Back in 2021, a piece of legislation was passed in the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) called the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. This vital piece of legislation benefits Maryland public schools and improves our public education system. It focuses on five big areas: making early childhood education more accessible, supporting high-quality teachers and staff, expanding career and college readiness, providing more resources to students who need it, and building strong accountability systems to make sure it all actually happens. Students already are impacted by these mandates first hand. For example, within our schools in FCPS there is a requirement of having a College and Career Readiness Coach available for students. Also, some students could have waived test fees for College Board tests.
“It’s important because it’s designed to make sure all Maryland students (no matter where they live or go to school) get what they need to succeed. It is a long-term transformational education plan for Maryland that will invest billions of dollars into our schools!” (Riya Gupta, Interim Executive Director of Strong Schools Maryland). This beneficial piece of legislation has benefited Maryland’s ranking in education nationwide from being 40th in 2022, to now being 20th as of 2024. However, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is an unfunded mandate. This means that all the mandates within the large piece of legislation are required but not funded for. Furthermore, things such as getting more counselors, updated school technology, and more online learning programs are having to be paid for by the individual school counties, which hurts the Board of Education’s budget.
Many students across the state of Maryland are passionate about improving our education and this starts by fully funding the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. First, Qamryn Askew, a senior from Baltimore City County Public Schools (BCCPS) stated that “We [Maryland] have the opportunity for our students to have a world class education, but we do a disservice to them [students] by not appropriating the funds for it. It needs to be thought of as an investment rather than spending.” Second, Gavin Falcon, a senior from Howard County Public Schools (HCPS) mentioned that “The Blueprint For Maryland’s future should be fully funded because I have seen the benefit in counties across the state and, we can’t finish half way through…” Third, Will Androine, a junior from Anne Arundel County Public Schools, said “Because of how we [students] are in the most important developmental stages in our lives, we need more money towards making sure all students have the resources they need to be prepared for our future. Furthermore, Emily Noonan, a senior from Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) commented “You can see the tangible change that the Blueprint is making on our education. Its five pillars each speak to a different part of education and all of them have direct impacts on the students, staff, administration and surrounding communities.”
Due to all the current budget deficits and decisions being made to cut money from the Department of Education, this causes money to be cut from state budgets. Furthermore, all of this momentum from students and members of our communities came together to rally for funding the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. An organization called Strong Schools Maryland put together a rally on March 17th. To begin, Strong Schools Maryland is a “Grassroots statewide advocacy organization focused on making sure every student in Maryland has access to a high-quality, fully funded public education.”(Riya Gupta, Interim Executive Director of Strong Schools Maryland). Their main focus is to make sure that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future becomes fully implemented and funded. For the Blueprint of Maryland’s Future to be fully funded and implemented would lead to Maryland achieving an even higher level of equitable education for our students.
Riya Gupta, who is the Interim Executive Director of Strong Schools Maryland organized the Fund Our Futures rally. Gupta stated “We rallied alongside students from across Maryland because state legislators are considering changes to the Blueprint funding plan that would cut money meant for students.”
These proposed cuts were targeted money being allocated towards multilingual students, students living in poverty, and community school funding. Furthermore, this rally had a very clear message: “Don’t cut Blueprint funding, and don’t walk back on the promise Maryland made to its students.”
Many students from all over Maryland attended this rally for the important cause. Some of the students who attended and spoke at this rally were Emily Noonan, Qamryn Askew, and Gavin Falcon, later who was also a key speaker at the rally. Noonan and Falcon attended this rally because Riya Gupta invited them, and they each had many friends from other school counties attending. Additionally, Qamryn said he attended the rally because “Funding for the blueprint is some of ASCBC’s biggest priorities this year, and one of my personal priorities.” Moreover, all of these students had a great time advocating for the education of all students in Maryland. There was a great turnout of students and other concerned members of the community(s) who rallied for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future to become a funded mandate.
If anyone is interested in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, or Strong Schools Maryland and wants to learn more they can check out Strong Schools Maryland’s website at www.strongschoolsmaryland.org and sign up for their newsletter, You can also follow them on Instagram @strongschoolsmd, or email them at hello@strongschoolsmaryland.org.
