2026 End of Session Wrap-Up: Education

The segments below provide a brief overview of MACo’s work in the area of education policy in the 2026 General Assembly session.

Education remains one of the single largest investments for Maryland’s counties, with local governments providing substantial support for both school operations and capital needs. As key funding partners, counties play a critical role in sustaining public education systems while balancing broader budget demands. Through its education advocacy, MACo works to ensure that state education policies are transparent, accountable, and fairly structured, especially when new mandates risk shifting costs onto local governments already facing strained budgets.

In Maryland’s 448th legislative session, education policy was shaped by ongoing implementation of major funding formulas, fiscal pressures at both the state and local levels, and continued focus on long-term school system performance. The General Assembly considered a range of proposals affecting funding, accountability, and program requirements.

Within this context, MACo engaged to protect the state-local partnership that underpins Maryland’s education system. MACo’s legislative Committee guided action to ensure that funding commitments remain reliable, policy changes are fully resourced, and counties retain a clear and sustainable role in supporting public schools.

Follow these links for more coverage on our Conduit Street blog and Legislative Database.

MACo supported HB 490/SB 311 – Education – The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – Revisions with amendments. This bill will adjust a number of components of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Blueprint) with a broad focus on school funding, teacher recruitment and retention, college and career readiness, and resource allocation in community schools. MACo offered amendments to hold state agencies more accountable for failures and outcomes as well as reconcile the current “double counting” of private pre-kindergarten payments that have been required atop each affected county’s school system allocation. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo opposed HB 562 – Primary and Secondary Education – Maintenance of Effort – Inflation Adjustment (Maintenance of Effort Modernization Act). This bill would have altered the method for calculating the maintenance of effort (MOE) amount county governing bodies are required to appropriate to the school operating budget by requiring an annual inflation adjustment. MACo warned that the proposed change wrongly suggested counties are benefiting from lenient funding standards. This bill did not pass in the 2026 session.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo submitted a letter of information on HB 1491/SB 71 – Education – Interjurisdictional Safe Pathways Commission – Establishment. This bill would have established the Interjurisdictional Safe Pathways Commission to identify, coordinate, and secure funding for safe pathways for students traveling to and from school. MACo’s letter of information explored the potential impact of the Commission, the risks of unfunded mandates, and the complexities of cross-jurisdictional road authority in Maryland. This bill did not pass in the 2026 session.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 1592/SB 378 – Public Libraries – Young Readers Matching Grant Program, Funding, and Services. This bill updated the minimum required state and local funding for libraries and better aligns the State’s financial support to recognize the expanded role libraries play. This bill passed in the 2026 session.