Lawmakers Have Laid a Strong Foundation for Maryland’s Public Schools; Here’s What Lies Ahead

As the 2021 legislative session nears its end, Maryland children, parents, and educators have much to celebrate. The Maryland General Assembly overrode Gov. Hogan’s veto of the 2020 Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, paving the way for major long-term investments intended to make our state’s public schools among the best in the world. Lawmakers also passed a second bill strengthening the Blueprint framework and addressing challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic, which will become law without the governor’s signature. And the recently adopted budget includes significant investments to improve schools’ ventilation systems, expand broadband access, and help students catch up academically after a tumultuous year.

These investments will benefit children in every part of Maryland and will strengthen our economy for decades to come. Students of color will see especially large gains, as past cutbacks in public school funding have heightened structural barriers. Looking ahead, lawmakers should implement the Blueprint plan faithfully, strengthen certain aspects of the plan, and put our state’s finances on a firm long-term footing to invest in public schools.

Major Accomplishments

Lawmakers overrode Gov. Hogan’s veto of the Blueprint for Maryland’s future, securing major investments in public schools:

• The Blueprint plan includes evidence-backed reforms like expanded prekindergarten, bringing teacher salaries up to the level of comparable professions, shoring up our support for special education and students’ mental health, and strengthening our investments in high-quality career and technical education.
• One of the bill’s most promising provisions would fund additional supports in schools that serve students in the highest-poverty neighborhoods – an important first step to improve educational opportunities for children forced by racially discriminatory policies to grow up in under-resourced neighborhoods.
• The Blueprint is necessary in part because we have been underinvesting in schools ever since the Great Recession. Three-quarters of Maryland school districts were underfunded by the state’s existing standards as of 2017, and more than half of Black students went to school in a district that was underfunded by more than 15 percent – even as higher academic expectations have rendered this standard inadequate.

Lawmakers passed an emergency bill to improve certain aspects of the Blueprint plan and respond to needs brought about by the pandemic and the delay caused by the governor’s veto:

• The bill adjusts the Blueprint plan’s implementation timeline, which is now delayed because Gov. Hogan vetoed the bill and the General Assembly did not convene a special session to override the veto in 2020.
• The bill provides funding for increased learning time and other supports to help students recover academically and emotionally from the impacts of the pandemic. This funding comes with accountability to ensure school systems use it appropriately.
• The bill adjusts the school funding formula to ensure that lower enrollment counts during the pandemic do not translate into harmful funding cuts.

Finally, the state budget adopted April 2 includes significant investments to support schools and students as the pandemic’s worst phase nears its end, made possible by the federal American Rescue Plan:

• The budget expands tutoring programs to help students who need additional supports.
• The budget upgrades school heating and cooling systems to reduce the risk of virus transmission as schools reopen.
• The budget supports expansion of physical broadband infrastructure and subsidizes high-speed internet access for low-income households. Even as students return to in-person schooling, a modern education requires reliable internet access.

Next Steps

• Policymakers made a similar commitment to improving education funding in 2002 after courts found that the state wasn’t meeting its constitutional obligation to educate children. The 2002 plan worked—until policymakers started chipping away to fill budget holes. For the Blueprint to be effective, the state must implement it faithfully and reject short-sighted cuts.
• While the Blueprint plan is a major step forward for high-quality, more-equitable public schools in Maryland, it left out provisions to ensure students who face the greatest challenges receive the academic support they need. Lawmakers should strengthen the plan to better support students in low-income families, students in struggling neighborhoods, and students who have faced childhood trauma—often the result of often the result of racial discrimination and structural barriers to opportunity in their communities.

Thanks to smart revenue reforms, the state has enough money saved up to pay for the first several years of implementing the Blueprint plan. But ultimately investing in world-class schools will require an increased commitment of the state’s other funding sources. Making our tax system more equitable by closing corporate tax loopholes and asking wealthy individuals to pay their fair share would make this possible