Education Reform Plan Among Three Dozen Bills Vetoed by Hogan
With a trio of unusual veto letters, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) vetoed nearly three dozen bills passed by the 2020 General Assembly, including a proposed multibillion-dollar education reform plan, as well as the revenue bills to fund it.
Citing economic challenges brought on by COVID-19, Hogan vetoed Democrats’ top priority: House Bill 1300, the 235-page Blueprint for Maryland’s Future bill, which lays out a broad education reform plan that would have increased state and local annual education spending by almost $3.4 billion in 10 years.
Policy changes at the heart of the years-long reform effort are meant to address economic and racial disparities in education by expanding pre-kindergarten programs and career education for high schoolers, bolstering pay and career opportunities for teachers, and increasing state funding for schools with high concentrations of poverty.
The entire House Republican caucus opposed the bills during the legislative session, but last-minute financial protections in the Blueprint bill attracted support from a half-dozen Republicans in the Senate.
Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/05/07/education-reform-plan-among-nearly-three-dozen-bills-vetoed-by-hogan/