BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation Tuesday to restructure the state’s landmark Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform policy, maintaining funding for community schools while pausing the implementation of teacher collaborative time.

“Two years before I was sworn in as governor, the General Assembly passed a historic piece of education reform,” Moore said at the Annapolis bill signing. “But, like any big law of ambition and bold aspiration, we knew that there would have to be responsible adjustments and enhancements that had to be made.”

Moore, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson, all Democrats, signed the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act. The governor said it is “the first meaningful update to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” since it went into effect in 2021.

Education advocates and General Assembly Democrats bristled at the bill, which was brought on behalf of the Moore administration in the midst of a $3 billion structural budget deficit. Moore’s bill initially proposed pausing annual funding increases to schools receiving Concentration of Poverty School Grants, or community schools, for two years and delaying the implementation of teacher collaborative time, or increased time for curriculum planning, grading and professional development outside of the classroom, by four years, among other measures.

The Democratic supermajority found a middle ground with Moore’s policy, sending a bill to his desk before they adjourned on April 7. The legislature delayed funding increases for community schools and allowed funding for collaborative time to go to local school boards for fiscal year 2026.

General Assembly Republicans applauded the cuts as proposed in Moore’s bill and were in favor of the collaborative time pause provision that headed to Moore’s desk.

The bill, as signed on Tuesday, will also pause collaborative time funding increases for fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

Because there is a pause in collaborative time increases, the legislation, which goes into effect July 1, will also reduce the amount of foundation spending per pupil because funding tied to collaborative time is baked into that formula. The funding decrease per pupil will not impact spending for special education, English learners, students most at risk of not succeeding academically, or students at the Maryland School for the Deaf, the Maryland School for the Blind, or the SEED School of Maryland.

“The bill that we are signing today that adjusts the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is not just about managing the funding,” Ferguson said. “It is a commitment to the people of Maryland — to families — to say our schools are our competitive advantage because, at the end of the day, this is about investing in Maryland.”

Among the nearly 200 bills signed Tuesday was legislation sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Vanessa Atterbeary and Del. Kris Fair, both Democrats, which will require local school boards to adopt curriculum content standards for each subject at every grade level to be established by the Maryland State Board of Education (MSDE).

Suppose the state superintendent of schools determines that local school boards have adopted curricula that conflict with MSDE content standards and do not take appropriate action to align them. In that case, the state superintendent must withhold state funding from that school board.

The legislation goes into effect on July 1.

The bill that reached Moore’s desk is vastly different than what was initially offered by Atterbeary and Fair.

As proposed, the legislation specifically focused on health education curriculum. It would have required each of Maryland’s 24 local school boards to create age-appropriate lessons that meet the standards set by Maryland’s education and health departments, including lessons on how to live a healthy lifestyle, mental and emotional health, substance abuse prevention, family life, violence prevention, safe social media and internet usage, healthy eating, disease prevention, human sexuality, gender and sexual orientation.

Under the bill’s previous provisions, parents would have maintained the ability to opt their child out of the family life and human sexuality courses, but sections on gender and sexual orientation would have been mandatory.

The bill, as signed on Tuesday, did not specifically mention the health education curriculum but addressed content standards across academic subjects.

Ahead of the bill signing, Jones said that public education has “come under attack” under President Donald Trump’s administration — “whether it’s their threats to gut the Department of Education, their withholding of federal education funds or their effort to purge our schools of any recognition of diversity.”

“This session, we passed House Bill 161 to ensure that we are listening to the experts — not those with politically motivated and divisive agendas when determining curriculum guidelines for our schools,” said Jones. “As the Trump administration continues to pursue an agenda that targets our students, their civil rights and their diversity, we also know they are more likely to succeed when they see themselves and their experiences reflected in our curriculum, and that is something we will always fight for.”

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