Maryland's Blueprint to Prepare Students for College and Careers

Taylor Nichols and Adriana Navarro, Capital News Service • June 18, 2024

Counselors Lead the Way

Northern High School had never had a career counselor. Not until Christian Wargo walked through its doors.

In September, Wargo became the Calvert County high school’s first career advisor as a part of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multi-billion dollar legislative plan to improve education across the state.

Now, every school district across the state is hiring career counselors like Wargo to help students navigate a pressing question: What do they want to do when they grow up?

Wargo said his help is in high demand.

“I’m in the classrooms a lot with the kids still introducing myself so they know who I am, but I’m starting to have a lot of students come to me on their own,” he said.

A new emphasis on career counseling is just part of the Blueprint’s college and career readiness “pillar,” which starts with an ambitious goal: to make sure all high school students are prepared for their next steps after high school by the end of the 10th grade.

Many students fall short of that goal now, and Rachel Hise, executive director of the Blueprint’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said that leaves educators with an important lesson.

“The bulk of kids need something different than what we're doing for them now,” Hise said.

That “something different” is already taking shape amid the state’s education bureaucracy and at its 1,421 or so public schools. The State Department of Education is redesigning curriculums and has already revised how to measure college and career readiness. Districts are funneling more high school juniors and seniors to dual enrollment programs at local community colleges, and schools are placing a far stronger emphasis on career and technical education.

A sweeping curriculum overhaul

All Blueprint changes need to be in place by the 2031-2032 school year. While each school district is tasked with developing its own implementation plan, one key to the Blueprint is a “model statewide curriculum” that’s currently under development.

“We are trying to get rid of our gaps and to really understand what we need to do to meet our kids to make sure that they leave us prepared for college, career and life,” said Rachel Amstutz, policy director for the Accountability and Implementation Board that’s overseeing the Blueprint rollout.

While it’s not yet clear what those changes might entail, the Blueprint Implementation Plan discusses possible adjustments to math, English language arts, science and social studies curriculums to align with local college admissions standards and research on student learning.

“You'll hear us talk about reimagining the school day,” Amstutz said. “We don't envision high school looking like what high school has looked like since my parents were in school.”

The Blueprint also requires a universal standard to measure college and career readiness. The state had been using Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program scores, a state standardized test, as an indicator of success. By 10th grade, students need to meet expectations in English language arts and math to be deemed “career and college ready.”

But the test results from the 2020-21 school year, the latest available, showed just over half of students (53.5%) met the English language arts requirements and roughly 40% passed math standards by 10th grade. Maryland high schoolers have to take the test to graduate, but aren’t required by the state to pass. However, starting this year the government and life science tests will count for 20% of a student’s course grade.

Studies commissioned by the Blueprint found that including an alternative to demonstrating college and career readiness through passing exams, such as earning a 3.0 GPA, was more inclusive than standardized tests alone and better predicted student success in college.

That being the case, the State Board of Education in January unanimously adopted a new set of college and career readiness standards last month that includes that GPA measure as an alternative to test scores.

Now it’s up to teachers, career counselors and students to try to meet those standards.

“The Blueprint is really asking us to rethink what high school looks like and really make sure that we're preparing all of our students to go to college or enter the workforce in a way that we just haven't done before,” said Sarah Bento, assistant principal at Northern High School in Calvert County.

College Prep: AP Classes and Dual Enrollment

The requirement to add career counselors in every school means students will have more support to think about what they want to do. For many, that still means pursuing a college degree.

On average, roughly half of Maryland high school graduates go straight to college after high school.

Northern High School sophomore Simon Mackenzie Dean, 15, is one such student planning on going to college. He knew he liked math and science, and after speaking with Wargo, he decided to go either into nuclear engineering or quantum physics.

“We had the resources to look at more job opportunities, what it does, how it works and sort of that stuff,” Dean said. “And it made me think more about it. Even just having the ability to do that [is helpful], so you can narrow it down more.”

For high school students interested in college, options such as AP classes or dual-enrollment at community colleges help them prepare for that next step and can defray the costs of earning a four-year degree.

Last year, about one in 15 Maryland high schoolers participated in dual enrollment programs at local colleges.

The Blueprint requires local community colleges to accept 11th- and 12th- graders who meet college and career readiness standards and requirements for dual enrollment tuition-free.

Career counselors can also help students make informed decisions about where to go to school, what to study and how to pay for it, said Carrie Akins, director of Career and Technical Education at Calvert County Public Schools.

“I think people have been hungry for that knowledge for quite some time, but as parents, what they knew was, ‘I don't want my kid to have thousands of dollars in debt, but I don't know what to tell them,’” Akins said. “So I think that they're very excited to now have somebody that can help their child through that process.”

Alternatives to a Four-Year Degree

The Blueprint also requires increasing career preparation opportunities for students who won’t end up going to college. The Blueprint aims to have 45% of high school graduates completing an apprenticeship or industry-recognized credential by the 2030-31 school year.

That’s a lofty goal. Current state data show that, as of February 2023, 27% of high school students had completed a career and technical education program. However, just 7% had earned an industry credential or completed an apprenticeship.

High schools in Garrett, Somerset, Kent and Caroline counties currently have the highest participation rates in career and technical education, while Prince George’s and Montgomery counties have the lowest, State Department of Education data show.

State-approved career and technical education programs include health professions, early childhood education, dental hygienist and dental assisting, culinary arts, carpentry, cosmetology, air traffic control and many other career training options.

The key to getting students to consider such careers involves reaching them young and debunking some old stereotypes, educators said.

"We really should be starting a conversation of college and career at the K through eight level,” said Ryan Daniel, principal of Fort Foote Elementary School in Prince George’s County.

Such conversations can make a big difference. Northern High School freshman Cody Bach Du, 14, wanted to either go to college for landscaping architecture or go to the Calvert County Career and Technology Academy for woodworking or welding. Talking with Wargo made Duhim realize there were other pathways to sustainable careers outside of a four-year degree.

“When Mr. Wargo came in and he told me about all of these different opportunities, it kind of opened my view up,” Du said.

Given the historical emphasis on a four-year college education, there can be a lingering stigma for students who want to enter the workforce out of high school or opt for job training instead.

“We still need to make sure that we’re doing a better job, really, taking some of that stigma away,” said Chrystie Crawford-Smick, president of the Harford County Education Association, a bargaining union for local education employees. “They're very lucrative careers and very needed.”

Nikki Phillips, the new advisor at Plum Point Middle School in Calvert County, said some students come to her with a set idea of what success looks like based on perceptions they learn from their parents.

Because older generations were taught that earning a four-year degree was the best path to success, part of the job now involves educating parents on today’s career landscape, especially with factors such as artificial intelligence and automation, Akins said.

It’s a slightly different conversation than the one Phillips has with younger students.

“When we talk about anything in the future, they’re like, ‘I want to be rich,’” she said.

Instead of getting her students to focus on how much money they will make, however, she said she tries to get them to focus on other things, like the quality of life with each job.

“Are you willing to put in the effort to get there?” Phillips said. “Because, no matter what the job is, you still have to go through the effort to get there.”

Capital News Service is a student-powered news organization run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. For 26 years, they have provided deeply reported, award-winning coverage of issues of import to Marylanders.

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Common Sense for the Eastern Shore

“Liberty: The Promises and Paradoxes”

By John Christie • March 3, 2026

Just up the road from Maryland’s Eastern Shore lies Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. Administered by the National Park Service (NPS), the park is dedicated to the preservation of historical structures and properties associated with the American Revolution and the founding and growth of the United States. The centerpiece of the park is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers in the late 18th century. Nearby is the Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence, displayed in the Liberty Bell Center. In the park as well is what’s called the President’s House, an exhibit on the site of the first official residence of the president of the United States. President Washington occupied the Philadelphia President's House from 1790 to 1797. His successor, John Adams, lived there from 1797 to 1800. Although the original structure no longer exists, the exhibit includes a view of the foundation of the house where our first two presidents lived with their families. Research has turned up information about nine enslaved Africans owned by Washington and brought to Philadelphia’s presidential residence during his time there. To commemorate the lives of those slaves, their names are etched in a wall in the exhibit: Oney Judge, Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules Posey, Joe Richardson, Moll, Paris, and Richmond. The site includes exhibits on how their struggles for freedom represented this country’s progress away from the horrors of slavery and into an era where the founding ideals of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” could be achieved for every American. An intended theme of the President’s House exhibit is “Liberty: The Promises and Paradoxes.” “The promises of liberty and equality granted in the founding documents present a paradox: not only were they ideals to strive for but they were unfulfilled promises for people who struggled to be fully included as citizens of our nation.” ------------------------------------------------------------ On March 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” EO14253 stated in part: “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” In order to “restore truth in American history,” EO14253 directed the Secretary of the Interior to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction do not contain descriptions or other content that “inappropriately disparage” Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times) and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people. In response to this order, on January 22, 2026, the NPS suddenly removed 34 educational panels and video exhibits that referenced slavery and provided information about the individuals enslaved at the President’s House. The day these exhibits were removed, the City of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Philadelphia against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, Acting Director of NPS Jessica Bowron, and the NPS itself, claiming that the removal of the displays was unlawful agency action. On February 16, Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery-related exhibits at the national park site, holding that NPS lacked the power “to dissemble and disassemble historical truths.” In court, the government asserted it alone had the power to erase, alter, remove, and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control. According to Judge Rufe, to claim that “truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten” comes right out of George Orwell’s 1984. In her opinion, no government agency can “arbitrarily” decide what is true, “based on its own whims or the whims of the new leadership.” “It is not disputed that President Washington owned slaves.” Moreover, Judge Rufe determined the removed displays were not mere decorations to be taken down and redisplayed; rather, they were a memorial to the “men, women, and children of African descent who lived, worked, and died as enslaved people in the United States of America.” Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history. Removal of the crucial interpretive materials strips the site of that truth and deprives the public of educational opportunities designed to be free and accessible. For Judge Rufe, the abrupt elimination of historically significant educational material is like “pulling pages out of a history book with a razor.” John Christie was for many years a senior partner in a large Washington, D.C. law firm. He specialized in anti-trust litigation and developed a keen interest in the U.S. Supreme Court about which he lectures and writes.

Run for Something Endorses Megan Outten for Wicomico County Council District 7

By CSES Staff • March 3, 2026

Last month, Megan Outten, candidate for Wicomico County Council District 7, was endorsed by Run for Something (RFS), a national organization that recruits and supports the next generation of progressive leaders for state and local office. The organization’s slate of newly endorsed candidates includes young, diverse progressives from across the country who are ready to lead in their communities. Outten said, “This campaign has always been powered by our community. By parents, teachers, small business owners, and neighbors who know we can do better. Run for Something’s endorsement affirms what we already know here in Wicomico: when everyday people step up to lead, we change what’s possible. Together, we’re building the kind of local government that plans ahead, listens first, and puts families at the center of every decision.” “Bold leaders like Megan are at the forefront of the fight for our rights and freedoms at a time when they have never faced greater threats,” said Amanda Litman, Co-Founder and President of Run for Something. “Run for Something is proud to endorse Megan Outten as part of our latest class of young leaders working to secure lasting change in their communities.” Outten’s platform is rooted in real data and shaped by direct community engagement. With Wicomico now the fastest-growing school system on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and 85% of students relying on additional resources, she points to the county’s lagging investment as a key area for action. “Strong schools lead to strong jobs, thriving industries, and healthier communities,” Outten said. “Our schools and infrastructure are at a tipping point. We need leadership that stops reacting after things break — and starts investing before they do.” About Run for Something: Amanda Litman and Ross Morales Rocketto launched RFS in January 2017 with a simple premise: to help young, diverse progressives run for state and local offices in order to build a bench for the future. RFS aims to lower the barriers to entry for these candidates by helping them with organization building, connecting them with a robust community, and providing access to the trainings they need to be successful. Since its founding, RFS has helped elect over 1,600 candidates across the country — including 43 candidates in red-to-blue seats in the 2025 election cycle. Today, RFS has the largest database of any Democratic organization, with nearly 80,000 people reaching out since November 2024 with interest in running for office. In total, over 250,000 young people from across the country have signed up to run and gained access to RFS’s resources since the organization launched — a powerful signal that a new generation is showing up to lead.

DHS is Violating a Court Order that Prohibits Warrantless Immigration Arrests in D.C., New Filing Alleges

By Liam Bowman, Capital News Service • March 3, 2026

The Trump administration is still arresting immigrants in D.C. without warrants or probable cause despite a judge’s previous ruling that the practice was unlawful, a coalition of immigrant rights groups alleges in a recent court filing. A federal judge ruled in December that the administration’s use of warrantless immigration arrests likely violated federal law and issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting such arrests without probable cause. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups and four migrants who were arrested without warrants last year during President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in the capital. But federal immigration officials in D.C. are failing to comply with that order, continuing to make warrantless arrests “without the required probable cause determinations,” according to the Feb. 19 motion by plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleges immigration authorities began operating under an “arrest first, ask questions later” policy to comply with arrest quotas imposed after Trump took office last year — and started to ignore the probable cause requirements under immigration law. Click here to read the rest of the article , on the Capital News Service website. The article also details the arrest stories of the plaintiffs who were tricked, and concerns about D.C. police cooperation with immigration authorities. Capital News Service is a student-powered news organization run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. For 26 years, they have provided deeply reported, award-winning coverage of issues of import to Marylanders.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free”

By John Christie • February 17, 2026

These are the words from Emma Lazarus’ famous 1883 sonnet “The New Colossus” inscribed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. In 1990, Congress reaffirmed this vision of America by establishing the Temporary Protected Status program. TPS is designed to provide humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. In its present form, the TPS legislation gives the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security responsibility for the program. However, the legislation prescribes the kind of country conditions severe enough to warrant a designation under the statute, the specific time frame for any such designation, and the process for periodic review of a TPS designation which could culminate in termination or extension. All initial TPS designations last from six to eighteen months. Before the expiration of a designation, the statute mandates that the Secretary shall review the conditions in the foreign state to decide if the conditions for the designation continue to be met, following consultation with appropriate agencies of the government. Extension is the default; the designation “shall be extended” unless the secretary affirmatively determines that conditions are “no longer met.” ------------------------------------------------------------- A massive earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010, and precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Shortly after, then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, after consultation with the State Department, designated Haiti for TPS due to “extraordinary conditions.” Haitian nationals in the United States continuously as of January 12, 2010, could thus apply for TPS, and obtained the right to remain and work in the U.S. while Haiti maintained its TPS designation. Napolitano set the initial TPS designation for 18 months. As Haiti’s deterioration worsened, successive DHS secretaries have extended this program. Gang violence and kidnappings have spiked. In 2021, a group of assailants killed Haiti’s then-President Jovenel Moïse. In 2023, another catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti. In 2024, in response to these conditions, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once again extended and redesignated Haiti for TPS, this time effective through February 3, 2026. During the 2024 election cycle, the GOP candidate, Donald Trump clearly indicated that time had not tempered his views on Haiti, characterized by him as a “shithole country” during his first term. He stated that when elected, he would “absolutely revoke” Haiti’s TPS designation and send “them back to their country.” On December 1, 2025, Kristi Noem, DHS secretary in the second Trump administration, announced, “I just met with the president. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom, not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owned to Americans. We don’t want them, not one.” So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. Five Haitian TPS holders filed suit in federal court in Washington initially seeking an injunction against the termination of the Haitian TPS program pending the completion of the litigation. These plaintiff TPS holders are not “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, a software engineer at a national bank, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, a college economics major, and a full-time registered nurse. The case was assigned to district court judge Ana Reyes who granted the plaintiffs’ injunction request on February 2, 2026, by way of an 83-page opinion. The plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision because of hostility to non-white immigrants. According to Judge Reyes, “This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk — twelve countries up, twelve countries down.” Judge Reyes also decided that Noem’s conclusion that Haiti (a majority non-white country) faces only “merely concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm” of “suffering and staggering” humanitarian toll described in page after page of the record in the case. In Judge Reyes’ view, Noem also ignored Congress’s requirement that she review the conditions in Haiti “after consulting with appropriate agencies.” Indeed, the record indicates she did not consult other agencies at all. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here and legally so. And though Noem states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” Judge Reyes concluded Noem ignored altogether the billions that Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. The administration’s primary response in the litigation has been to assert that the TPS statute gives Secretary Noem “unbounded” discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. Yes, Judge Reyes acknowledges, the statute does grant Noem some discretion. But, in Judge Reyes’ opinion, “not unbounded discretion.” To the contrary, Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system; in Judge Reyes’ words, "to replace executive whim with statutory predictability.” The administration also argued that the harms to Haitian TPS holders were “speculative” if they are forced to return to Haiti. Because the State Department presently warns, “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason,” the administration asserts that harm is “speculative” only because DHS “might not” remove them. However, according to Judge Reyes, this argument fails to take Secretary Noem at her word: “We don’t want them. Not one.” The public interest also favors the injunction, in the opinion of Judge Reyes. Secretary Noem complains of the strains that unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Noem’s answer is to turn 352,959 lawful TPS Haitian immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. Noem complains of strains to our economy; her answer is to turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. Noem complains of strains to our health care system. Noem’s answer is to turn the insured into the uninsured. “This approach is many things – but the public interest is not one of them,” according to Judge Reyes. The opinion of Judge Reyes concludes: “Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the law to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that. The administration has already appealed. John Christie was for many years a senior partner in a large Washington, D.C. law firm. He specialized in anti-trust litigation and developed a keen interest in the U.S. Supreme Court about which he lectures and writes.

Gov. Moore Signs Legislation to Prohibit Md. Jurisdictions from Deputizing Officers for Federal Civil Immigration Enforcement

By Office of the Governor • February 16, 2026

Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation on February 17, 2026, to prohibit State and local jurisdictions from deputizing officers for federal civil immigration enforcement activity. The law, created under SB 245/HB 444 , is effective immediately. “In Maryland, we defend Constitutional rights and Constitutional policing — and we will not allow untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents to deputize our law enforcement officers,” Moore said. “This bill draws a clear line: we will continue to work with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable, but we refuse to blur the lines between state and federal authority in ways that undermine the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Maryland is a community of immigrants, and that's one of our greatest strengths because this country is incomplete without each and every one of us.” “As an immigrant, this bill is deeply personal to me,” said Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller. “Immigrants make Maryland stronger every day, and our communities are safer when everyone feels protected and valued. This legislation ensures that our law enforcement resources remain focused on keeping Marylanders safe, not on actions that create fear in our neighborhoods. I thank the bill sponsors and Governor Moore for their leadership in ensuring Maryland remains a place where dignity and opportunity go hand in hand.” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, established its 287(g) program to authorize local law enforcement officials to perform federal civil immigration enforcement functions under ICE’s oversight. Under SB 245/HB 444, State and local jurisdictions in Maryland are prohibited from engaging in such agreements. Any local jurisdictions with standing 287(g) agreements must terminate them immediately. The legislation does not: Authorize the release of criminals Impact State policies and practices in response to immigration detainers that are issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Prevent the State or local jurisdictions from continuing to work with the federal government on shared public safety priorities, including the removal of violent criminals who pose a risk to public safety Prevent State or local jurisdictions from continuing to notify ICE about the impending release of an individual of interest from custody or from coordinating the safe transfer of custody within constitutional limits State and local law enforcement will also maintain the ability to work with the federal government on criminal investigations and joint task forces unrelated to civil immigration enforcement. Any individual who is charged with a crime is entitled to due process and, if convicted, must serve their sentence.

Farmers Now Owe a Lot More for Health Insurance

By Sarah Boden and Drew Hawkins, Gulf States Newsroom • February 16, 2026

And now, the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that many Americans, including farmers, relied on to purchase health insurance are gone, having expired at the end of December.