The segments below provide a brief overview of MACo’s work in the area of education policy in the 2024 General Assembly session.
Counties support education as the largest component of their budgets, with operating and capital support for schools typically representing a larger share of a county budget than all other functions combined. Statutory formulas drive most state-level funding, which requires constant attention to the state-county balance in funding responsibilities. The burden of costly mandates can fall on county budgets unless state resources are provided. MACo typically advocates for fair and accountable school funding and opposes unfunded new requirements.
Maryland’s 446th legislative session convened amidst a substantial concern over the State’s fiscal situation, with weakened revenues and cost increases for many services at every level of government. Despite the fiscal limitations, a wide range of policy issues received a full debate, with many resolutions arising from the 90-day annual process. MACo’s legislative committee guided the association’s positions on hundreds of bills, yielding many productive compromises and gains spanning counties’ uniquely wide portfolio.
Follow these links for more coverage on our Conduit Street blog and Legislative Database.
Child Care and Early Childhood Learning
MACo supported HB 1139/SB 882 Growing Family Child Care Opportunities Pilot Program – Permanent Establishment to make the Growing Family Child Care Opportunities Pilot Program into a permanent program to support Marylanders interested in starting private child care services. It would come at a time when child care, and early childhood education, are undergoing a transformation with the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 902- Prekindergarten – Ulysses Currie Head Start Program – Eligibility for State Funds. This bill authorizes providers under the Ulysses Currie Head Start Programs to receive state funding to support public pre-K expansion as imagined by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Counties saw this as an additional tool to address the need for more providers and facilities to implement this aspect of the Blueprint. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1441- Early Childhood Education – Publicly Funded Prekindergarten Programs – Alterations to tackle several impediments to pre-K expansion, including workforce shortages, lack of physical space for early childhood facilities, and subpar private provider engagement. Importantly, this bill incorporates many of the suggestions from county governments to help effectively implement this critical aspect of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
Community Colleges, Vocational Training, and Career Opportunities
MACo supported HB 75/SB 377- Higher Education – Teacher Development and Retention Program – Alterations which expands eligible institutions for the Teacher Development and Retention Program to include community colleges. It helps strengthen Maryland’s pipeline of public school teachers and provides critical support to community college students pursuing a career in education. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 545/SB 441- Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Repayment Program – Nancy Grasmick Public School Professional Award – Public School Nurses. This bill extends eligibility to Maryland’s existing student loan repayment assistance program to school nurses who serve in a public school. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 837/ SB 33- More Opportunities for Career-Focused Students Act of 2024 as it helps level the playing field for Maryland students wishing to pursue vocational education and careers instead of post-secondary education. It requires schools to pay the exam fees for trade skills and apprenticeship certification if they do so for college preparatory course exams (like AP and IB exams) and helps connect students with vocational apprenticeship and career opportunities as they do for colleges and universities. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
School Funding and Special Programs
MACo opposed HB 456/SB 386- County Boards of Education – Student Members – Voting Rights and Participation in Executive Sessions as it would have extended broad voting rights to all student members of local boards of education, essentially overturning the tradition of local autonomy in education decision-making. This bill did not pass the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 909/SB 803- Education – Local Share of Major Education Aid – Nonrecurring Costs Exclusion. This bill would have added a second, later application deadline for school systems to apply for nonrecurring cost waivers for one-time expenses to better align with the county government budget cycle. In doing so, the bill would have allowed and encouraged counties to collaboratively invest one-time funds in Maryland’s public schools instead of being forced to leave money on the table because of the current early deadline. This bill did not pass during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 945/SB 771- Education – Initial Teacher Certification – Requirements as it adjusts the initial certification requirements for public educators to provide greater flexibility and allow prospective teachers to work in Maryland classrooms while they pursue full certification. Counties supported this bill as one of several seeking to help ease the educator shortage and strengthen Maryland’s school workforce. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1115/SB 1026- County Boards of Education – Budgets – Notice (Transparency in Education Spending Act). This MACo initiative bill ensures that county governments receive more comprehensive and timely data about school system spending as funding partners for Maryland public schools. The bill specifies various pieces of information to accompany the school systems’ funding request to county governing bodies, and also specifies information to be provided in a readily accessible part of the school systems’ public facing websites. Following different amendments from the House and Senate committees, a segment of the bill regarding inter-category transfers was removed – thus avoiding a late-session conference committee and accelerating the bill toward final passage. This amended bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1157/SB 937- Grow Your Own Educators Grant Program – Established as it establishes the Grow Your Own Educators Program to provide grants to local school systems to support non-certified employees in completing a teacher preparation program in anticipation of becoming fully certified. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
MACo supported HB 1336/SB 1077- Public Schools – Appropriations for School Safety Expenditures – School Security Employees with amendments. This bill, as amended and passed, would extend an annual appropriations for certain school safety expenditures, that otherwise would have expired in fiscal year 2026. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1426/SB 1102- Education – Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – Alterations. This bill makes several alterations to the existing Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – many of them ministerial, adjusting timelines for various reports and requirements to more accurately reflect progress currently underway. The bill also alters some provisions for students dually enrolled between the public schools and a community college. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 760- Office of Legislative Audits – Local School Systems – Report with amendments. This bill would require county boards of education to address repeat findings and recommendations presented in financial and other audits from various oversight authorities. MACo had sought additional clarity on follow-up after such findings are identified, but the final version of the bill did not spell these out. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
MACo supported HB 1390- Public Schools – Public School Construction – Funding and Administration with amendments. As
amended, this bill alters the purpose of the Nancy K. Kopp Public School Facilities Priority Fund and establishes the Workgroup on the Assessment and Funding of School Facilities, among other operational changes related to school construction. MACo sought an amendment to add local representation to the proposed workgroup. This bill passed during the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
Libraries and Literacy
MACo took no position on HB 785/SB 738- Freedom to Read, but provided the General Assembly with a Letter of Information. The bill creates “State Standards for Libraries” about providing and restricting library materials based on origin, identity, and “partisan doctrinal disapproval.” Under the bill, local library and school systems would be required to adopt similar policies. Should a public library system fail to do so or if they violate the Standards, the State is authorized under HB 785 to withhold state funding from the public library system. This bill passed the 2024 session.
Bill Information | MACo Coverage
