For Maryland school teachers, simulating an environment comparable to a normal classroom in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has presented a need for ingenuity. Virtual learning instruction and curriculum packets are being administered, food distribution stations for students who rely on school lunches have been established, and instructors have begun teaching remotely via video software.

“Virtual learning can never take the place of in-person learning in education,” says Cheryl Bost, a Baltimore County teacher currently on leave to serve as the president of the Maryland State Education Association. “Teachers by trade like to [think] ahead and figure out what we can accomplish. With the issues coronavirus presents, they feel like they’re keeping the kids learning, but they’re not going to be able to go too far ahead.”

The pandemic has been a disruptor in all walks of life, from the business and economic sectors to the food industry and in healthcare systems. But the problems it presents for the education system are comprehensive.

“We want to make sure our students are not impacted in their learning,” says Katie Poist, a eighth grade math teacher at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School in southwest Baltimore. “We take into account what they have available to them at home as far as technology, Internet access, and parental support.”

But what might be an easily addressable conflict for one school district could be a widespread problem in another. These equity issues—already present before coronavirus—have become even more prevalent throughout the last month.

“Our kids didn’t need access to technology outside of school [before coronavirus],” Poist says. “We didn’t use a ton of tech at school, so kids were able to be successful and we could help them learn. Now, it’s a huge shift.”

Coincidentally, major education reform aiming to address these inequalities and bridge gaps in education from one region to another passed in the General Assembly last month. The issues coronavirus has wrought are what advocates for the bill dubbed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future —which currently sits on Governor Larry Hogan’s desk awaiting signing—have been stressing. The first three years of funding for the bill took effect last year, but proponents are hoping for a long term agreement.

“There are access issues in poor urban districts compared to public districts with much greater resources,” says Kristen McQuillan, a former Baltimore City School System employee and current academic director at The New Teacher Project (TNTP), where she advises school superintendents and academic offices. “This has put that issue into the forefront and the spotlight in a way that people can’t ignore.”

McQuillan says that being able to observe where these access problems are most prevalent helps explain why it costs more to educate children in certain districts compared to others. It’s why many advocates, including Poist, feel that the Blueprint’s objectives—such as increasing teachers’ salaries and providing access to Pre-K for all 3 and 4-year olds in low-income families—are vital.

“Schools are more than just education for children—they are social development,” Poist says. “The big inhibitor being a Baltimore City teacher is striving to be equitable.”

During the pandemic, Poist has helped her students access videos that Lakeland’s school district has provided. She also pre-records 15-minute video instruction to capture the day’s big picture. In the midst of this, there is also synchronous learning, where Poist is able to check in with individual students and assist them with any questions they may have.

“It’s really constant communication,” she says. “As a school, we have to figure out how to function as a team while meeting all of our kids’ needs at home.”

Over at Pine Grove Middle School in Loch Raven, Vernon Fains is adapting to teaching art remotely, as the usual materials his students would have in the classroom aren’t at their disposal. Since art is such a visual medium, Fains says that being disconnected from his students and their usual environment has its challenges.

“It’s a little tougher for the arts, because we can’t use certain materials and we can’t get our hands dirty like we normally would,” Fains says. “I think of the arts as a way for students to come in and express themselves in ways they can’t in other content areas. I miss that interaction.”

Fains says that these limitations have forced him to reevaluate how he teaches. He had his first virtual class meeting earlier this week, where he encouraged students to go out in nature and think viscerally about what they were seeing.

Both Fains and Poist have also made a point to check in on their classes’ well being. They’ve noticed their students’ moods perk up at the opportunity to see familiar faces that remind them of their routine at school.

“I think they’re excited to see and hear from us, and we’re excited to see and hear from them,” Fains says. “That moment of talking with us and getting a little bit sense of normalcy has been missing.”

As it stands, it’s unclear as to when, or if, Maryland schools will reopen this school year. Closures are in place until at least April 24, and while this isn’t ideal, it does give educators and students the opportunity to further adapt to their surroundings as they wait for the time when it will once again be safe for everyone to be together and learn.

“We miss being in the classroom,” Fains says. “We miss our students. We just want them to know that we want them to stay well and we are here for them.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: 3/20: The bill has passed through both the General Assembly and the House of Delegates. It now awaits the signature of Governor Larry Hogan.

As discussions ramp up in the Maryland General Assembly surrounding the proposals in the Kirwan Commission—sweeping reforms in the state’s education system based off three years of study—there is a palpable sense of urgency among all those fighting to see it through.

“We have leaders who are ready to act,” says Joe Francaviglia, executive director of Strong Schools Maryland, an education advocacy group in support of the legislation. “It’s a generational moment. This is Maryland’s chance. Either we’re going to seize it, or we’re not.”

The 26-member Kirwan Commission was created by the Maryland General Assembly in 2016 with the purpose of setting a standard for education across the state and preparing students for life beyond the classroom. Its namesake, William E. “Brit” Kirwan—former president of the University of Maryland, College Park and a former chancellor of the University System of Maryland—was appointed by Governor Larry Hogan, the state Senate president, and the state House speaker to lead these efforts.

What resulted was a lengthy report examining the best schools and education systems across the world, which allowed Kirwan and his team to develop several new key ideas to help Maryland become a nationwide education leader. The bill at hand, known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, is purposefully comprehensive, covering issues such as increasing teachers’ salaries to a baseline of $60,000, providing access to Pre-K for all 4-year-olds and 3-year olds in low-income families, and offering career and technical services for impending high school graduates.

The first three years of funding for these proposals was approved last year by the General Assembly. Getting that same approval—and funding—for the next 10 years is what’s currently on the table.

“One of the most exciting things about this whole package is that it is a package,” Francaviglia says. “Often in our state and nation’s history, we’ve tried to find silver bullets to very complex problems, and there are no silver bullets in education. It takes systemic reform. That’s exactly what this is.”

These proposals are crafted in a way that considers how they might work in concert with each other. Essentially, advocates say, one reform’s benefits can’t fully be realized without another. Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association, attended a marathon hearing in Annapolis Monday, where more than 150 business leaders, educators, and advocates testified on the bill’s behalf.

“When students come and they’ve had great Pre-K and kindergarten opportunities, they are really engaged and ready to learn the same as other peers,” says Bost, who has observed this relationship at work as a 4th and 5th grade teacher at Title I East Baltimore elementary school Mars Estates. “We can’t wait another year until we make an investment in our students. This is a once in a generation opportunity for our public schools in Maryland.”

However, much has been discussed as to how exactly a decade-spanning, revolutionary $4 billion annual bill like the Blueprint is to be funded. Baltimore City would have to contribute $340 million more annually, and the total amount of spending to fulfill the program in its full term amounts to around $32 billion. Elected Democratic officials in Baltimore, and the city’s delegation in Annapolis, have expressed their commitment to fully implementing the Kirwan plan—although where the increased city funding will come from remains a question.

The bill has faced opposition from Republican leaders including Governor Larry Hogan, who called the spending proposals “reckless and irresponsible” on Facebook. He has also floated a $6,000 increase in taxes per family figure that he claims the bill would initiate, though critics have said that the variables used to arrive at this figure are questionable.

As for how the bill’s programs could be funded, there are a variety of measures being considered, from legalizing sports betting to increasing the state tobacco tax. Those in support of the legislation feel that no price should be too high to provide world-class education to Maryland’s students.

“It’s disturbing, because we’re talking about children,” says Shamoyia Gardiner, a former educator and the education policy director at Advocates for Children and Youth. “People are so ready to skew the conversation that should be about placing children at the center and focusing it on taxes. If you have childrens’ best interests at heart, then you don’t see a problem and decide that’s the end of the line.”

Throughout this process, there has been little to no opposition for the proposals contained within the bill. Rather, the disconnect is between those who want to make the legislation work at all costs, and those who have concerns about the amount of money it would take to do so.

As for when and if the bill could be passed, that will be up to the General Assembly, whose session runs through April. If the beginnings of conversations around the legislation are any indication, the passion that has engulfed the proceedings isn’t likely to die down anytime soon.

“This is not something where we can just meet halfway,” Francaviglia says. “These are fundamental and moral questions of our time. We have momentum and public opinion on our side, and a legislature who cares deeply. We can’t delay any further.”

Mike Miller, the longest serving president of the Senate in Maryland history, announced Thursday that he is stepping down after 33 years due to health issues. Miller, who will be 77 by the start of the next legislative session in January, has been battling prostate cancer for more than a year.

Cantankerous, charismatic, stubborn, and generous by turn, Miller wielded power in the Maryland General Assembly perhaps like no other before him. First elected to state Senate in 1975, he rose to president of the Senate in 1987, and ultimately dominated the state legislative process across the tenures of five governors.

At a press conference, Miller said he will continue to represent his district, which includes parts of Prince George’s, Calvert, and Charles counties while he continues treatment.

Baltimore state Senator Bill Ferguson, 36, was unanimously tapped by his Democratic colleagues—who hold a sizable advantage in the legislature—to succeed Miller as their leader. With Baltimore County state Del. Adrienne Jones rising to Speaker of the House of Delegates earlier this year—the first African American and woman to hold that role—the youthful Ferguson’s ascension marks a significant course change in leadership in Annapolis. And, perhaps, a shift in political power in the General Assembly by back toward the state’s largest city.

Jones succeeded deceased House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch, who had held the position for nearly a decade and a half, in April. A former teacher and coach, Busch was considered the kinder and gentler of the “Two Mikes,” as Miller and Busch came to be known. Busch passed away in office at the end of the last General Assembly following a long illness and liver transplant.

Baltimore has lost notable sway in Annapolis over the past several decades as the city’s population dwindled. The combination of Ferguson and Jones now holding both top positions in the General Assembly could change that perception.

Miller was not just longest serving president of Senate in Maryland history, but also the longest, current serving state Senate president in the country.

He led the state Senate through the passage of a series of controversial measures in recent years, including a ban on the death penalty, and support for legalized gambling and same-sex marriage, the last of which Miller did not vote for himself, but also did not block from coming to the floor of the General Assembly.

In many ways, Miller remained a politician from a previous era. A voracious reader and student of history, Miller was also a protector of the state Senate and General Assembly traditions. In a profile of Miller several years ago, Barbara Hoffman, a former Democratic senator for Baltimore City and County, told Baltimore, “I think his legacy is to be a model for caring about the institution of the Senate more than any one thing.”

“He is the guardian of the tradition of the Senate,” Montgomery Senator Richard Madaleno, who arrived in Annapolis as a budget analyst in 1989, said in the same 2013 profile, describing Miller as the “pillar” of the Maryland Democratic Party. “He knows how to bring people together to form a majority to get an issue done, whether that’s through humor, through discussion, or through yelling.”

Miller also considers Republican Gov. Larry Hogan a friend. Miller knew Gov. Hogan’s father, a former Prince George’s county executive, and has known the governor almost his whole life—a relationship that has somewhat diffused party tensions in the General Assembly in recent years. Miller’s “steady presence and trademark humor will be deeply missed” as Senate president, Gov. Hogan said in statement. “I have immense respect for Mike Miller,” Hogan added. “For the past year, he has shown all of us what courage and determination look like as he faces a very tough personal battle.”

Meanwhile, local and state elected officials praised the selection of Ferguson, who is more liberal than Miller, generally considered a centrist or conservative Democrat. A former teacher and attorney, Ferguson has been vocal in his support for more public education spending as well as the recent Kirwan Commission recommendations calling significant funding increases for public schools. Hogan has called the Kirwan education spending recommendations “half-baked” and referred to the commission as the “Kirwan Tax Hike Commission, setting up a likely contentious battle in Annapolis during the upcoming General Assembly.

State Sen. Bill Ferguson

City Council President Brandon Scott called Ferguson a “hardworking public servant for the people of the 46th District and for every Baltimorean.”

“He loves our city and he loves our state,” Scott said. “I know he’ll honor our city as President. Senator Ferguson will ensure our greatest resource—our young people—get the resources they need for a quality education, regardless of their zip code.”

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young highlighted Ferguson’s background in teaching and leading voice for increased funding for public education. “I know that he will be a passionate advocate for our children, and a committed partner as we work together with his colleagues in the legislature to ensure that Kirwan is fully funded,” Young said.

Maryland U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement that’d he’d seen Miller Wednesday night at the Morgan State tribute to Elijah Cummings and that Miller insisted his doctors let him out of the hospital to eulogize Cummings.

“That’s Mike,” Van Hollen said. “Always there for friends; always there for Maryland. Mike Miller has dedicated his life to serving Marylanders and set the gold standard for true leadership in the State Senate. I was proud to serve under him, and to this day appreciate his mentorship and wisdom. His guiding hand will be missed, but I’m confident that Bill Ferguson will serve our state well.”