Maryland schools superintendent on the upcoming legislative session: ‘Everything is going to be on the table’

Maryland’s State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead in the 90-day General Assembly session in Annapolis.

With lawmakers facing a $1.5 billion deficit, “I think everything is going to be on the table.”

Wright told WTOP she expects discussion on where the state is currently getting its results on education, and that “it takes a lot to balance a budget, I totally understand that.”

But Wright said even with the fiscal challenges ahead, she wants to see funding for the Academic Excellence program.

“That will provide statewide literacy coaches” to school systems, Wright said. “Right now, with our proficiency rate at around 50%, we’ve got a lot of children that need to have their reading improved. Research has shown very clearly that job-embedded coaching is the way to do that. So we’re hoping that that gets funded.”

The proposal would install 35 literacy coaches in school systems across Maryland.

“We’ll take a look at those schools that are struggling the most with literacy,” Wright said of how they will be determining where the coaches should be placed.

The coaches Wright wants to see would have expertise in teaching adults: “Because you can take a great teacher out of a classroom, but they don’t necessarily make a great coach, because working with adults is just a lot different than working with children.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s budget proposal includes funding for that prog...