Gov. Wes Moore (D), seen here speaking to reporters during the opening day of the 2025 session. He subsequently released a budget that he said will cut taxes, cure a $3 billion budget deficit and spur economic growth. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears / Maryland Matters)
The budget for 2026 just proposed by Gov. Wes Moore (D) cuts deep into state and local Blueprint funding by about $238 million this year, a cut of about 15%.
In addition, the cutbacks will compound in the years ahead, reducing Blueprint funding by as much as $2.5 billion through 2029.
Those numbers are not misprints. They’re not absolutely definitive either. But that’s because the governor’s budget this year is unusually complicated with innumerable open questions and will be a moving target until the details and accompanying legislation can be analyzed in the coming weeks. Still, the big picture is crystal clear: The proposed cutbacks are astonishingly large, putting the future of the Blueprint in grave danger.
Also, the $2.5 billion in cutbacks cited above does not include additional cuts to community schools and wrap-around behavioral health supports, with a conservative estimated loss of another $730 million.
More facts: While it’s conventional in Annapolis to charge that Blueprint funding is the big bad wolf that is blowing down the state’s fiscal house, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D. Baltimore) has had the courage to debunk this. It’s “simply not true,” he recently said, adding “Our deficit is caused by entitlement spending and health care costs and child care subsidies.”
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For 2026, Blueprint funding, even before the cuts, would have amounted to just 2.38% of the state’s operating budget of $67.3 billion.
Not only does the governor’s budget under-state the magnitude of the cuts, but he has chosen to sugarcoat the pill for schoolchildren by pretending that the loss of funds “will help preserve $2.5 billion through 2030 to support future investment in education.”
It will, as a practical matter, do no such thing. The Blueprint budget for 2026 and beyond will be determined through the annual budget-making process. But it’s virtually certain that the draconian $2.5 billion (or more) reductions will not be restored.
In pragmatic political terms, the issue boils down to priorities. There is no end to the controversy and fierce competition over budgets. Other worthy governmental purposes also plead for more funding. Even so, school reform is not getting the high priority it deserves and the Blueprint promises.
Total cuts in the budget are about $2 billion, but the massive cuts to Blueprint funding and their compounding nature inflict disproportionate suffering on schoolchildren. Also consider that while these extreme cuts are on the table, other state programs are receiving big increases in their budgets.
There is also deception in how budget-cutters defend the largest part of the Blueprint cuts: those that all but decimate the vital program to provide teachers more time for planning and tutoring. “Collaborative Time” would require hiring more teachers, and because that’s so hard to do given current staffing shortages, they claim the funding loss would not be a setback. But that’s disingenuous.
The proposed budget cuts the collaborative-time program for five years, despite the probability that an all-out recruiting initiative, coupled with steps to encourage retention, would gradually tackle the shortages. Moreover, any unspent collaborative-time funding could be redirected to other underfunded Blueprint programs — most notably implementation of the new literacy policy.
Gov. Moore and legislative leaders seem to take comfort in a recent state poll that purports to show that Marylanders don’t want to pay more taxes. But the polling questions were deceptive. The survey asked if respondents support or oppose an increase in the state property tax, the sales tax, and the state income tax “to deal with” “the 3 billion dollar deficit that’s expected to grow to 6 billion dollars over the next 5 years.”
No surprise, the results indicate that virtually no one wants to pay more taxes for unspecified purposes. But properly framed, a survey would ask about attitudes toward more taxes that would achieve progress on transforming K-12 education, expanding health care access, and enhancing transportation to fuel economic development. A 2023 Hart Research poll found that 77% of the state’s voters said it’s important to make sure there is enough revenue to fund public education, health care, and public safety.
The saving grace is that there’s still time for Annapolis to pull back from the course of retreat and get the Blueprint moving again in the right direction. Maryland schoolchildren will benefit, and other states would still have a model for school reform to emulate.