Latest news with #Bill504
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House committee rejects Blueprint cuts, in first step toward showdown with Senate
Signs in support of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future at a Feb. 10 rally outside the State House. Proposals to rein in parts of the plan were rejected Friday by a House committee in the first of what is likely to be many votes on the issue this session. (File photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) And so it begins… The House Appropriations Committee on Friday reinstated many of the cuts proposed by Gov. Wes Moore (D) to the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, the state's multiyear, multbillion-dollar education reform plan. Friday's vote was the first step in what is likely to be a long — and what has been a long-expected — clash between the House, the Senate and the Moore administration over what parts of the state's signature education plan can be retained in the face of a projected $3 billion gap in the fiscal 2026 budget. Moore's House Bill 504, the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act, proposed delaying funding for community schools, those schools with high concentrations of low-income students. He also proposed a delay in implementation of 'collaborative time' – a plan to boost teaching ranks so that teachers could spend less time in the classroom and more time on planning, training, working with students out of class, and more. In 10 minutes of work Friday, the Appropriations Committee kept the community schools and collaborative time funding on track. It also voted to keep the Academic Excellence Fund, which can accept private-sector donations for a grant fund used by local school systems, and to give local school systems flexibility in when they start the collaborative time, among other changes. Moore's bill to rein in Blueprint school reform plan draws fire at hearing The amended bill passed on party lines, with all Democrats voting for it and all Republican voting against it except Del. Joshua Stonko (R-Carroll), who did not vote after explaining the 'complexity … in the personal views I have and the impact on Carroll County.' Stonko, who has referred to the 'Blueprint to Bankrupt Maryland's Future,' is opposed to the costly collaborative time proposal, but noted that doing away with it now could have the effect of leading to class sizes of upwards of 50 students to one teacher in parts of Carroll County. It would also lead to the loss of reading, math and media specialists in those schools. 'This is a really complex bill for me because I'm trying to think about my general view on budget and tax and spend and all of those issues, and then the impact to my jurisdiction and thinking through those,' Stonko said before the vote. 'I may continue to think about this for another day, and we'll see on that context, but I just wanted to say for my constituency it's a really complicated bill for Carroll County.' After the vote, Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel), the chair of the Appropriations Committee, thanked Moore for the bill that he said included innovative 'policy ideas … [that] will certainly strengthen the Blueprint and the intent of the original Blueprint.' Barnes said those ideas were bolstered by the committee amendments that make the administration's proposals 'even stronger.' But that's not the last word on the bill, even in the House. HB504 was jointly assigned to Appropriations and to the Ways and Means Committee, which held a joint hearing with Appropriations on the bill but has yet to announce a vote. Once the bill gets out of the House, it goes to the Senate, where leaders in public have been more in line with the administration on the need to rein in the Blueprint for now in the face of the state's mounting budget problems. The Senate version of the bill was also jointly assigned, to the Budget and Taxation Committee and the Education, Energy and the Environment Committee. Those two committees were also part of the joint hearing with the two House committees on the bill last week, but neither Senate panel has announced a voting session on the measure. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Moore's bill to rein in Blueprint school reform plan draws fire at hearing
Fagan Harris (center), chief of staff to Gov. Wes Moore (D), at a hearing on the administration's schools bill. He is flanked by Mike Thomas, the governor's deputy legislative officer, and Carmel Martin, special secretary of the Governor's Office for Children. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters) Kent County Schools Superintendent Mary McComas had just finished criticizing lawmakers for proposed cuts to the Blueprint for Maryland's Future in the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act, when she was gently corrected. House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel) thanked McComas for her service as a superintendent, then politely made a point. 'Just to be clear. This is not the legislature's bill. I just want to be clear about that,' Barnes said, drawing a few chuckles and smiles from others at the hearing on the Moore administration bills. Senate Bill 429 and its companion, House Bill 504, were the subjects of a four-hour joint hearing that brought together four legislative committees. In addition to Appropriations, members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Budget and Taxation and Education, Energy, and the Environment committees were on hand to hold a joint hearing in the state's newly opened Department of Legislative Services building. Scores of teachers, students and advocates turned out for the hearing and dozens testified against the bills, which would defer some elements of the multibillion-dollar, 10-year Blueprint plan in the face of a $3 billion budget shortfall next year — which is expected to grow worse as a result of budget cuts expected from the Trump White House. One person who was not on hand to testify was Gov. Wes Moore (D) who sent aides instead, to the disappointment of some at the hearing. 'I am frustrated,' Ways and Means Chair Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard) said in a text message after Wednesday's hearing. 'It is a significant bill proposing significant changes to the BP [Blueprint]. I think his in-person support of his legislation would have been good to see.' Mary Pat Fannon, executive director of the Public School Superintendents' Association of Maryland, said she was surprised the governor didn't take the opportunity to testify before the four House and Senate committees. 'It is very rare to have four committees have a joint hearing. I thought they were trying to accommodate him,' said Fannon, who does not support the bills. 'You don't want to read too much into it, but you have to look a little bit into it.' Instead, Moore Chief of Staff Fagan Harris spent about an hour summarizing the administration's bills and stressing the governor's overall support for the Blueprint. 'I want to be put crystal clear: This governor is committed to seeing the Blueprint through. That's why we're proposing this legislation,' Harris said. 'We think it maps to the realities we're seeing at the federal level,' he said. 'It maps the realities of the historic fiscal crisis we're currently navigating together and services implementation imperatives of the law, and yes, also makes the law more succinct.' Harris said the Blueprint is currently funded through next year, which could open the door to deficits thereafter. The changes proposed in the governor's bill would help put the Blueprint on more sustainable footing, he said. Harris said the administration bill calls for 'a pause' in funding for 'collaborative time,' a goal of the Blueprint that would eventually reduce teachers' time in the classroom from 80% of the day to 60% to allow for more planning, training, individual work with students and more. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Blueprint calls for implementation of collaborative time to begin next year, but Harris said that would require the hiring of another 12,000 to 15,000 teachers at a time when the state is already grappling with a teacher shortage. 'Because of this shortage, it is not currently feasible to implement collaborative time in a way that would yield the intended benefits for student achievement,' Harris said. The bills would delay collaborative time for four yars, which would allow school districts more time to recruit and retain teachers. In the interim, the administration bills include funding for several alternate teacher and administrator programs, such as a Grow Your Own initiative to expand teacher and staff pipelines, boost diversity in the profession and establish apprenticeship programs. The administration bills would also keep funding for community schools — those in areas of concentrated poverty — at its current level for two years. Harris defended the level funding for community schools, noting that the administration has pushed to increase the number of such schools from 447 to 715, and has more than doubled funding, from $227 million to $490 million this year. One of the few voices in support of the governor's bill was State Schools Superintendent Carey Wright. 'We must ensure that the collaborative time policy does not unintentionally decrease the instructional time for students or negatively impact academic performance,' Wright said in written testimony to the committees. Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore), a member of the Senate 'Triple-E' committee, said she supports the pause in collaborative time — but thinks the state could face unintended consequences if it rushes into creating collaborative time. Carozza is sponsoring a bill – Senate Bill 791 – that would keep the current 80% classroom time for teachers. A hearing on that measure is scheduled for Friday. But Moore's proposal to freeze funding for community schools — which get a high concentration of poverty-based grants such as the number of students who receive free and reduced-price meals — did not sit well with several lawmakers. Atterbeary called the proposal 'a cut' — despite Harris' characterization of it as a pause — and said the legislature just approved community schools legislation last year. Sen. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City), who serves on the Budget and Taxation Committee, said when he visits community schools he sees 'young scholars that looked like me.' McCray, who is Black, asked Harris if the administration has conducted research on student demographics in those community schools. 'This is not about cutting programs already in motion that are already in motion making a huge difference in the lives of kids,' Harris said. 'We see this as a chance to better leverage the program and the dollars going into it and letting effective implementation keep up with our pace of investment.'
