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THIS MONTH IN ANNAPOLIS

Trump’s Voucher Scheme Takes from 90% of Students to Enrich Private Schools

The vast majority of K-12 students, 90% of whom attend public schools, risk losing more of the resources that they need and deserve if the Trump Administration voucher scheme takes hold. The plan, which has an opt-in provision for states, is part of the recently passed budget reconciliation bill. The program perpetuates the subsidy of private schools while taking public money from public school students whose resources have never kept up with needs. Additionally, the ill-conceived program has too few guardrails around how the scholarship donations are used.

The program could direct up to $30 to $50 billion per year—or more—to fund vouchers, nearly twice the annual $15 billion in federal support for students with disabilities, or $18 billion for Title I. In other words, Congress has potentially committed more funding to private school vouchers than it commits to the two largest pre-K-12 federal public education programs serving the country’s neediest students. The program hurts rural students in particular as over 50% of students in rural areas do not even have access to a private school within five miles of their home; in Maryland, 25% of students live in rural jurisdictions.

The program provides an unlimited number of $1,700 tax credits to federal taxpayers to fund vouchers (“scholarships”) for eligible education expenses. Beginning with the 2027 tax year, individual taxpayers will be able to “donate” up to $1,700 per year to a “scholarship granting organization” (SGO) and earn a dollar-for-dollar (or 100%) federal tax credit on the cash “donation.” There is no aggregate cap on the amount of tax credits that can be provided under the program each year.

The program also creates near-universal student eligibility for vouchers in states that opt in (although there is no obligation for the private schools to admit students on such a universal basis). Students are eligible for a voucher if they reside in a household with an income not greater than 300% of an area’s median gross income and are eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school. The high-income cap would make an estimated 90% of students eligible for the program.

Private SGOs act as middlemen for tax credit-eligible charitable contributions and provide vouchers to eligible students. However, SGOs are subject to minimal qualifications and requirements. This laxity, along with a provision that allows SGOs to skim off 10% of donations for administrative costs, will spur a proliferation of voucher SGOs as largely unaccountable aggregators of public tax dollars. Nothing in the language prevents SGOs from being organized solely to benefit particular types of schools or students or specific religious denominations.

The program will inevitably place greater strain on the federal education budget. It will also encourage students to abandon public education, undermining state and local support for public schools. This means less funding for smaller class sizes, raising educator salaries to address staff shortages, career-connected learning, and mental health supports for students and educators.

The program perpetuates the worst elements of voucher programs. It does not impose any accountability requirements on private schools that receive funds through the program. Because the great majority of private schools are religious, they are largely exempt from and frequently object to federal and state civil rights laws. By funding private schools that can discriminate on the basis of sex, disability, religion, and sexual orientation, the program will further segregate and separate students and schools across the country. In addition, the program will weaken protections for students with disabilities. Private schools generally do not have to comply with the mandated services provided to these students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by requiring parents to agree that their decision to enroll their student in the school waives many of their rights under IDEA. The law does nothing to prevent vouchers from going to private schools with admissions standards that consider whether a student has an IEP to begin with.

Make no mistake: Vouchers harm students in public schools that lose resources and students who use vouchers to attend private schools, according to peer-reviewed research on outcomes. Voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, D.C., and Ohio have yielded some of the largest test score declines ever seen in education research. In fact, academic outcome scores have been on par with or exceeding the impacts of Covid and Hurricane Katrina.

Maryland’s elected leaders have an obligation and a duty to protect public education and should not opt in to this potentially destructive voucher scheme. We should be talking about how we promote and strengthen public education, where 90% of all students and 95% of all students with disabilities attend. Every student deserves fully funded neighborhood public schools that give them a sense of belonging and prepare them with the lessons and life skills they need to follow their dreams and reach their full potential.

“We strongly oppose giving away public funds to private schools as Maryland public schools—which serve 90% of Maryland students—continue to face chaotic, drastic, and unpredictable federal funding cuts to schools that will hurt students and the supports they depend on,” MSEA President Paul Lemle said.

ESP Pay Report Responds to MSEA Advocacy for Living Wage, Reveals Work to Be Done

As MSEA has long advocated, the state is taking seriously education support professional (ESP) working conditions. Thanks to the hard work Senator Craig Zucker (D-Montgomery) and Delegate Greg Wims (D-Montgomery), the General Assembly required a report due in August that the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) produced on ESP pay. MSEA continues to analyze MSDE’s report, but what is crystal clear is that thousands of ESPs do not make a living wage.

For the report, MSDE identified ESPs as employed in one of three categories: health services, paraprofessional, and support personnel. During the 2024-2025 school year, there were 46,851 noncertificated ESPs employed in Maryland local education agencies.

According to the MSDE report, in every jurisdiction except Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, more than 30% of noncertified personnel make less than $25/hour. In 12 counties, more than 50% earn less, and in Somerset, the highest percentage, 73%, make less than $25/hour. MSEA members are engaged again this summer in a door-to-door campaign for an ESP Bill of Rights and living wage—which this report proves once again are desperately needed.

NEWS AND NOTES

State Intervenes to Enforce Procedures Ignored by Politicized Somerset School Board

The Maryland State Department of Education has had to intervene in Somerset County, where an out-of-control school board, newly dominated by far-right extremist members, is determined to remove the county’s Black school superintendent and narrow curriculum, resources, and inclusivity, even if it defies legal procedure. Somerset School Superintendent Dr. Ava Tasker-Mitchell, who has appealed her termination to the State Board of Education, has been allowed to continue in her role because the State Board last month adopted emergency regulations to guarantee the right to serve while an appeal of a termination is ongoing. The emergency order took effect July 23 and lasts at least through January 19. Undeterred, the Somerset school board appointed an interim superintendent, which is prohibited without State Superintendent Carrie Wright’s consent.

Tasker-Mitchell’s firing followed a string of highly controversial and radical actions taken by the Somerset school board, starting with book censoring and the removal of librarians in an effort to purge resources based on school board members’ personal preference. The purging of resources and dismissal of librarians are being reviewed for violations of free speech rights. Community opposition to the behavior of the school board has grown, with hundreds of petition signatures collected from across the county decrying these steps and others, and demanding the removal of the Board Chair, Matthew Lankford. The school board’s ongoing actions now endanger state funding, Wright warned. The distracting, troubling school board behavior is evidence that local school board elections matter. Any county school board can become a political battleground, with students, educators, and families suffering the consequences. 

AIB, MSDE Commit to Restore Collaborative Time, Support High Quality Educators

At its July meeting the Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) acknowledged the importance of collaborative time for educators in the pursuit of Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Pillar II, high quality and diverse educators. The AIB requested that MSDE develop a “clear” strategy to incorporate the collaborative time plan, given the delay in implementation approved by the General Assembly last legislative session. A three-year policy pause and two-year funding pause to collaborative time was enacted by legislation, delaying the phase in of that critical initiative to begin in the 2028-2029 school year.

Other changes the AIB made to the Blueprint as part of the annual August update were the educator supports that were enacted by legislation this year: a national teacher recruitment campaign and $2,000 incentive grants for out-of-state educators who relocate to teach in Maryland.

Maryland Approves New Math, Literacy Standards, First in 15 years; Board Leaders Re-elected

Math and literacy standards are changing for the first time in more than a decade. The literacy curriculum clarifies annual expectations from kindergarten through high school, and the math standards set expectations for the understanding of specific concepts and require a minimum of 60 minutes per day in the subject. MSEA President Paul Lemle reiterated MSEA’s support for the new standards and goals. He cautioned the board and MSDE to allow educators and students the time they will need to master new curriculum.

Also at its July meeting, the SBOE reelected President Josh Michael and Vice President Monica Goldson to their second terms and welcomed two new members: James Bell Jr. and student member O’Marie Barnes. Bell began his career as a math teacher in the Talbot County Public School District before becoming a vice principal, principal, and supervisor of student services in Dorchester County. He serves as the director of instruction, academic support and community well-being at Building African American Minds, a nonprofit that supports at-risk people of color. Barnes, a senior at Crossland High School in Prince George’s County, founded a youth-led nonprofit, Barnes and Scott Youth at Law, which provides resources for young people interested in law, public policy, and government.

Unpredictability Characterizes Federal Oversight of Critical Programs

In a yo-yo experience of federal funding that roils serious efforts to thoughtfully plan public school operations, the Trump Administration on July 25 unpredictably released $6.8 billion for education that it had just as unpredictably frozen 24 days earlier. The release did not undo all the harm in some states nor all the uncertainty in Maryland. Two Maryland programs—professional development and student enrichment—are still being reviewed for funding, and a lack of reliability persists in administration decisions. Maryland is still feeling a cut, as Title IV funding for after-school programming is being cut by 10.5%.  The last-minute July 1 federal funding freeze prompted Maryland and two dozen other states to sue the Trump Administration for the funds that states expected would be available this summer.