Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday proposed scaling back parts of the state’s ambitious public education improvement plan as the state faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Moore, a Democrat, said the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is due for changes but offered few specifics.

“We will pause the elements that need a closer look or require laying a stronger foundation for full implementation,” Moore said, according to remarks prepared for an audience of local government leaders.

One specific proposal from Moore is to pause a Blueprint program that gives school teachers more “collaborative time” out of the classroom to work on curriculum planning, grading and professional development.

It’s one of the many facets of the Blueprint, a plan passed by lawmakers in 2020 with the goal of returning the state’s public schools to among the best in the nation. Other elements include increasing teacher pay, expanding prekindergarten, providing more support to schools in low-income communities and improving career- and college-prep courses.

The state has had sufficient funding for the first few years of the Blueprint, but as the programs are scheduled to ramp up, so will the costs. And there isn’t projected to be enough funding to cover them.

Moore, speaking at a conference of the Maryland Association of Counties in Cambridge on Thursday night, said he stands behind the goals of the Blueprint. But he said the state’s efforts should focus first on hiring more teachers before considering how to give them more development time out of the classroom.

“Our goal is to give school districts time to recruit and retain enough teachers,” Moore said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Moore expects to see cost savings from pausing the program, and if so, how much.

“I believe in the promise of the Blueprint,” Moore said. “But the realization of that promise doesn’t come through strict adherence to formulas, at all costs.”

That statement appears to hint at changes to the formulas that dictate how much money the state and local governments pour into school districts, and how that money is divided among schools and programs. But Moore gave no specifics.

“Our fidelity is to students, not formulas,” he said.

Moore did indicate parts of the Blueprint plan would be untouched by his proposal, including funding to expand prekindergarten programs, tutoring and early literacy programs.

The governor said the changes to the Blueprint would be proposed in a bill that he will put forward to state lawmakers when they return to Annapolis in January for the General Assembly’s annual 90-day legislative session.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is one of the drivers of a long-term, projected deficit in the state’s budget.

For next year’s budget — before the most expensive parts of the Blueprint kick in — the state is already facing a $2.7 billion budget hole.

If left unaddressed, by 2030, the state would only have enough money coming in to cover 84% of planned spending across state government.

Boosting economy, preparing for Trump

Moore also announced that he would soon sign an executive order focused on growing the economy, which, in turn, could boost the state government’s fiscal health.

The order includes directives to: streamline state permitting processes; launch an “all of government strategy” to incentivize growth in life sciences, information technology and aerospace and defense industries; and to better coordinate with local governments on economic development programs.

Moore repeated his assertion that the state’s economy needs to diversify and not rely mainly on “the eds, the feds and the meds” — meaning higher education, the federal workforce and medical care and research institutions.

The federal workforce component is particularly important with Republican Donald Trump returning to the White House, making promises to slash and shrink federal government. Maryland, with its proximity to Washington, D.C., has a high share of federal workers.

The governor did not mention the president-elect by name. He previously signed off on spending nearly $200,000 on consultants to help the state prepare for what may come when Trump returns to Washington.

“I want to be clear,” Moore said. “We are ready to work with the incoming administration to advance the interests of Marylanders. And where we can partner, we will.”

But he also noted: “Many of the decisions that happen inside the White House will be outside of our control.”