One of the promises made by backers of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future was that it would help provide more high-quality teachers in the classroom. But Project Baltimore has found that an increasing number of the state’s public school teachers lack professional certifications.
“I think (taxpayers) should be disappointed,” stated Maryland State Del. Lauren Arikan, a Republican representing Harford County. “I think the Blueprint is not working as it was designed to. And it’s not working the way it was sold to the public.”
Maryland’s General Assembly passed the Blueprint in 2021 to inject $30 billion in additional tax dollars into public education over its first 10 years and $4 billion every year after that. In return, taxpayers were told Maryland would have world-class schools.
The Blueprint, according to the state’s website, was designed around five pillars of educational success. One pillar focuses on employing more high-quality teachers. However, over the last five years, a growing number of teachers in Maryland have not been professionally certified.
In 2020, the year before the Blueprint was passed, 2,312 Maryland teachers were working without a professional certification, according to state data. By 2024, that number nearly tripled to 6,598, or 9.9% of all teachers in Maryland.
“It’s not acceptable. And we are working aggressively to change that,”said Ike Leggett, who chairs the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
This is happening as per-student funding in Maryland has increased 22% since 2020.
“This is a massive fiscal investment for the taxpayers. We were promised the best quality education, really in the country,” said Arikan. “And so far, they can’t even provide the amount of certified teachers that they promised.”
Arikan voted against the Blueprint in 2021, saying, at the time, it was too expensive, too cumbersome and wouldn’t work.
“I think they should call out the people in charge for gaslighting them, for telling them we’re going to be providing this incredible education to your kids,” stated Arikan. “It’s going to be the best in the nation. And then failing to do so.”
Leggett doesn’t agree.
“But for the Blueprint, we probably will be much higher in terms of the number of conditional certified teachers,” Leggett said.
Leggett said the increase in non-professionally certified teachers in Maryland, who are working on a conditional license, is following a national trend. But Maryland is seeing some improvement.
Preliminary data from the Maryland State Department of Education shows the number of non-professionally certified teachers appears to have slightly fallen from 6,598 in 2024 to 6,177 in 2025. Final numbers will be released in the coming months.
State education leaders, including Leggett, have said the Blueprint cannot be fully implemented without hiring around 13,000 additional high-quality teachers.
“We’re not going as fast as we want to,” Leggett acknowledged. “But we’re going in the right direction. Because there’s no way for us to fully implement the Blueprint without the adequate teachers and the qualifications that we need.”
But, he added, “Taxpayers are getting a good deal for the dollars thus far.”
Have a news tip? Contact Chris Papst at cjpapst@sbgtv.com.