Maryland public schools have been hit with immense budget cuts that disrupted the  end of the 2025 school year and could continue into the fall. The federal government has threatened funding from the COVID-19 relief packages which were discontinued in March. These are actions which the president of the Maryland State Board of Education says fosters uncertainty and distrust between the state, school systems, and federal government.  

Dr. Joshua Michael emphasized the uncertainty starts at the state level and trickles down all the way to the students.  

“Well, the first thing it’s done is broken trust with the states, local school districts, in what we’re doing to support children and families across the state of Maryland, and quite frankly across the country,” Michael said.  

He said funds from the federal government have been spent strategically to meet the needs of children in schools, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, the Trump administration gave the go-ahead to continue spending the funding which was soon halted seemingly out of nowhere just months later.  

The funding goes through a process where the grants are reimbursed, and the school districts have to spend the money which is given to them from the state which is provided by the federal government.  

“On Friday March 28, at 5:03 p.m., they said that at effective 5 p.m., on the 28, so three minutes before they sent it, that this grant process has been discontinued, and so it really broke the trust,” Michael said.  

With a total impact of $232.1 million, these budget changes will affect tutoring, after school and summer programs, advancing school resources and safety measures in Maryland public schools.  

“It puts us in a precarious situation where we had ongoing projects and programs where money had already been spent,” Michael said.  

He said the hit to the tutoring programs is particularly influential because a lot of Maryland public schools rely on partners to provide tutoring. These partners are contracted to provide extra support for students who might need more individualized instruction on certain topics or subjects. These cuts are going to affect the partners who come in to provide these services with a working agreement with the schools, they may even disrupt the ability for these partners to work with the schools in the future.    

For Baltimore City Public Schools, the last day of pandemic recovery-funded tutoring was April 8 and the last day for after-school programming at 44 different City Schools was April 11 according to the Baltimore City Public Schools website. Although this was a shock mid-school year, because this money was one-time funding, there is a chance these impacts won’t continue past the fall of next school year. 

Zachary Hands ‘15, Executive Director of the Maryland State Board of Education, also acknowledges the impact these cuts will have on public schools in Maryland.  

“I think it’s important to understand that making hasty decisions in this particular space has a real impact on both our state school system but also our local school systems, and by virtue of that, kids,” Hands said.  

With all the uncertainty, there is still hope that things will settle, and projects can be resumed. At this point the state has reapplied for reimbursement for all of these projects and programs but as of right now the status is pending.  

“I am hopeful that a lot of the projects we submit to be reimbursed, you know, we will be able to get that money back. But right now, it’s just impossible to say exactly what that would look like,” Hands said.    

While efforts are underway to address these impacts, the trust between the Maryland State Board of Education and the federal government has undoubtedly been strained. Though school systems may eventually adapt, confidence in federal support remains in question.