League of Women Voters of Maryland:  

2026 Education Issue Paper and Legislative Priorities

Submitted by Gail L. Sunderman

An ongoing concern facing education is whether the General Assembly will continue to fully fund the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Blueprint), compounded by the continuing budget shortfall facing the state. The Blueprint (House Bill 1300) became law in the 2021 state legislative session. It included increases in state funding for education spread out over 10 years and other provisions, or “pillars,” designed to improve education. Strong Schools Maryland, a local advocacy group, created interactive dashboards that monitor progress across the five pillars.  

Protecting the Blueprint

A top priority for LWVMD education advocacy is to ensure that schools receive the funds promised in the Blueprint. The LWVMD position on financing education supports this issue. Reaching this goal includes:

  • Support for progressive revenue generation. 
  • Protecting the Blueprint funds from reallocation to different funding needs.

Issues Impacting the Blueprint in 2026 In 2025, the Governor introduced the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act (House Bill 504/Senate Bill 429), which proposed funding cuts and policy changes to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future scheduled to take effect in fiscal year 2026 and beyond. Strong advocacy improved on the Governor’s original bill which would have made drastic cuts to education funding. The final bill restored some of the funding cuts—there were no cuts to per-pupil funding for FY26, for example—but retained other changes that will reduce funding in subsequent years.

Two other issues are likely to impact education funding. First is how the state counts low-income students. In 2024, the legislature created the Governor’s Office for Children (GOC) (SB482) and called on it to submit a report, using different methodologies to calculate indicators of childhood poverty (i.e., students living in poverty). These methodologies are outlined in the GOC’s Neighborhood Indicators of Childhood Poverty report issued in October 2025. All models presented in the report would significantly reduce the number of Maryland students officially recognized as living in poverty. The report estimates that 50-81% of schools would experience a decrease in student poverty counts, and all methodologies would decrease the total cost of poverty-based funding, for an estimated cost reduction between ~$118m and  ~$853m. The Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) adopted a “hold harmless” approach for compensatory education funding in FY2027 to prevent sudden drops in funding. Nonetheless, the AIB is required to submit a recommendation to the General Assembly on whether there should be an updated methodology for calculating the compensatory education formula. 

Maryland public schools are also experiencing enrollment declines, variously attributed to lower birth rates, slower reentry from pandemic homeschooling and private school placements, and federal immigration dynamics. Since funding formulas are tied to enrollment and fixed costs such as utilities and transportation continue to rise, enrollment changes, especially declines, can impact funding. 

The lines of authority between the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB), Maryland State Board of Education (MSBE), and Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) have not been clear and have created a lot of confusion. The AIB was created by the Blueprint as an independent agency to oversee and coordinate the Blueprint’s implementation across various state and local partners responsible for implementing it. The law essentially established a new bureaucracy. The AIB has 16 staff members, 7 board members, and 5 advisory committees. Each advisory committee has 6 members, except the Governance and Accountability committee which has 12 members. Recognizing the confusion created by these different authorities, the MSBE and the AIB entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in June 2025 to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the MSBE and the AIB regarding the Blueprint. 

What we will be watching regarding the Blueprint:

  • Changes that impact the funding formula
  • Whether there will be a bill requiring an adequacy study.
  • A bill to reform the AIB
  • How the state responds to the issue of how poverty is counted

Fair and Equitable School Discipline

Policies and procedures to reduce disproportionality in school discipline and promote non-punitive interventions are another long standing priority. The education advocacy team works with the Coalition to Reform School Discipline (CRSD) on these issues. In 2025 the CRSD worked with Senator Benjamin Brooks (district 10) to pass a bill (SB0068/HB1257) that supports the adoption of restorative practices and other relationship building interventions to address school discipline behaviors. In 2026, we continue to work with legislators to pass a bill to increase school discipline-related data transparency and accessibility. 

LWVMD also supports bills intended to change the definition of reportable offenses. In Maryland, reportable offenses are serious crimes committed by a student off school property (and not at a school-sponsored event) that law enforcement must report to the student’s school. This often results in a student being removed from school even in circumstances where a student poses no safety concerns or otherwise negatively impacts the school and other students. In 2025, Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary introduced HB620 which sought to limit reportable offenses to crimes of violence. This bill focused on offenses that may raise concerns about whether a student is safe to be in school, and removed property crimes – property damage and motor vehicle theft – which do not indicate whether a student would be a threat to other students or staff. 

Expand and Protect Educational Opportunity

The education advocacy team prioritizes bills that support policies and programs that  promote  educational opportunity and access to quality education. This includes issues such as support for Community Schools, legislation that addresses the recruitment and retention of teachers, especially underrepresented teacher groups and multi-lingual teachers, and opposition to vouchers, and other forms of privatization of schools, schooling, and the curriculum. Voucher bills come up every year, and every year the advocacy team submits testimony opposing them. 

This year there is a new federal law affecting vouchers. HR 1, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 created a tax-credit voucher system for private K-12 schooling, allowing taxpayers to get a tax credit (up to $1,700) for donating to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). SGOs are non-profit 501(c)(3) entities that collect donations from individuals and businesses and then provide those funds as tuition assistance or scholarships for K-12 students to attend private schools. This effectively creates a new federal pathway to fund private schools through tax credits. States must opt-into the program. To date, Governor Moore has not decided whether to opt-in or out. States have some ability to regulate SGOs and decide how the money can be used, but until federal regulations are finalized it’s not clear what these options might be. 

Higher Education

In 2025, for the first time, the education advocacy team followed higher education issues. The aim was to learn about what kinds of higher education issues come before the General Assembly and to identify where advocacy may be appropriate. Since LWVMD does not have a position on higher education, we rely on LWVUS positions on higher education and also work to identify positions that could be used to support higher education advocacy. LWVMD will continue to follow higher education issues in 2026, with a focus on:  

  • Support for higher education preparation policies that will foster a diverse teaching pool.
  • Support for ensuring educational opportunities for undocumented students and students with special abilities. 

Education Coalitions 

The education advocacy team works with three coalitions—The Coalition for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Blueprint Coalition), Coalition to Reform School Discipline (CRSD), and the Maryland Education Coalition (MEC)—which brings additional expertise and increases the impact of LWVMD advocacy.