Senate panel's vote on Blueprint bill straddles House, administration versions
A Senate committee advanced parts of Maryland's sweeping education reform plan Friday, splitting the difference between versions of the bill advanced by the House and the Moore administration and setting up a showdown in the waning days of the legislature.
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee approved a four-year pause in the start of funding for teacher 'collaborative time' — something the administration supports — but also voted to keep funding for community schools — something the House insisted on.
Senate Bill 429 still needs to be taken up by a second Senate panel, the Education, Energy and the Environment Committee, which is scheduled for Monday. That gives lawmakers just two weeks to approve a Senate bill and hammer out differences with the House before the April 7 end of the General Assembly session.
The so-called 'Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act' was sparked by the state's fiscal crisis and by the repeated call from local school officials for flexibility in the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, the sweeping 10-year, multibillion-dollar education reform plan.
Gov. Wes Moore introduced a bill that keeps the goals of the plan largely intact, but delays funding and implementation of some portions.
One portion is the proposal for an increase in teacher 'collaborative time,' or time that teachers spend on planning, training and working with individual students, as opposed to time in front of a classroom. The Blueprint calls for teachers' classroom time to be cut from 80% of their day to 60%; the administration bill would delay the start of that for four years, in part because it would require the hiring of at least 12,000 new teachers at a time when the state faces a teacher shortage.
Budget agreement could generate more than $1 billion in new revenue
The House rejected that plan, and set collaborative time to begin in 2026. But the Senate went with the governor's version in what Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Guy Guzzone (D-Howard) called a 'pacing' of the initiative.
'Whenever you don't extend the full amount, if, in fact, you want to get to the full amount, by definition, it has to go out further,' Guzzone told reporters after the committee's vote.
The committee did agree with the House version and rejected the administration's call for a two-year freeze on funding for community schools, those located in low-income neighborhoods Sen. President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) has said such a delay would negatively affect students.
The Senate committee also agreed with the House to 'hold harmless' funding for multilingual learners, students in poverty and those in special education — exempting those students from any per pupil funding reductions that might come down. The committee on Friday also added students at the Maryland School for the Blind, Maryland School for the Deaf and the SEED School of Maryland.
The committee was more generous than either the House or the administration when it comes to Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports, a part of the Blueprint plan that deals with mental health, behavioral and other wraparound services for students. The House agreed with the governor that it should be cut from $130 million this year to $40 million in fiscal 2026, but senators want to cut the fund to $70 million next year and raise it to $100 million in fiscal 2027 and each year after.
But senators sided with the administration on 'foundation' funding, or per pupil spending. Under the Blueprint, it was slated to grow from $8,789 per pupil this year to $9,226 next year, but the administration proposed reducing the growth to $9,063 next year and slowing the pace of growth for several years after. The Senate committee agreed, but the House voted to keep the original Blueprint funding levels.
With an eye toward looming cuts to the federal government, another Senate amendment made Friday would freeze funding increases if federal funds or revenue projections by the state's Board of Revenues in December decrease by 3.75%.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Senate Majority Leader Nancy King (D-Montgomery), a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee, earlier this week defended delays in Blueprint goals for the time being.
'There's a lot of good that's already come out of the Blueprint, and a lot more that is going to come as we go,' King said Tuesday. 'I don't think it would be a bad thing if we just slowed it [collaborative time] down a bit.'
The Senate Education, Energy and the Environment will review, and possibly vote on, the other parts of the bill Monday that deal with teacher programs, initiatives and other incentives before sending it to the full Senate for consideration and then back to the House.
Del. Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said during a press conference Thursday to announce a framework for the overall fiscal 2026 budget, that negotiations on the Blueprint are ongoing. But Atterbeary said she and Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel), chair of the Appropriations Committee, have made their positions 'pretty clear.'
'Where we stand and where the House stands in … protecting those that are most vulnerable, particularly those in community schools,' she said. 'So we'll see what the Senate does, and we'll link up with them and negotiate that in the days to come.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
12 minutes ago
- CNN
White House Says Putin Has Agreed To A Direct Meeting With Zelensky - The Arena with Kasie Hunt - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
White House Says Putin Has Agreed To A Direct Meeting With Zelensky The Arena with Kasie Hunt 45 mins The panel reacts to the White House's announcement that "accommodations" are "under way" for a direct meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. Former CIA Director Leon Panetta discusses how the relationship between Trump and Putin could impact the chances for a peace deal. Plus, CNN speaks with a Texas state representative about her ongoing, marathon protest against Republicans' effort to redraw the state's congressional districts.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Legislative committees advance CA redistricting legislation
(The Center Square) — Legislators, taxpayers and others debated passionately Tuesday for several hours as Democratic-led election committees in the California Assembly and Senate advanced congressional redistricting legislation. The bills making up the Election Rigging Response Act received support from the Democratic majorities in the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee and the Assembly Elections Committee. Ultimately they're expected to land on the floors of the Assembly and Senate on Thursday. They're backed by the Democratic supermajorities in both houses, as well as by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. With their passage certain, the legislation will mean voters on a Nov. 4 special election will decide whether to revise boundaries for congressional districts in response to redistricting in Republican-led states such as Texas. But the Republican minority in the Legislature scored what they called an early victory Monday night by delaying Thursday's floor votes. "The bill was stalled until after 7 p.m., meaning the earliest it can be legally voted on is Thursday evening. That leaves only hours before the special election deadline for passage and Newsom's signature," Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, posted on X. Democrats and Republicans agree democracy is at stake and that California has a gold standard with its independent, nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission. Republican lawmakers argued the will of voters, who approved a constitutional amendment creating the commission, was being disregarded. But Democratic legislators stressed voters can see the proposed map, which is posted at They also noted that unlike people in Texas, Californian voters will have the final say on whether congressional districts are changed and that the independent commission can resume its work after the 2030 census. "We are not asking California to rubber stamp maps behind closed doors," Assembly Elections Committee Chair Gail Pellerin, a Democrat, told the committee. "As a former election official, I would never stand for that. This is about defending democracy itself, making sure checks and balances our kids learned in government class are alive and well after the 2026 election." Other Democrats on the committee voiced their support. 'Who should have the control of the vast power of the federal government?' asked Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura. 'Our founding fathers agreed hundreds of years ago on a special form of democracy, designed to protect our democracy from power grabs.' If people in power try to change the rules to seize power undemocratically, then democracy advocates must also change their rules in response, Bennett argued. But Assemblymember David J. Tangipa, R-Clovis, who sits on the committee with Bennett, told the committee that Republicans weren't given enough time to review the legislation in advance of Tuesday's hearing. He also noted the proposed congressional map changed at 8 p.m. Monday. Pellerin countered that she understood the map was posted at 8 a.m. Monday. Pellerin and Tangipa clashed during the hearing as the latter asked extensive questions of Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, who spoke on behalf of one of the three bills making up the Election Rigging Response Act. Pellerin said she was trying to keep the meeting moving, and Tangipa stressed the importance of his questions on topics such as funding. A large number of residents throughout California, union representatives and representatives of organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the California Teachers Association, spoke in favor of redistricting at the Assembly committee meeting. But what appeared to be an even bigger number of taxpayers from throughout the state, as well as representatives of Republican organizations, spoke against the legislation. Comments on the two sides echoed those made by the Democratic and Republican legislators. The Assembly committee rejected a motion by its ranking Republican, Vice Chair Alexandra Macedo of Tulare, that the committee recess until its members could read all 16,000 comments that voters have made in a portal on the Assembly website. "Democratic power bosses want to take the power away from the people," Macedo said. She called the Election Rigging Response Act a coordinated effort to tear down the independent commission and gerrymander districts for political gain at a time California faces severe budget shortfalls. The Assembly Republican Caucus has said the Nov. 4 election will cost voters more than $235 million. Democrats have countered the Trump administration has cost the state much more than that by cutting or withholding funding.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Texas lawmaker who slept in House Chamber after rejecting DPS monitor files lawsuit
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas lawmaker who slept in the House Chamber of the Texas Capitol Monday night filed a lawsuit shortly into her protest, according to online records. That lawsuit claims Rep. Nicole Collier is being illegally confined. 'Representative Collier is under restraint by virtue of the Speaker of the House's order placing her into the custody of law enforcement prior to the Wednesday, August 20, 2025, Session,' the lawsuit says. Collier is refusing to leave the chamber because she would need to be monitored by a Department of Public Safety escort should she do so. Before the House adjourned Monday, House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, ordered the doors to the chamber to be locked. He said that members needed written permission to leave the chamber. But he added an extra step for Democrats who broke quorum and had arrest warrants issued. The speaker said those members would be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated Department of Public Safety officer who will ensure they return to the House on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Protest planned Tuesday evening in support of lawmaker who rejected DPS monitoring State Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, refused and was therefore not allowed to leave. 'We have a lawyer working on getting a court to enter an injunction to allow all of us to be free from DPS escorts or DPS trails,' Collier told NBC's Ryan Chandler. 'And so hopefully that's successful, and we won't be here too long. But I am willing, and my heart has not changed. I still believe that this is wrong, and I have no intention to stop.' In a planned public display Tuesday afternoon, some House Democratic members tore up the permission slips required to leave the chamber, and announced they'll join Collier in sleeping inside the chamber Tuesday night, a news release said. 'She's a prisoner of nothing more than her own imagination,' Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) said of the lawsuit. 'This is like bad Kabuki theater, I'm talking like elementary, junior high-level grade dramatic actions that we're seeing here. That's all there is to say, this is pure theater.' 'We conclude that it does': Supreme Court ruling from 2021 Several years ago, members of the Texas House of Representatives fled the state to deny the House quorum to prevent voting legislation they disagreed with in a special session. 'They fled the state to escape the jurisdiction of the House, whose internal rules provide that absent members may be 'arrested' and their attendance 'secured and retained,'' a 2021 Supreme Court opinion explained. Nearly a month after leaving the state, those lawmakers sued 'seeking an injunction prohibiting their arrest.' The Supreme Court ultimately ruled against those members. 'The legal question before this Court concerns only whether the Texas Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to physically compel the attendance of absent members. We conclude that it does,' that ruling said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
