Latest news with #SenateBill429
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blueprint passes the Maryland Senate but not without discussion on trans athletes
BALTIMORE — The Senate gave final approval Tuesday evening to a bill to amend the Blueprint for Maryland's Future — but not without addressing a controversial amendment regarding transgender children in sports. 'We want to protect the crucial role that women's sports have played in the development of young women for a long time — but, particularly, over the last 50 years since Title IX came into being,' Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick counties, said. The Senate approved both cross-files of Gov. Wes Moore's bill intended to reduce spending on the state's landmark Blueprint for Maryland's Future education reform program Tuesday. But, before that could be done, Ready attempted to amend the House version to include a measure that would only allow people born as biological women to participate in girls' high school interscholastic, intramural or junior varsity sports that are designated as female teams. The Senate version of the Blueprint bill, Senate Bill 429, passed without Ready attempting to amend it, and mostly along party lines. Ready said he was motivated to introduce the amendment because he has a pre-teen daughter interested in soccer, and his wife did track and field at Salisbury University. 'Women have fought long and hard to earn equal athletic opportunities — I don't have to tell that to the women I know in this room,' he said. 'Title IX was a real revelation that has brought about needed and positive changes since 1972.' The amendment was modeled on a policy introduced in a bill brought by Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, an Eastern Shore Republican. Ready pointed specifically to women's basketball, volleyball, and track and field. 'There's a reason for those distinctions,' he said. 'And we've seen it play out where there have been tremendous negative side-effects to allowing people who are not biologically female to go into those spaces.' Ready referenced Payton McNabb, who was hit with a ball during a volleyball game by a transgender athlete. Multiple reports allege McNabb was left with a concussion and neck injury after the incident. President Donald Trump invited McNabb to attend his joint address to Congress earlier this year. 'Of course, all student athletes face the potential of injury,' Ready said. 'But when we knowingly put women — young women — in harm's way against much more biologically stronger people, who should not be participating with biological women in a women's sport, we put them in physical danger.' Carozza said that, from her experience as a high school tennis athlete, 'being able to say you played in the number one position puts you in a better position when colleges start to look at you for possible scholarship opportunities.' 'I do know that … if I had been bumped from playing that number one position in high school — perhaps by a biological male who was stronger than me — that that would have affected the scholarship I received.' Carozza said that, while listening to the opposition to the bill, she 'saw the emotion on the other side' as they contended that the bill would be discriminatory. 'That could not be further from the truth, because trans athletes can play boys', co-ed and intramural sports. Allowing biological boys to play girls' sports discriminates against biological girls, and I believe Maryland girls deserve to play girls' sports on an even playing field, and that's the only reason this is being offered.' Sen. Mary Washington, a Baltimore Democrat, said she's 'very familiar being in a room or a body making decisions' about her life or the people she loves who 'may not have had those experiences themselves.' Washington, who is openly gay, said she 'is mindful' that the debates the General Assembly has had over the years to ensure equality 'is something that takes time' and 'the voices of people impacted and their allies.' 'I stand recognizing that, relative to my tansgender brothers and sisters and others, that I exercise privilege in that the body that I was born in, that I live in, that I'm comfortable in is the one that others see, and that I don't experience any discrimination based on that, so I feel an obligation and an opportunity, which really comes where I can speak as a privileged class,' she said. Washington shared the testimony of a Maryland student who experienced discrimination as the only girl on a co-ed soccer team and tried 'to play with boys' in middle school gym class. The testimony detailed the discrimination she faced while playing sports designated for female teams. 'Sexism is an issue that is so much bigger than your assigned gender at birth,' Washington read. 'It is an issue of perception. Women are perceived as less successful and weak, causing them to get lower scores and less funding, as well as less respect.' The testimony said that such legislation allows people to question women's bodies for being too tall, too fast and 'fair game.' 'In not allowing transgender girls to participate in women's sports, we continue a long history of allowing people to police women's bodies,' Washington read. As the chamber voted on the amendment, Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said that he remembered 'as a straight white male … how difficult it was being a teenager and how hard it was, and just how difficult it was with no other barriers in front of him. 'When I've had conversations with transgendered young people who are trying to find themselves and live in a community, the pain and suffering that so many of them have felt feeling out-of-place and not having a spot in this world, is unbelievably painful,' he said The amendment was rejected, and the bill passed on a party-line vote. Members of both chambers will now negotiate the final bill in a conference committee. _____
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blueprint bill receives preliminary approval in the Senate
Sen. Ron Waston (D-Prince George's) served as the floor leader Monday for the bill to alter the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, the state's sweeping education reform plan. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) For anyone thinking the Blueprint for Maryland's Future is no longer needed, Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George's) points to the disparity in the coach-to-teacher ratio between school systems as proof that it is. Where Baltimore City has 43 teachers for every one instructional coach in the school system, for example, Baltimore County's rate is 68 to 1, while Prince George's County ratio of teachers to coaches is a staggering 276 to one. 'That should tell you something,' Watson said during Senate debate Monday. 'There is a significant disparity about the equitable distribution' of coaches in the state. His comments came as the full Senate debated the Blueprint, the state's 10-year, multibillion-dollar education reform effort now in is third year. The Senate gave preliminary approval to its version of the plan Monday, after rejecting a series of Republican amendments to the bill during about 30 minutes of debate. The Senate also advanced the House version of the bill, which it amended to make identical to its own — changes the House is likely to reject, setting the stage for a conference committee later this week to work out differences before the session ends Monday. The House approved its version of the Blueprint reform bill earlier this month, rejecting cuts in per pupil funding and a four-year pause on teacher collaborative time, both elements of the bill proposed by Gov. Wes Moore (D). Senate Bill 429, and the conformed House version, agrees with the governor on the collaborative time and per pupil funding provisions. Like the House, which rejected Republican amendments to the bill in a vote earlier this month, the Senate on Monday also rejected amendments from three GOP lawmakers. Tbe House amendments were all rejected on a roll call, but in the Senate on Monday, the first two Republicans' amendments were rejected with a loud 'No!' by some Democrats that cascaded throughout the chamber. Sen. Jack Bailey (R-Calvert and St. Mary's) offered slightly more than three pages of amendments that included a freeze for all increases of per pupil funding, and for the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) to develop metrics to measure student outcomes directly related to programs in the Blueprint. The AIB is charged with overseeing the multiyear school reform plan. Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) introduced two amendments, which were similar to those she presented unsuccessfully last week before her Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee. Her amendments would have required the state Department of Education, in collaboration with the AIB, to convene 'a certain' work group to study the long-term sustainability of the Blueprint. She also proposed the department and AIB convene a work group to not only study the Blueprint 'based on its mandates and costs,' but also analyze overall public school funding on items such as health services, school security and transportation. Sen. Jason Gallion (R-Harford and Cecil) sought to eliminate a new Academic Excellence Program, which was first presented by Gov. Wes Moore (D) in the bill known as the 'Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act.' The estimated $17 million program for next fiscal year includes the hiring of instructional coaches, who would work with teachers and administrations at schools with low-proficiency rates and declining achievement results in recent years. Education officials told the Education, Energy and Environment Committee last week that up to 200 coaches would be needed in the next five years. The state currently has about 800, but 63% of them are in only five of the state's 24 school systems. 'I think that's not fiscally responsible,' said Gallion, who serves on that committee. 'It was brought out that these coaches would make, like, $120,000 each. By my quick math, that would be two teachers for every coach that we could pay for by this funding.' But Watson, who served as the floor leader on the bill, summarized the coach-to-teacher ratio in five counties: 54 teachers to one coach in Anne Arundel; 43-to-1 in Baltimore City; 68-to-1 in Baltimore County; 79-to-1 in Montgomery; and 276-to-1 in Prince George's County. 'The AIB is going to continue to make these decisions to ensure the fair and equitable distribution of these things that are going to close the achievement gap and help all of our students achieve,' he said. The House and Senate will need to agree and pass identical bills by Monday, the last day of the legislative session.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blueprint education plan inches forward in Senate, confrontation with House looms
Educators were called to anxwer question so the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee as it debated an education reform bill. From right, they are Joy Schaefer, Alex Reese, Elise Brown, Mike Thomas and Mary Pat Fannon. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) The state's sweeping education reform bill took another painstaking step forward Tuesday, when a second Senate committee give it preliminary OK and rejected a separate House version. But the 6-2 vote by the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee merely sends the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act back to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, which needs to agree to the latest changes before sending the bill to the full Senate. From there, the bill has to go back to the House, which will likely reject the Senate plan before convening a conference committee to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. All with less than two weeks left in the legislative session. Besides approving Senate Bill 429 Tuesday, the committee also known as Triple-E voted to make the House version conform to the Senate version, rejecting several cuts on collaborative time and per pupil funding first proposed by Gov. Wes Moore (D). Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City) abstained because 'there's still more to work do on such an important bill,' she said after the committee meeting that lasted more than two hours. One major difference the committee approved versus the House version deals with community schools, those schools where at least 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. According to the state Department of Education, about half of the state's schools have that community school designation. The committee agreed with the governor's proposal to require that all 24 school systems develop countywide Blueprint implementation plans focused strictly on community schools. The House struck that proposal, noting that local school officials already have to submit plans to the state Department of Education and the Accountability and Implementation Board, as part of the overall Blueprint for Maryland's Future 10-year reform plan. The board began to approve updated Blueprint plans in October. Tuesday's discussion became a bit animated when it came to instructional coaches. State Department of Education officials said the state currently has 803 instructional coaches, experienced educators who help administrators, teachers and other 'education professionals' learn how to prepare lesson plans, assess student data and other duties. The goal is to hire up to 200 additional coaches in a four-year period. Elise Brown, assistant state superintendent for instructional programs and services, said about 63% of the current coaches work in only five school systems. 'We do not see an equal distribution,' she said. Alex Reese, chief of staff at the department who attended the meeting to represent State Superintendent Carey Wright, said the average ratio of teachers to coaches is 79 to 1. Reese said three school systems – one in Western Maryland, one on the Eastern Shore and another in Southern Maryland – have no instructional coaches. 'Best practice would be for a coach to coach a maximum of 12 teachers,' he said. Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard and Montgomery) asked what's the annual salary for an instructional coach. Reese said the base salary is about $125,000. Although Fry Hester supports instructional coaches, she said some of that money to seek coaches could be used to hire additional personnel in cybersecurity and other technology for schools. 'We have one person in the entire state of Maryland, at the state level, looking out for cybersecurity for the local schools,' said Fry Hester. But she agreed to withhold an amendment to add additional personnel toward cyber security after committee chair Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery) said more information was needed. 'We're immediately going to lose 200 teachers,' Fry Hester said. 'We're already short on teachers.'
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate panel's vote on Blueprint bill straddles House, administration versions
Senate Budget and Taxation Committee voted Friday for amendments to the Blueprint for Maryland's Future that splits the difference between House and administration versions. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) 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.'
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Teachers' union lobbies lawmakers to fully fund Blueprint, among legislative priorities
Joseph Mahach, left, and Todd Reynolds wait for other American Federation of Teachers Maryland members inside the House of Delegates building to lobby legislators about the group's legislative priorities for the 2025 session. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) Ninth-grade math teacher Joseph Mahach has a simple message for Maryland lawmakers: Fully fund the Blueprint for Maryland's Future. The Baltimore City teacher joined dozens of fellow American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Maryland members Monday at their annual lobby night in Annapolis, where their main objective was to persuade lawmakers to stay the course and keep the 10-year education reform plan intact. But that plan is facing pushback on several fronts as the Moore administration and some legislative leaders look for ways to close a projected $3 billion budget gap in fiscal 2026. Among other changes, an administration bill introduced last week would slow the increase in expected per pupil funding and would defer the expansion of 'collaborative time,' or the time teachers have outside class for other schoolwork. 'We came up with a plan, and now we're saying, 'Man, never mind. We're not gonna pay for it.' So, it seems a little backward,' Mahach said Monday inside the House of Delegates building. 'I teach three classes out of a four-period day, [so] increased planning time would be huge for me. It's a big, big deal.' Amid teacher shortage, Blueprint board recommends revising 'collaborative time' timeline Part of what Mahach and other educators have expressed concern over is the plan by Gov. Wes Moore (D) in his 'Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act,' to defer state funding aimed at helping local school systems implement collaborative time for their teachers. That money would be used by local schools to hire the extra teachers needed to make possible the increase in collaborative time — from 20% of a teacher's day to 40% over eight years. The Blueprint currently calls for collaborative time funding to being in fiscal 2026 at $163 per student, growing annually until it reaches $1,527 per pupil by fiscal 2033. Moore's bill would keep the funding levels the same, but delay them for four years, with implementation starting in fiscal 2030 and running through fiscal 2037. While there is a pause in the per pupil funding, Senate Bill 429/House Bill 504 also includes language that would let local school officials apply for a Collaborative Time Innovation Demonstration Grant. Instead of granting the collaborative time funding outright, the four-year, $48 million grant program — from fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2029 — would allow local schools leaders to apply to the state Department of Education for grants that could be used for professional development, to hire additional staff to 'support teacher release time' and other uses approved by the department. One reason some advocates have agreed to the deferral of the collaborative time plan is the fact that it would require thousands of additional teachers at a time when state schools face a teacher shortage. It has been estimated that up to 15,000 more teachers would be needed to expand collaborative time for next school year, and that number does not account for the 6,000 current teachers who are working on a conditional certification. Because of the teacher shortage, the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB), the group in charge of overseeing the Blueprint plan, voted unanimously this month to recommend a pause to implement collaborative time. With the inclusion of the Collaborative Time Innovation Demonstration Grant, a pause in implementing collaborative time has also won the support of State Superintendent Carey Wright and state Board of Education President Joshua Michael. But where some officials see a deferral, advocates like AFT Maryland President Kenya Campbell sees only cuts to education. 'We're already behind the eight ball,' Campbell said. 'Making cuts to the Blueprint is unacceptable.' Campbell had a budget recommendation for legislators looking to make cuts: She said they should target the Broadening Opportunities for Options and Opportunities for Students Today, or BOOST, program. The governor's budget keeps $9 million toward the program that allows low-income students attend private schools. That same amount was allocated last school year for nearly 3,000 students to receive scholarship awards at 175 schools. 'I believe in public education,' said Campbell, a former elementary teacher and teacher mentor. 'We're taking from public education and putting it into private settings, settings where kids are screened on whether or not they can get into those settings.' Meanwhile, the AFT has other legislative priorities that includes its members who work in higher education. It supports HB 661 sponsored by Del. Linda Foley (D-Montgomery), which would allow for full-time, part-time and adjunct faculty at the 12 institutions in the University System of Maryland, St. Mary's College and Morgan State University to collectively bargain. Foley has a companion bill – HB 211 – that would also allow graduate assistants and postdoctoral associates to also collectively bargain. 'It's really enabling legislation for the workers,' Foley said. 'It's up to them [workers] to decide if they want a union, but they should be able to decide to have a union if they want one.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
