Alex Arianna during a reading lesson at Lincoln Elementary School. (Photo courtesy Frederick County Public Schools)

 

Alice Tickler tries to stay positive when it comes to educating young children, but the longtime teacher admits there are some things that can make it hard — and it’s not anything the students do.

Things like the legislature’s failure to fund a training program, specifically for reading and math teachers. As a teacher for 28 years, she’s seen the benefits of what educators call a “coaching program.”

“Seeing other teachers in action, having a mentor teacher that knows how to teach reading alongside of you or coaching you, that’s huge,” said Tickler, a first-grade teacher in Queen Anne’s County public schools. “That coaching model would really benefit teachers.”

Tickler’s comments echo recommendations in a report being released Tuesday morning by Maryland READS, a nonprofit focused on the improvement of reading instruction. Providing consistent funding for teachers is just one of the recommendations in “The State of Reading in Maryland 2025: It’s Time for a Comeback after a Decade of Decline.”

While the General Assembly approved the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act last week without funding for a training program, it did approve funding for a national teacher recruitment campaign and a $2,000 relocation grant to “incentivize an out-of-state licensed teacher to move to the state.”

The report’s not all about funding, however, and acknowledges the state’s financial difficulties. Similar to a report produced last year, Tuesday’s document outlines recommendations to improve literacy, such as businesses providing employees time to serve as local tutors, and state and local leaders organizing town halls on digital education for families.

Because of the state’s fiscal challenges, the report suggests philanthropists provide financial and other resources to help create “thriving, reading ecosystems.”

A chart shows per pupil spending increased in comparison to test scores for fourth- and eighth-grade students in Maryland. (Chart courtesy of Maryland READS)

According to the report, per pupil spending increased by 37% since 2013 through last year. During that time, National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores have constantly declined.

“Everything the state has done to put a system of support in place … gives us hope,” Trish Brennan-Gac, executive director of Maryland READS, said in an interview. “But I think the legislature needs to get on board a little bit more and trust her [State Superintendent Carey Wright] leadership because she has a proven track record, and I don’t think they did that this time around.”

‘Make sure children can read’

Tuesday’s document notes a report last year from the National Council on Teacher Quality. It gave Maryland and 19 other states an overall “moderate” rating on teacher training programs based on five policy actions to strengthen implementation of the “science of reading,” which Wright utilized as public schools leader in Mississippi and pushed to incorporate in Maryland.

The council gave three ratings – strong, moderate and weak – not only for the total assessment of training programs, but also separate reviews of each policy action. On the policy statement, “Reviews teacher-preparation programs to ensure they teach the Science of Reading,” Maryland received a “weak” rating.

Maryland READS recommends the state Department of Education “should immediately exercise authority, including limiting grants and contracts, and hold Maryland teacher preparation programs accountable for aligning to Science of Reading by 2028.”

According to the report, what will help teachers with literacy instruction is an agreement the department made last year to implement a four-year, $6.8 million grant from the nonprofit Ibis Group of Washington, D.C.

About $5.3 million of that grant will be used for free online training in the science of reading for at least 30,000 paraprofessionals, teachers and other staff. The remaining $1.5 million would be for Johns Hopkins University and the department to research the impact of teacher efficacy, teacher background knowledge and literacy.

But Brennan-Gac said additional and consistent support is needed.

“Having a coach in the classroom actually helps the teacher change their practice,” Brennan-Gac said. “While it’s wonderful that we’ve brought these training programs into the state, [but] if they don’t get the coaching, we’re not really leveraging that wonderful resource we have and this whole movement that we’re doing.”

Some other recommendations from the report to improve literacy include:

Starting July 1, the department should collaborate with educators and organizations to begin work on drafting an adolescent literacy policy;The legislature should tie future funding to data related to proficiency rates at community schools, those that receive high concentration of poverty grants which provide a variety of wraparound and other services; andState, local and community leaders should educate parents and guardians on limiting the use of electronic devices for their children.

“We should do everything that we can to make sure that our children can read,” said Tickler, who serves on a statewide teacher advisory council created by the department this year. “We don’t want our children to enter that pipeline that takes them to jail or drugs. We want our kids to be successful and we want our kids to be literate.”

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
April 15, 2025

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].

 State Superintendent Carey Wright, second from left, at a September news conference at the Maryland State Department of Education building. Board of Education President Joshua Michael, left, listens. (File photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

The U.S. Department of Education told states Friday that it was canceling previous approvals to spend down remaining COVID-19 recovery funds, a change that could mean $418 million to the Maryland Department of Education.

The change was announced in a letter from U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon that was dated Friday at 5 p.m., and said the decision to cancel the pandemic funding was effective — Friday at 5 p.m.

“Shock does not begin to describe our reaction when we received the notification late Friday evening,” Maryland State Superintendent Carey Wright said Monday. “This jeopardizes over $400 million in funding.”

Wright called the federal agency’s decision “catastrophic,” noting that the money has already been spent or at least committed to the state’s 24 school systems. She said the money is being used for tutoring, reading materials, after-school programming, even some construction projects such as repairs for heating and air conditioning units, among others.

State officials said about $305.2 million has already been spent but not reimbursed by the federal department. Another $112.8 million is in “encumbered” funds not paid out by the state, which means school systems must immediately stop any ongoing work on capital projects, or educational programs.

“It may be a tutoring program that’s going on right now in schools that was intended to go through this school year, or it might be an improvement to a health room in a school,” said state Board of Education President Joshua Michael. “There’s going to be significant disruption.”

Officials said it remains unclear if the state would need to cover costs for ongoing programs, or if the local school systems may have to return any money already spent.

“The federal government is breaking the trust that it has once held strong with states across America,” Michael said.

School officials said they are consulting with the Office of the Attorney General on the possibility of filing suit against the federal department.

“I think it’s fair to say that we are exploring all legal options at this time given the severity of this action,” Michael said.

He said the majority of the money comes from the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ARP ESSER, program.

The state last year requested and received approval for an extension on how it would draw down the ESSER funds it  had left over. Wright said the state sought extensions because of supply chain issues and construction delays.

The approval was given before a Jan. 28 deadline set by former President Joe Biden (D) before he left office that month. But in her letter Friday, McMahon dismissed the approvals by the previous administration.

“The extension approval was issued recently, so any reliance interests developed are minimal,” McMahon wrote. “Moreover, an agency may reconsider its prior decision. So you could not rely on the Department adhering to its original decision. That is especially true because the extension was a matter of administrative grace.”

She said that extending deadlines to allocate “COVID-related grants … years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion.”

But McMahon also wrote the department would reconsider funding for states if the could explain “how a particular project’s extension is necessary to mitigate the effects of COVID on American students’ education, and why the Department should exercise its discretion to grant your request.”

Wright said ending the program at 5 p.m. Friday and offering to consider appeals from states “seemed to be contradictory,” but she said her department plans to send a letter to justify why money for Maryland is necessary.

A U.S. department spokesperson said that specific projects would be assessed if funds are used directly to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.

“COVID is over. States and school districts can no longer claim they are spending their emergency pandemic funds on ‘COVID relief’ when there are numerous documented examples of misuse,” said Madi Biedermann in a statement Monday afternoon.

“The Biden Administration established an irresponsible precedent by extending the deadline for spending the COVID money far beyond the intended purpose of the funds, and it is past time for the money to be returned to the people’s bank account,” Biedermann’s statement said.

In part because of the Education Department’s decision, the Maryland Senate approved an amendment to a budget bill Monday that would require the governor’s budget team to track federal cuts and, if they hit $1 billion, recommend state spending cuts to the General Assembly’s Legislative Policy Committee.

“If we have a $1 billion problem from combined actions by the federal government, we would begin a process of review through our policy committee, and work with the governor to come up with solutions,” said Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-Howard), chair of the Budget and Taxation Committee. “We have to be wide-eyed open about what could be happening because it is happening.”

Sen. Chris West (R-Baltimore and Carroll) asked if any recommendations that may come from the policy committee would be for the legislature next year.

“Could very well be,” Guzzone said.

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
March 31, 2025

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].

As expected, the House of Delegates approved an amended, comprehensive education plan Tuesday night that rejected cuts proposed by Gov. Wes Moore (D).

The 100-39 party-line vote sets up a potential showdown with the Senate over the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act. Senate leaders have indicated that, in the face of a projected $3 billion deficit for fiscal 2026, they may be more sympathetic to the governor’s version of the bill to amend the state’s multiyear, costly Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

House Democratic leaders have consistently pushed back against the governor’s plan, saying that any cuts would negatively affect the Blueprint, now in its third year of implementation. But House Ways and Means Committee Chair Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard) said after Tuesday night’s floor vote that the House and the governor agree on the goals of the plan, but disagree on how to get there.

“He [Moore] was looking at the Blueprint also as a means to solve budgetary issues, and we did not,” Atterbeary said. “I think in large part we disagreed when it comes to funding. But I think policy wise, we agreed primarily with the governor.”

The debate put House Republicans in the unusual position of defending the governor’s bill against Democratic amendments.

“Didn’t agree with everything in it, but it was a compromise that suggests we can, in future years, account for the realities that we will not have to spend as much we’ll amend, in particular, the collaborative time,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany), before voting against the amended House version of the bill.

“I think that we would have been best served to support Gov. Moore’s bill, rather than the bill as amended currently before the House,” he said.

Three Republicans – Dels. Kevin Hornberger (R-Cecil), Susan K. McComas (R-Harford) and Chris Tomlinson (R-Frederick and Carroll) – who signed on as co-sponsors of the previous version from the governor, asked to have their names removed from the amended bill, which opposed.

Del. Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard) talks about her support for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Some of the proposals in the original bill included a four-year pause in the phase-in of collaborative time for teachers, a freeze in funding for community schools located in low-income neighborhoods and a lower increase in per pupil funding.

Atterbeary’s committee and the Appropriations Committee amended the governor’s bill to restore funding to community schools and to reduce the four-year delay in collaborative time to a one-year pause to give the state’s 24 school systems time to prepare for a fiscal 2027.

The House did keep language from the governor’s version that would allow for the state Department of Education to establish a national teacher recruitment campaign to start in July and end by July 1, 2029. It also kept a $2,000 relocation grant that would be provided to “incentivize an out-of-state licensed teacher to move to the state,” in an effort to reduce the teacher shortage and the number of conditionally licensed teachers.

Administration officials defended their position during a joint hearing last month, saying it would be impractical to institute the increase in collaborative time next school year because it would require the hiring of at least 12,000 teachers at a time when the state and nation face a teacher shortage.

The administration’s proposal sought to hold community school at current levels for the next two years, instead of allowing it to increase as the Blueprint calls for.

On the House floor Tuesday, a few Republicans said the Blueprint plan is a vehicle the state can’t afford right now.

“If this is the Mercedes of education C class, it feels a little bit more like a Pinto that we’re selling for a Mercedes price,” said Del. Lauren Arikan (R-Harford), who voted against the bill.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee — which took part in a joint hearing on the bill last month with the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee and the two House panels — could vote on the Senate version of the bill this week.

Senate Majority Leader Nancy King (D-Montgomery), a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee, has said she supports a pause in collaborative time, especially with the teacher shortage in the state. And Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore), a member of the “Triple-E” Committee, has said the Blueprint needs some restructuring that provides more autonomy to local school systems.

Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), who chairs the Appropriations Committee, told reporters Tuesday night he’s confident the two chambers will find a solution.

“I think it’s because we all share the same values. We want to certainly protect these kids and make sure the funding is there and the policies are there,” he said. “We’ll get to a compromise in the end.”

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
March 11, 2025

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].