The Maryland House of Delegates passed a nearly $62.5 billion budget plan Friday, with nearly $1 billion in additional funding directed to state education reform efforts.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) included a $500 million payment to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future fund on top of the required programmatic funding for the program, as well as $500 million for unspecified transportation projects.
The House version of the budget bill would shift $400 million from the transportation column and direct it to the Blueprint, for a $900 million influx.
The payments are intended to create a cushion in the education fund as the state prepares to increase public school funding by more than $3 billion annually at the end of the decade-long plan.
“One of the best things we can do to end child poverty is to make a down-payment on our Blueprint,” said House Appropriations Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s). “…I think this legislature can be proud that the commitments this legislature and this state has made to its children are being recognized and that we are going to stand by them.”
