The Maryland House of Delegates on Tuesday evening passed Gov. Wes Moore’s bill to amend the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future — without his proposed funding cuts.

“This education reform is like nothing we have seen in the nation. It is working. It is paid for for the next five years now, especially now in a time when the President of the United States is drafting executive orders to eliminate the Department of Education,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes, a Democrat who represents Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties. “Marylanders are saying, ‘No, we are going to invest in school children here in Maryland.’”

The Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act, a bill brought by the Moore administration, originally sought to implement a two-year pause in funding increases for community schools or schools that receive Concentration of Poverty grants and delay the onset of teacher collaborative time by four years.

It received final approval in the House with no cuts to community school funding growth and a shorter, one-year pause on collaborative time on a party-line vote of 100-39.

“Educators applaud the leadership and action of the House of Delegates to ensure that our students receive the support they deserve so that they can pursue their dreams,” Paul Lemle, the president of the Maryland State Education Association, said in a statement after the bill’s passage. “We urge the Senate to similarly reject the deep cuts to our schools proposed in the bill and join the House in protecting students in poverty, multilingual learners, and the state’s successful expansion of community schools.”

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s signature education plan, is fully funded through the 2027 fiscal year. However, how to fund its implementation in the decade-long program’s out years is in question as the legislature simultaneously contends with a widening, multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Moore, a Democrat who testified in favor of the original Blueprint bill in 2020, said in December that the education policy would have to be modified to ensure its mission is successful.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, said Tuesday evening that he believes Moore’s bill — before it was amended — was a “well-intentioned effort” to address the realities of the state’s current fiscal situation.

“It is a Mercedes education plan,” he said of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. “We don’t have a Mercedes economy in the state of Maryland. And it’s not just a function of the last 30 or 40 or 50 days. We didn’t have a Mercedes or a Lamborghini or a Maserati or a Tesla … we don’t have that kind of economy in Maryland.”

Buckel said it would have been better to support the governor’s bill with its original language rather than the version before the chamber that stripped it of funding cuts.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Vanessa Atterbeary, a Democrat from Howard County, said Democrats support Moore’s bill, which is why they planned to pass it.

“To be clear: the governor supports the Blueprint like we support the Blueprint,” she said. “We supported this bill. I want to thank him for his advocacy and his interest in helping to make what this body did better and helping to strengthen it.”

The Senate has yet to amend its version of the bill and has not debated it on the floor.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said Tuesday that his chamber is “taking a deep look” at the legislation and is also preparing for a statewide recession rooted in President Donald Trump’s actions.

Ferguson received a Moody’s Analytics report Tuesday that Maryland is one of — if not the most — impacted states because of policies the Trump administration has implemented, including the gutting of federal agencies and mass layoffs of their employees.

The Senate president said that funding for community schools is a “core value” for his chamber, but there are “operational components” surrounding teacher collaborative time and expanded pre-kindergarten that can be pursued while the state braces for more cuts from Trump.

“We’re still looking at additional ways to balance the Blueprint, and we’re going to be in ongoing conversations,” Ferguson said.

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