Governor Moore announced at the MACo Winter Conference his plan to “pause” certain elements of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, and then testified in person in support of the multi-faceted legislation his Administration introduced. The House has passed its version of the bill – removing the central tenet of pausing funding for collaborative time, but retaining other elements.

While most of the State’s largest fiscal decisions remain on hold, one much-watched bill has received its first floor debate and approval – the Governor’s “Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act,” HB 504.

The House of Delegates debated the amended bill on the floor, with a series of amendments discussed and rejected before a mostly party-line vote to send the bill to the Senate for further consideration.

The third reader version of the bill (incorporating the House amendments), changes the bill as follows:

• Instead of the Governor’s proposed four-year delay in “collaborative time” as both an operational mandate and funding delay, the bill now delays for one year the requirement that each school system begin phasing toward the eventual 40% collaborative (out of classroom) time target for educators, but will not make changes to the funding amounts that are nominally driven by this element of the Blueprint
• The Governor’s proposal to freeze funding for Community Schools was removed from the bill

The Senate has not yet taken any action on its cross-filed version of the same bill – stakeholders expect they will work with HB 504 as the vehicle for program changes. Early indications suggest that the Senate plan may differ from the House’s, but no public discussion or vote has clarified.

Another pair of bills introduced in coordination with school superintendents, HB 1245 and SB 852, have also not yet received any direct attention or vote, but elements from those bills may be incorporated into HB 504 as well in the weeks ahead. See previous Conduit Street coverage on those bills, MACo on the Blueprint: Align Education Reform With Current Implementation Realities.

With three weeks remaining in session, look for education policy (but not a dramatic fiscal “slowdown” in the Blueprint’s vision) to remain a high profile point of focus as leaders work toward final resolution on multiple embedded matters.