore City delegation, legislators expressed enthusiasm for what Baltimore schools CEO Sonja Santelises said she had been able to accomplish already with the new Blueprint dollars. More Black and Latino students are taking Advanced Placement classes than ever before, and more students are participating in art, music and middle school athletics, she said.

Santelises said the Moore proposals would reduce promised increases in Blueprint funding by about $400 million over the next four years.

She pointed out that a large portion of that would be targeted at schools with high numbers of poor students or students learning English as a second language.

Santelises said just over half of the $440 million Moore and Wright want to redirect would go to the state education department instead of directly to the school districts. For instance, the state would organize and hold training sessions for teachers.

“The cuts proposed in the budget bill continue the persistent Maryland practice of making promises to our children that we then do not keep. That hurts their educational opportunity and undermines hope,” said David Hornbeck, a former Maryland State School Superintendent.

Asked about the concerns, Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV said in a statement: “Gov. Moore looks forward to continuing conversations with the state legislature and all partners involved to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.”

The Blueprint was passed in 2021, with funding intended to rise every year until the state was spending about $3 billion more annually on education. But the estimates for the cost of Blueprint have climbed in the past year, as the number of poor children in schools has increased. The Blueprint is now estimated to cost $4.3 billion by 2029 and $5.2 billion by 2030. According to the Moore administration, the bill would reduce the cost by about $784 million by 2029. Local governments wouldn’t have to increase funding as much either, so the total reduction would be far larger.

Moore is making the cuts to prevent rapid increases in spending in coming years. For the next two years, there is enough money in a special fund for the Blueprint that takes revenues from gambling and other sources. Cuts to the Blueprint do not help the state with its $3 billion funding gap for next year, but after 2027, the state’s general operating fund would have to help pay for the increasing costs.

The Maryland State Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, supports the governor’s action to fill part of the funding gap by taxing wealthy individuals. However they are not supportive of some of the reductions to future Blueprint spending, particularly reducing money to schools with high numbers of students living in poverty or students who are learning English. “We’ll fight for improvements in those areas,” said Samantha Zwerling, MSEA’s legislative director.

Brenda Wintrode and Pam Wood contributed to this report.

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.