MSEA and the 2025 General Assembly Session
“We Kept Pushing”
Paul Lemle, MSEA president: We’d been saying over and over that the 2024 election would have a big impact on our schools. And has it ever.
Samantha (Sam) Zwerling, MSEA chief lobbyist: As of 2024, about 7% of working Marylanders were employed by the federal government. And about 10% work in the private sector with federal contractors. Relative to other states, those are really high numbers.
Nikki Woodward, MSEA vice president: So the promises of the incoming Trump Administration to lay off thousands of federal workers was a huge threat to Maryland’s economy and state budget.
Paul: Combine that with higher than anticipated healthcare costs, sluggish growth, and a tax code where the burden has been too much on working class Mary-landers and too little on the wealthiest individuals and corporations. It made for a really rough budget picture heading into the 2025 legislative session.
In November, Maryland’s Spending Affordability Commission projects a roughly $3 billion budget gap for Fiscal Year 2026 with projected deficits of nearly twice that in five years.
Nikki: Last time we saw budget gaps on this scale, it was about 15 years ago during the Great Recession. And what happened then? The state made huge cuts to educators’ pensions, increasing how much we contribute while making the benefit worse.
Paul: I remember that well. I was a speaker at our Keep the Promise rally in 2011 to fight to protect our pensions along with 15,000 of my new closest friends.
Nikki: There was no way we wouldn’t be facing some type of proposed cuts this year. It was just a question of what, how much, and how we could use our power to push back.
Paul: In public and in private, we’d been making the case to Governor Moore that our schools and students were making progress and that we couldn’t see a repeat of the Great Recession-era sweeping cuts.
Sam: The first public indication of the governor’s approach came in mid-December, when he gave a speech discussing how he would tackle the budget crisis. In that speech, he said he would propose pausing the expansion of collaborative time.
Paul: Expanding collaborative time, or as I call it, time, is one of the key features of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. It says that on average teachers spend 20% of their workday improving and planning lessons, working with colleagues to develop student interventions, and communicating with students’ families—and much more. The Blueprint said that shouldn’t be 20%, it should be 40%.
Nikki: The governor’s argument was that in the midst of an educator shortage, we would need to both fill the shortage and hire more educators on top of that to create the staffing levels needed for a collaborative time expansion to happen.
Paul: What we were really concerned about was seeing this turn into a cuts-only conversation. That’s how 2011 went, and the state budget was balanced thanks to our pensions getting slashed along with some additional cuts to school funding.
Nikki: So we began an advocacy campaign resulting in thousands of emails to legislators with a clear message: no deep cuts to schools. Make big corporations and wealthy individuals do their fair share to fund our schools.
On January 15, the governor introduced the budget.
Nikki: There was some major good news in the governor’s budget.
Paul: He included significant tax reform proposals that were fair, progressive, and serious. At the end of the day, they would have meant an income tax cut or no change for the typical educator. Income tax increases would only be for the wealthiest among us.
Sam: That was a big deal. And we saw a four-year collaborative time pause that the governor had publicly signaled in December.
Paul: But there was a catch.
Sam: Collaborative time is not a separate Blueprint line item. It’s embedded in the foundation of the school funding formula. Funding levels for students receiving special education services, multilingual learners, and students in poverty are coupled to and determined by multiplying the foundation amount by certain weights to yield funding for these students who benefit from additional support and services.
Get more detail on the ups, downs, ins, outs, highs, and lows of this year’s budget and other General Assembly news in MSEA’s Up the Street.
Paul: Because of that multiplier, a collaborative time pause could equal outsized cuts to expected funding levels for those groups of students. The governor’s proposal decoupled the calculation for students receiving special education services to hold them harmless, to the greatest extent possible, from the foundation cut.
Nikki: But multilingual learners and students from backgrounds of poverty did not get the same protection.
Sam: That meant many millions of dollars in cuts to expected funding levels for those students—just because of how the collaborative time pause was written.
Paul: But that wasn’t all.
Nikki: There was also a proposal to delay community school expansion by two years. Now two things are really clear to anyone who knows our community schools. One, Maryland’s community schools expansion has been incredibly successful. Two, especially with federal layoffs, we’re going to see increases in food insecurity, poverty, and other challenges that community schools are designed to address. This is the absolute wrong time to slam the brakes on them.
Sam: While the community schools pause was straightforward to understand, the collaborative time related cuts for some of our students who need the most support was harder to follow.
Paul: Lots of math involved! Our math teacher local presidents were into it. The math that is, not the cuts.
Sam: Explaining it to legislators and policymakers was critical.
Nikki: And we tried to find every opportunity to do just that. Paul and MSEA Executive Director Sean Johnson signed up for public comment at a joint State Board of Education (SBOE) and Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) meeting on January 28.
Sam: The SBOE and AIB are two of the most influential and important policymaking bodies in the state.
Justin Robinson, Prince George’s County teacher and AIB member: And they both have active educators on them! We know firsthand that we can’t solve budget crises on the backs of our students and educators.
Nikki: Paul and Sean didn’t pull any punches during the SBOE and AIB meeting.
Justin: As a member of the AIB, I understood the reasoning behind a collaborative time delay. That the pause would impact funding for some of our most vulnerable students—I couldn’t accept that.
Paul: And we kept pushing.
Amid chaotic federal job and budget cuts, the General Assembly holds a hearing on the governor’s proposed school funding changes.
Sam: On February 19 the legislature held a mega-hearing—a hearing involving four committees that had jurisdiction on the issue. That size hearing is incredibly rare.
Nikki: It was standing room only and the line to get in was out the door. Good thing we got there early to snag seats!
Paul: Legislators were clearly skeptical about the proposed deep cuts.
Nikki: And they heard not just from us—but from students, parents, superintendents, and many others about the negative impact that passing the bill as introduced could have.
Sam: By the end of the four-hour hearing, the committee very clearly said they were not ok with the cuts and would not pass the bill in its current form.
Paul: Major progress.
Nikki: And it was followed by another big step the next day.
Justin: The day after the hearing, the AIB voted unanimously that we did not support reducing funding for students in poverty, multilingual learners, or students receiving special education services as was proposed in the bills. Those impacts were deep in the weeds—but as educators we know that every dollar matters for our students who need extra support. I was proud that the AIB took that vote and made our voices heard.
Paul: Momentum was building. The mega-hearing was a Wednesday. The AIB vote took place on a Thursday. And the very next Monday…
Nikki: Was our statewide Day of Action in Annapolis.
Paul: About 250 educators from across the state came to Annapolis to hold lobby meetings with their legislators. The issues we came to talk about are really complicated—what the collaborative time delay means, what community schools do, and so on. As exciting as it is to fill the streets of Annapolis, we thought we could make more of an impact with focused, small group conversations.
Meagan Jeffries, Calvert County third grade teacher: I decided to come to the Day of Action because I believe deeply in advocating for what matters most to our students and our communities. The Day of Action represented a chance to stand together to make sure we’re all heard. Funding education is too important to stay silent about.
Erica Mah, Baltimore County ESOL teacher: The proposed cuts were going to seriously impact community schools, multilingual learners, and schools with socio-economic needs. The school I work at and the students I serve would be hurt on all three counts. I know there are budget constraints, but cutting school spending or delaying financing of students in need will only cost us, and the children, more in the future.
Katrina Mills, St. Mary’s County building service manager: I was compelled to attend because these are really important issues and funding is at risk. Without our stories and knowledge of the inner workings of our school buildings, legislators cannot make properly informed decisions; otherwise they are just thinking about numbers on a spreadsheet.
Erica: We had a full house of advocates and a full slate of appointments. It speaks to not only our strength as a union but also to the weight of our cause. Our educator colleagues were grateful for our advocacy and are incredibly supportive of our actions. Many wished us luck on the way out and thanked us the next day.
Katrina: I had a great experience lobbying. While it can sound intimidating, it is a powerful feeling to be surrounded by people who share the same values and similar stories advocating for the same cause.
Meagan: My experience was both powerful and motivating. A fellow teacher shared heartfelt letters from her multilingual students, highlighting the real, personal consequences of underfunded education. It was an emotional reminder of why we do this work and how funding directly shapes the futures of our students.
Erica: Two teacher friends came with me—a teacher at my school and our community school facilitator. Both had never done any lobbying but also wanted to represent our school’s needs when they heard about the lobby night and the proposed cuts. It was great to get young teachers involved in our actions to see how we can make a difference beyond the classrooms to still help our students.
Sam: Later on that same week, we had another breakthrough. The House Appropriations Committee voted to restore the funding cuts related to the collaborative time delay and rejected the pause on community schools.
Nikki: Then the House Ways and Means Committee did the same thing.
Katrina: The rejection of the funding cuts gave me hope. It made me feel heard.
Meagan: The decision to reject those cuts demonstrated the power of collective advocacy and the importance of standing up for the resources our schools desperately need. It was especially encouraging to see that our voices—both from the Day of Action and the ongoing advocacy work—made an impact.
Erica: It was definitely a relief. Hard decisions had to be made and I am grateful that they recognized that our students cannot be sacrificed in those decisions.
Nikki: After the House passed the bill, the amount of chaos ramped up again in DC. The president announced mass layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education and announced the dismantling of the department through an executive order.
Paul: This was on the heels of a steady stream of attempted layoffs of federal employees courtesy of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The possible job loss and economic impact in Maryland was steep.
Sam: While this was going on, there were lots of behind the scenes negotiations and conversations in Annapolis around the budget and school funding. We worked to meet with top legislators to keep pushing for funding for our schools and fair tax reform for all of us.
Paul: On March 20, Governor Moore, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, and Senate President Bill Ferguson announced a budget deal. The deal cemented substantial fair tax reform plans, including income tax increases for individuals earning above a half-million and million dollars, with income tax cuts or no change in taxes for 94% of Marylanders, according to their projections.
Nikki: It was a major victory—and one that will help better support our public schools and services moving forward.
Nikki: After the House passed the bill, the amount of chaos ramped up again in DC. The president announced mass layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education and announced the dismantling of the department through an executive order.
Paul: This was on the heels of a steady stream of attempted layoffs of federal employees courtesy of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The possible job loss and economic impact in Maryland was steep.
Sam: While this was going on, there were lots of behind the scenes negotiations and conversations in Annapolis around the budget and school funding. We worked to meet with top legislators to keep pushing for funding for our schools and fair tax reform for all of us.
Paul: On March 20, Governor Moore, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, and Senate President Bill Ferguson announced a budget deal. The deal cemented substantial fair tax reform plans, including income tax increases for individuals earning above a half-million and million dollars, with income tax cuts or no change in taxes for 94% of Marylanders, according to their projections.
Nikki: It was a major victory—and one that will help better support our public schools and services moving forward.
Sam: With the budget solidified, that also got the ball rolling again on the school funding debate. By March 24, Senate committees had begun to take votes on the proposed school funding changes.
Paul: At the end of the day, the Senate largely aligned with the House with a few key differences, particularly around a collaborative time delay.
Follow @marylandeducators on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky for the latest from MSEA, including education news, events, and professional development.
Sam: Both chambers were in agreement, however, on protecting as much funding as possible for students in poverty and multilingual learners from any delay. They also were in agreement on preventing a freeze to community school funding.
Nikki: On April 1, the Senate passed their version of the school funding changes.
Paul: As this was all taking place, more chaos from D.C. showed up on the doorstep of our schools. Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to MSDE that the federal government would not reimburse the state for about $400 million in expenses for programs related to post-covid recovery, such as tutoring support for students and HVAC improvements.
Nikki: This move is being challenged in court…but the ripple effects are already being felt with links to canceled weekend and after school programs. The full extent is yet to be determined, but ultimately, it’s another move by the administration that will harm students and families to free up money to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
Paul: I have other words to describe it, but we try to keep things family friendly in ActionLine. So let’s keep going.
Sam: The House declined to adopt the Senate version as its own, and so it was on to conference committee. The committee came to an agreement on April 7, the final day of the legislative session. Both chambers then passed the compromise version later that day, right before the end of session at midnight.
Nikki: That final version was a huge improvement over where we started this session.
Sam: We stopped the community school freeze. The services those schools provide are needed more than ever, and their funding will continue as planned. And we greatly improved the collaborative time proposal.
Nikki: Instead of a four-year delay beginning immediately, we are looking at a two-year delay beginning the year after next. Instead of a delay structured in a way that would mean an extra funding cut to students in poverty and multilingual learners, expected funding for those students have been protected from the impacts of a delay.
Paul: I’m really proud of the progress we made. Our collective advocacy saved about $2 billion in potential cuts to school funding. At a time when the state budget is going to shrink, funding for our schools will continue to grow. That doesn’t happen without powerful advocacy.
Katrina: Our collective power is the biggest value in relation to our work in the General Assembly. When we are organized and engaged, we can effectively advocate for fair wages, benefits, stronger labor protections, and improved working conditions.
Erica: Our students are the future of our state and our country but they have little voice of their own. They are the motivation that drives us educators and our union to do our work.
Paul: Unfortunately, the chaos from D.C. will continue. Its impact on our schools and families will continue. And our need to have a strong voice and united front for our students will absolutely continue.