The majority of Maryland’s 24 public school systems met a July 1 deadline to boost their starting teachers’ pay to a minimum salary of $60,000, but for some smaller districts the higher salaries came at the cost of cuts elsewhere in their budgets. The salary deadline is part of the state’s multiyear, multibillion-dollar education reform plan known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. It’s also a mandate for which there is little wiggle room for local districts: At a legislative hearing in March, an official with the Accountability and Implementation Board, which oversees the Blueprint, said the July 1 date was firm and there was no waiver.
But some local school officials said it wasn’t easy to meet that July 1 deadline. Denise Sopa, chief financial officer for Cecil County Public Schools, said in an email Tuesday that a first-year, 10-month teacher will receive a starting salary of $60,086 for the 2026-27 school year. But “in order to meet the state requirement and balance the budget in general, we needed to reduce 104 positions,” she said, including 60 teachers, 30 support staff and 14 administrators.
Jodi Colman, assistant superintendent for academics and student services in Dorchester County, said some restructuring had to be done to hit the salary mark and balance the system’s 2026-27 budget. One of the results: an increase in classes sizes – possibly from 18 to 22 – because the school system wasn’t able to fund as many teacher positions. Colman said Dorchester schools, which have about 4,500 students, also had to resort to a reduction in force “in order to make sure we were funding the classroom positions because we wanted to have the least impact on the schools as possible.” Colman acknowledged the work on this year’s budget “was difficult.
We don’t have a lot of extras around here.” But legislators who support the Blueprint, such as Del. Jessica Feldmark (D-Howard), said Friday the salary increase is an investment that helps not only the education profession, but also the students. “Within the context of whatever budget challenges we’re facing, we have to remember that this is about investing in our children and in our future, investing in the future of our workforce, our economy, our democracy, and that investment is something we have to take seriously,” said Feldmark, vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
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