Lawmakers, School officials raise concerns over Blueprint funding

MARYLAND – This school year will mark the first in Maryland where pillars of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future will be implemented, with every district having their plans certified last week.

“We were able to increase the salaries for our teachers, which is, you know, was it enough, no, but I think they deserve much more, but it was a start, plus we were able to expand our early childhood opportunities for our pre-K and K students, pre-K, three, and four-year-olds,” said Wicomico County Blueprint Coordinator Dr. Rick Briggs.

Briggs says they were also able to hire 6 career coaches for college readiness programs to help prepare children for their futures.

However, he says it’s the future of Blueprint,  including a 60k starting salary for teachers set to start in 2024 that has him worried, especially with the state running a deficit.

“The additional funding that comes from the blueprint is definitely needed and being put to good use, so to hear that there’s a possible deficit in some of that funding is in jeopardy, that’s troublesome,” he said.

It’s a concern shared by state Senator Mary Beth Carozza, who says she’s heard from Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester county schools all expressing anxiety about the program’s funding source.

“I believe that gives us pause to take a step back and maybe look at some of these timelines for implementing the blueprint., maybe they now need to be stretched out because at this point it’s simply unaffordable,” Sen. Carozza said.

She says statewide there needs to be better communication between districts, the state Blueprint Accountability Boards, and the Department of Education.

That’s after Briggs says his districts, and others received contradictory feedback on implementation from the two groups.

Sen. Carozza tells us she’ll be using her role on the education committee to help streamline that system and push deadlines as needed by schools.

“What we tend to do with the committee function is to use that committee function for oversight and to bring some pressure to bear on both of those state entities dealing with education,” Sen. Carozza said.

She tells us despite her concerns being statewide, she is also working on making sure Worcester County gets more state dollars for its blueprint implementation, citing an issue with the state’s funding formula for the county.

“The funding formula that they use for state funding for education in the local school systems is inherently unfair to Worcester County, ” she said adding “They only take the property assessments into account when they do the formula rather than the demographic information, so therefore not really looking at the entire county where we have some economic challenges in the southern part of the county.”

The funding issue, while separate from the current local funding dispute in the county, would leave the county on the hook for far more of the blueprint costs than its neighboring counties.

“What you are now having some conversations about and more briefings at the state level on the actual budget challenges that our local school systems are facing and our local counties are facing,” she said.

Sen. Carozza tells 47ABC she will also push for local representation on the Professional Standards Teacher Education Board, a body with 24 members including 8 public school teachers that work to evaluate changes made in state-wide education.

“I want to make sure that as we are addressing these teacher career issues and the salaries for our teachers, that we have representation from the shore on that board,” she said.