House Bill 119 has been amended and now proposes to require local school district compliance with the Health Education Framework as set out by the State Superintendent or lose 10% of their funding. The ability of the State Superintendent to suspend funding is currently optional and has rarely been used. It has never been used for curricula compliance. 

Howard County Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary announced that HB119 “has been struck in its entirety and replaced, basically, with a scheme that punishes bad actors” by requiring each local jurisdiction to follow the Health Education framework. Under the provisions of the bill, the State Superintendent of the Maryland Department of Education will monitor compliance. If it is determined that a district is not in compliance the Maryland Comptroller will send a notice indicating that the district has 30 days to comply, or they will lose 10% of “all money that is budgeted by the state or the county BOE” and includes additional funds for the Kirwan study “that provides additional money for teacher salaries.” The district will lose another 10% every 30 days until the gaps in compliance are fixed. For Frederick County, this could impact tens of millions of dollars with each suspension.

The bill is likely being proposed because of pushback by multiple school districts on the new standards for the Health Education Framework, particularly the Family Life and Human Sexuality Standards t(FL&HS) that include gender identity and expression as early as Kindergarten. Carroll County completed an “alternative curriculum” in response to the FL&HS and has been subjected to pressure to comply with the standards as written. (Click here to read the standards) 

The bill would apply to all the state board curricula guidance and would essentially remove all discretion on the part of individual school districts to interpret and build their curricula based on what they feel best fits the guidelines. The specific content of every curriculum would be under the control state board of education.

The Maryland Association of Boards of Education and local delegate April Miller oppose the bill.

A seven-minute video of Delegate Atterbeary’s introduction of the bill and discussion can be found here.