Editor's Note: Local News Network is publishing a six-part “Behind the Blueprint” project examining Maryland's multibillion-dollar education reform plan, Maryland's Blueprint for the Future . This is part 5.You can watch Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here.
You might think spending an additional $16.6 billion in state funds from 2024 to 2029, and billions more after that, would be enough to give Maryland a world-class education system . But many people in the state's local school districts don't think so.
As evidence of this, local district leaders in March updated state officials on efforts to implement Maryland's Blueprint for the Future, the state's landmark initiative to rebuild public schools. Look at what was said.
“The funding provided under the Blueprint is not sufficient to meet all requirements,” Baltimore City Public School System officials wrote.
“Blueprint funding tied to specific programs for expansion requires the elimination of other programs and supports,” the St. Mary's County Public School System report states.
Meanwhile, in Kent County, school officials lamented increased costs related to staffing, data systems, student support and transportation. “KCPS has discovered that many of the requirements in the blueprint do not have subsequent funding sources sufficient to cover full implementation,” district officials wrote.
The blueprint, created by legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2021, expands preschool to all 4-year-olds and low-income 3-year-olds, improves the teacher workforce, and increases readiness. It is built on five pillars: statewide curriculum change; It would help students prepare for college and work, expand funding, and create a state agency to oversee everything.
But in those March updates, 15 of the state's 24 school districts cited funding and resource allocation among the three major challenges they would face under the blueprint.
Meanwhile, some county officials, including Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly, say the blueprint is untouchable.
“Unrealistic state spending mandates for the Blueprint for Education are straining local budgets across the state, and we need to pause and reconsider,” Cassilly said in announcing the county's latest budget on April 15. We should.”
new duties
The blueprint significantly increases state funding for public education over 10 years, while also asking local school districts and taxpayers to do their part. And that's causing concern among the state's school principals, said Addie Kaufman, executive director of the Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals.
“One of the things that sometimes happens in education is that you get an unfunded assignment, and an unfunded assignment is very difficult,” Kaufman said at a principals conference late last year.
County leaders also find the task difficult. The Maryland Association of Counties listed a number of concerns in a letter last November to Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat and a strong supporter of the Blueprint. They said the Blueprint's cost estimates do not take into account the ultimate regional impact of several major spending items, including:
- Construction costs for additional classrooms required under the pre-kindergarten school expansion plan.
- Based on the Blueprint Plan for Expanding Career and Technical Education, classroom changes were required to accommodate instructional changes.
- Add staffing for special education students and English language learners.
- In addition to a new $60,000 minimum teacher salary starting in 2026, there are also efforts to build a “career ladder” for Maryland teachers.
Noting that local education funding has already reached an all-time high, the Maryland Association of Counties said, “This record county funding, coupled with the larger funding requirements mandated by law, “The county's ability to fund competing government needs at the operational level would be limited.” ”
The burden of the Blueprint on local school districts is only beginning to be felt. A 2022 state report projects that by 2034, local school districts will pay $700 million more annually than they would have had the Blueprint not been adopted.
“As the Blueprint strengthens and includes more formulas, local burdens will increase. “More and more counties will need to put more money into it,” he said. blue print. “We are only in the first few years of implementing the blueprint, which means only four or five counties will need to spend more money. But over time, more than half of them will It will be.”
Trouble in the county
But county officials say they are already stymied by the Blueprint mandate.
When the Blueprint rollout began, Dorchester County saw a $3 million jump in local donations, according to County Council President Lenny Pfeffer.
“That $3 million increase was shocking to us,” Pfeffer said. “We had to use every resource we had and cut back on some of the programs we wanted to do, like highway maintenance and bridge maintenance.”
Meanwhile, in Cecil County, a school funding fight related in part to Blueprint led to the creation of a Facebook group called “Fund CCPS,” which has 6,700 members.
Cecil County Executive Daniel Hornberger (R) declined to respond to the district's request for funding. And last month, Hornberger filed an ethics lawsuit against Cecil County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Lawson, accusing him of using public property and funds for political purposes during a budget fight.
“CCPS families deserve better,” Hornberger said.
Rising Sun High School senior Allison Stout, who founded the CCPS Foundation Facebook group, reacted angrily. Stout said the county has been funding local schools at the “statutory minimum” for the third year in a row, and the current budget proposal falls $13 million short of the $17 million in additional local aid the county is seeking. He said Hornberger's accusations against Lawson were “disgraceful.” ”
Similarly, in Worcester County, the county government has refused to increase school funding beyond the state's minimum requirements, leading to a $9 million cash shortfall and forcing the school district to cut 90 to 100 employees. It may be forced.
“WCPS believes that significant reductions in instructional staff are contrary to the spirit of the Blueprint's goals of continuous improvement and transformation in education,” district officials said in a March Blueprint update.
Resource migration
The blueprint also calls for shifting resources within the district at the expense of other schools.
Carroll County Public Schools Superintendent Cynthia McCabe explained the potential impact of the changes at a public meeting in Sykesville last year.
“The last thing I want to be is a fear monger, but in September 2024, I got a phone call from a parent saying, 'Why is my child's school going to have so many more classes this year? 'I don't want to be asked,''' McCabe said during the presentation.
The Blueprint moves funds to high-need schools in several ways.
The education reform plan provides some schools with “poverty concentration” subsidies to boost support for academics, extracurricular activities, and physical and mental health. Subsidies are given to schools based on the number of students who receive free or reduced-price meals. This school year, 454 schools in Maryland received a large number of anti-poverty grants, with just over a quarter of them going to schools in Baltimore City.
“The communities that I serve in my district, in particular, benefit greatly from the concentration of poverty funds,” said Ashley Moore, principal of Empowerment Academy, a charter school in Baltimore City. .
Additionally, new requirements under the Blueprint require that Medicaid-eligible students be automatically enrolled in free or reduced-price school meals.
“This is an improvement from the perspective of feeding children,” said Christopher Meyer, a research analyst at the Maryland Economic Policy Center.
But shifting resources to schools that need them has implications elsewhere.
For example, in Baltimore County, the average class size for first- through third-grade students will increase from 25 to 24 students starting in the fall, while middle school class size will increase from 20 to 22 students and high school class size will increase from 21 to 23 students. .
Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Miriam Rogers said at a media conference in February that elementary school class sizes were reduced under the blueprint to ensure students could read by third grade. This is because it has been proven time and time again to be an indicator of In addition, fifth-graders must pass state exams in reading and math, she noted.
Asked whether increasing class sizes in other grades could have a negative impact on students, Rogers said “no,” and district officials are not discussing how class sizes will be adjusted. He said he was planning carefully.
But McCabe, the Carroll County superintendent, reiterated concerns about the class size adjustments called for under the blueprint.
“We are concerned that very large class sizes will negatively impact student learning,” McCabe said in an email. “We are seeing an increase in concerns about student mental health. It is essential that teachers have manageable class sizes to meet the diverse needs of students.”
future
The blueprint's long rollout period, combined with domestic inflation issues post-pandemic, could create other financial concerns for local school districts.
In 2022, the Maryland Legislature plans for the potential impact of the Blueprint at the district level, and by 2034, when the Blueprint is completed, 15 of the state's 24 school districts will have either We predicted that local funding levels would need to be increased at this point.
“The impact will be uneven, with some counties requiring significant increases in local spending for school boards in the initial, later stages, or both,” the state report states. “Other county governments are projected to spend about the same or slightly more than they otherwise would.”
Of course, inflation can affect these forecasts. Meyer, a research analyst at the Maryland Economic Policy Center, noted that Blueprint's cost projections were created before prices skyrocketed in the final stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While the actual costs in the economy have increased significantly, the amount of funding required under state law has not increased,” Meyer said.
As such, some of the Blueprint's funding requirements may be subject to change at some point by the Blueprint's Accountability and Implementation Committee or the General Assembly.
“No law is perfect,” said Rick Tyler Jr., co-chair of the Maryland Education Coalition. “We are in the early stages of a process that is expected to take 10 years.”
Local News Network Director Jerry Zremski contributed to this report.