Maryland and its Assembly is struggling to preserve its nationally-praised Blueprint for school excellence even as the federal Department of Education appears in danger of being dismembered by the DOGE fanatics and their enabler-president.
Our and other states may find themselves having to struggle with services and coordinated planning that the DoE has, for better or worse, provided. And, with some justice, conservatives argue that student performance nationwide, especially since the Pandemic, could scarcely be worse, DoE or no.
Some suggest this will open the door to more states providing taxpayer money for private schools. , a struggle that the Assembly waged with Larry Hogan for nearly every year of his two terms. Public money for private schools seems inevitably to morph into a subsidy for parents who would already be placing their young-uns in the nonpublic sector.
Nevertheless, keeping good teachers and good teaching – and good learning – in the public system is a critical need for every state, and Kal Hettleman, one of those who fashioned Maryland’s groundbreaking Blueprint, argues in this commentary that more than just an improved teacher pipeline is among the necessaries for reversing the trend – across this and all the states. It recently appeared in Maryland Matters.
HERE IN MARYLAND
State Missed Critical Key Bridge Vulnerability Prior To Collapse: The Maryland Transportation Authority failed to conduct a critical vulnerability assessment that would have allowed them to identify previously known structural risks with the Francis Scott Key Bridge before it collapsed in March 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. CBS Baltimore.
New Campaign To Cut Down On Healthcare Violence: Maryland is trying to cut down on the amount of workplace violence that healthcare workers are experiencing through a new ad campaign. WYPR-FM via Maryland Reporter
Special Elections Bill Moves Forward: A Maryland General Assembly bill that could require special elections to fill legislative vacancies in certain circumstances has made it over the hump of crossover day, increasing the chances it will become law. Bethesda Today via Maryland Reporter
As Maryland Youngsters Struggle, Some Get Their Best Help From Peers: When Celia Anthony was a high school sophomore, her fellow students nominated her to be a peer leader in her school’s student-led mental health support and suicide prevention program. Capital News Service (UM J-School) via MD Reporter
Senate Panels Voting on Blueprint Fill, straddling House and Administration Versions: A Senate committee advanced parts of Maryland’s sweeping education reform plan Friday, splitting the difference between versions of the bill advanced by the House and the Moore administration and setting up a showdown in the waning days of the legislature. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee approved a four-year pause in the start of funding for teacher “collaborative time” — something the administration supports — but also voted to keep funding for community schools — something the House insisted on. A second Senate committee is scheduled to discuss, possibly vote on the remainder of the bill Monday. Maryland Matters
Clean Water Advocates Hope To Thaw Freeze On Funding: Projects designed to help restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed are being affected by the termination of federal grants, and the Choose Clean Water Coalition warns that could have detrimental effects. WTOP-NEWS via Maryland Reporter
MD Limits Coal Ash as Feds May Step Back: A bill advancing in the Maryland General Assembly would enshrine a federal rule on coal ash dumps in state law, as President Donald Trump’s administration considers rolling it back. The Biden-era regulation, which took effect in May 2024, essentially requires owners of inactive coal ash disposal sites to follow the same cleanup rules as active dump sites. Maryland Matters via Stateline
AND WATCH OUT NEXT DOOR: LGBTQ RIGHTS: West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) has signed legislation defining sex-based terms like “male” and “female” in state law. The bill would bar transgender people from bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories that align with their gender identity. (WV Metro News) via Pluribus
ALSO NEXT DOOR: Bud at the Beach? Local governments in Delaware are trying to limit the state’s newly-enabled marijuana trade and legislators are stepping in to limit the limits. Spotlight Delaware via Stateline
IN THE OTHER 49
As the federal Department of Education appears in danger of being dismembered by the DOGE fanatics and their enabler-president, states may find themselves having to struggle with services and coordinated planning that the DoE has, for better or worse, provided. And, with some justice, conservatives argue that student performance nationwide, especially since the Pandemic, could scarcely be worse, DoE or no. Some suggest this will open the door to more states providing taxpayer money for private schools. Nevertheless, keeping good teachers and good teaching – and good learning – in the public system is a critical need for every state, and Kal Hettleman, one of those who fashioned Maryland’s groundbreaking Blueprint for school improvement, argues in this commentary that more than just an improved teacher pipeline is among the necessaries for reversing the trend – across the states. It appeared in Maryland Matters.
Medicaid cuts rippling through rural America could bring hospital closures, job losses: Americans living in rural communities throughout the country could see their access to health care diminish if Congress changes eligibility for Medicaid or significantly reduces its federal funding. While rural residents who depend on the state-federal program for lower income people would experience the most substantial impacts, those who have private health insurance or have other coverage, like Medicare, would likely encounter changes as well. Rural hospitals and primary care physicians’ incomes would likely go down if Medicaid patients are no longer able to afford the same level of health care, potentially leading to reductions in services offered for everyone or even closures, according to experts. States Newsroom
Where Do Broadband Deserts Overlap with Healthcare Provider Shortages? Almost 2 million rural Americans live in counties without reliable broadband or sufficient access to healthcare providers, according to a Daily Yonder analysis of KFF Health News data. About 2.7 million Americans live in counties where broadband deserts overlap with shortages in primary care providers and behavior health specialists, according to a data analysis from KFF Health News reporters Sarah Jane Tribble and Holly K. Hacker. KFF Health News classified counties as shortage areas if fewer than 70% of households had reliable broadband, if the ratio between Medicaid enrollees per primary care provider was in the bottom third of counties, and if the ratio between behavioral health providers per resident was also in the bottom third of counties. People who live in these counties “live sicker and die earlier,” wrote Tribble and Hacker. Unreliable broadband only widens existing health disparities, like the one between rural and urban residents. Daily Yonder
Feds Cut Farm To School Food Funding, Harming Local Growers: Emma Jagoz’s nightmare started last Monday when she received a text from a coworker and found out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled $1 billion in funding for food banks and school meal programs that prioritize locally grown food — eliminating one such program that has helped her farm thrive for years. “I was deeply disappointed and heartbroken,” she said. Baltimore Sun via Maryland Reporter
EDUCATION: Democratic attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration to stop it from laying off half the staff at the U.S. Department of Education [last week] The suit alleges the mass firings are unconstitutional and could cripple state public school and college systems. Federal funds make up 18% of total state spending on public and secondary education. (Pluribus News)
Keeping track: If you are blitzed by who’s getting cut and who’s getting sued about it, here’s a recently updated NPR account on where the civil service cuts are, and a frequently updated and handy checklist (courtesy of Pluribus) on the number of lawsuits filed against TrumpWorld as a result.
Axios reports An Elon Musk-backed group is offering Wisconsin voters $100 to sign a petition expressing their opposition to "activist judges" — a cause that President Trump is pressing as judges block or delay several parts of his agenda. [Musk and TrumpWorld are intervening in an April 1 election to the state supreme court pitting a liberal judge against a conservative one] Musk money changes everything, as the lady might have sung. Read more.
GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS
Our weekly dispatch from Megan E, the federal affairs director for our national affiliate, People’s Action:
Congress was on recess last week and many of you participated in recess actions with or directed at your Members of Congress! Thank you and please send us any social media posts or media coverage that you would like boosted.
People are still angry at Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who canceled his planned book tour, and Congressional progressives are stepping into the void of leadership in the party. In some positive news, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., held a 'Fighting Oligarchy' rally in Denver on Friday that drew a reported 30,000+ person crowd. Rep. Casar went on Fox News over the weekend to call out Musk for raking in $8 million a day in government contracts while Republicans seek to slash Medicaid.
Ezra Klein interviewed David Shor, the head of data science at Blue Rose Research, a Democratic polling firm, which does an enormous amount of surveying of the electorate about the data on how Trump won the election. You can listen to the podcast but the Youtube version has slides. Some key takeaways:
- Trump won young people. Young men 18 - 29 swung 30 points between 2020 - 2024. Young people have a new and growing gender gap in political ideology (a trend happening in other countries).
- Immigrants went from a Biden plus 27 group to Trump winning naturalized citizens narrowly.
- People who pay a lot of attention to politics got more Democratic but people who don’t got more Republican. If there had been higher turnout, Trump would have done better.
- The economy played largely in the election; Harris’s economic message performed well; then she pivoted to democracy. Voters trust Republicans on the economy. [so far]
- Voters viewed Trump as more moderate, likely due to attacks on wokeness.
Media Matters made this graphic representation of the right-wing influencer universe that explains, in part, how the MAGA movement moved young men so quickly from liberal values to support of Trump. The New Yorker profiled Hasan Piker, one of the few successful left-wing online personalities talking to young men. You can listen to the interview on Fresh Air.
Last week, in a clear violation of federal law, Trump announced that he would move the Federal Student Loan Administration out of the Department of Education and into the Small Business Administration and he would move the enforcement of the law protecting students with special needs, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), from the Department of Education to the Department of Health & Human Services. That office protects students with disabilities when their schools fail to meet their needs. It is Trump’s goal to get rid of the Department of Education entirely.
Congress is back in session this week and we expect some movement on the drafting of the House budget reconciliation bill. The House & Senate are also expected to negotiate the toplines numbers of the budget resolution as the Senate so-far does not plan to take up the House version. Constituent pushback on the Medicaid & SNAP cuts are a primary reason.
Here's what's in this email today....
ISSUE UPDATE: TAXES
MORE PERFECT UNION This Is the Biggest Tax Dodge in History
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnah-GE9duA
ISSUE UPDATE: HEALTHCARE
Republican Medicaid cuts could shutter rural hospitals, maternity care; potential Medicaid cuts could devastate America’s teetering rural health-care system and jeopardize Republicans’ political power among rural voters. See:
This report, co-authored by UnidosUS and other leading civil rights and health equity organizations, highlights the devastating impact of Medicaid cuts on communities across the United States, particularly communities of color.
Hudson Valley residents concerned over impacts from federal cuts to health care programs -- Concerned physicians say that move will increase the number of people without insurance, a reduction in access to health care, increased consumer costs for health care, and reduced payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers.
ISSUE UPDATE: HOUSING
VOCAL-TX profiled! How federal money drying up may impact Austin’s homeless response
Alfredo Reyes’ path to that house -- after a protracted stretch unhoused -- was paved by federal pandemic relief (American Rescue Plan Act) — dollars distributed by the city of Austin.
Pennsylvania Stands Up on “Whole Homes Repair” Focus: “For an increasing share of the nation’s work force, a mix of soaring rents, low wages and inadequate tenant protections have forced them into a brutal cycle of insecurity in which housing is unaffordable, unstable or entirely out of reach. A recent study analyzing the 2010 census found that nearly half of people experiencing homelessness while staying in shelters, and about 40 percent of those living outdoors or in other makeshift conditions, had formal employment. But that’s only part of the picture. These numbers don’t capture the full scale of working homelessness in America: the many who lack a home but never enter a shelter or who wind up on the streets….
A few statistics succinctly capture why this catastrophe is unfolding: Today there isn’t a single state, city or county in the United States where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a median-priced two-bedroom apartment. An astounding 12.1 million low-income renter households are “severely cost burdened,” spending at least half of their earnings on rent and utilities. Since 1985, rent prices have exceeded income gains by 325 percent.”
Trump DEI Purge Hits Affordable Housing Groups: Millions of dollars in affordable housing contracts were canceled after a DOGE review of their websites and social media for terms linked to equity and diversity.
White House Announces Plan to Use Federal Lands to ‘Reduce Housing Costs’
ISSUE UPDATE: IMMIGRATION
Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) on X: ICE detained a U.S. citizen in Northern Virginia with guns drawn. He offered to show ID and told the officers he was an American citizen, but they handcuffed him anyway. The man is a Trump voter, but says he is reconsidering his support after he was targeted for being Hispanic:
El Pueblo releases "emergency guide" for immigrant families • NC Newsline: El Pueblo guide aims to inform Latino immigrant families about their rights and prepare them for potential interactions law enforcement
Immigration crackdown could deter workers from reporting hazards, advocates warn President Trump's promises to carry out mass deportations have ramped up fear among immigrants who could be at risk. Experts have warned that could inhibit them from speaking up about health threats on the job, hampering efforts to stop workplace hazards and illnesses.
For four Venezuelan friends, Alien Enemies Act cuts short an American dream President Donald Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members. Relatives of men sent to El Salvador deny the allegation.
Brown University professor deported despite judge’s order, defying US court: US prosecutors allege Rasha Alawieh had ‘sympathetic photos and videos’ related to key Hezbollah figures.
Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Is Specifically Targeting Children Again: Immigration officials are threatening to prioritize unaccompanied immigrant children for deportation.
Milwaukee-area woman deported to Laos though she's never been there, doesn't speak the language: As Donald Trump pushes the mass deportation of immigrants, Yang believes she is one of the first Hmong Americans to be deported to Laos recently.
President Trump brings back practice of detaining families together: President Trump also detained families during his first term in an effort to deter migration through the southern border.
Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order Reaches the Supreme Court: Trump administration lawyers asked the justices to limit the sweep of decisions by three lower courts that had issued nationwide pauses on the policy.
In solidarity, Megan
“We have met the enemy and it is not each other” Gail Cincotta and Shel Trapp, co-founders of National People’s Action
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