Wes Moore Stopped the Education Freefall. Now Comes the Hard Part.
By Barry O'Connell | The Maryland Wire
Let’s get something out of the way first: I am not in the business of handing out participation trophies to politicians. When Annapolis spins a narrative, my default setting is to double-check the math and inspect the structural beams.
So when the cheerleaders in the administration point to recent 5-year averages and tell us Maryland education is trending in the right direction, my instinct is to dig past the press releases. But if you look at where we were three years ago compared to where we are today, a clear truth emerges that even the crustiest partisans ought to admit:
Governor Wes Moore has successfully arrested the freefall.
That is not small praise. Reversing a tailspin is hard work. But let’s also be stone-cold sober about where we are standing: we are still standing near the bottom of a crater, looking up at a very long climb.
The Hogan Legacy: An Eight-Year Slide
If you listen to state Republicans, they’d have you believe Maryland schools were a pristine paradise until Wes Moore walked into the State House. That is pure political amnesia.
When Larry Hogan took office in 2015, he inherited a public school system ranked #1 in the nation. By the time he walked out the door in early 2023, Maryland had plummeted to 40th in 4th-grade reading and 42nd in 4th-grade math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Yes, COVID-19 dealt a brutal blow to classrooms everywhere. But Republicans don't get to hide behind the pandemic. Long before 2020, the Hogan administration spent years picking fights with educators, trying to veto the bipartisan Kirwan Commission's findings, and starving the structural investments needed to keep Maryland competitive. The result wasn't just stagnation—it was an absolute institutional slide. Hogan left office with test scores cratering and a workforce of exhausted, underpaid teachers heading for the exits.
Stopping the Bleed: Credit Where It’s Due
When Wes Moore took over, he didn't inherit a fixable fender-bender; he inherited a multi-system pileup.
To his credit, Moore didn't stall. He leaned into evidence-based literacy initiatives, embraced the "Science of Reading," put real state dollars behind high-impact tutoring, and stabilized state education aid.
The early return on that focus is undeniable:
The Trajectory Flipped: Maryland’s post-pandemic recovery speed in elementary reading and math has been among the fastest in the country.
National Rankings Bounced: 4th-grade reading ranks jumped from 40th back up to 20th nationally.
State Metrics Restored: State-level MCAP literacy scores have posted their best back-to-back gains in over a decade.
If you’re looking for proof that leadership matters, there it is. Moore changed the vector. Under Hogan, the line pointed down. Under Moore, the line points up.
Strike Up the Band? Not Just Yet.
Here is where the fair-minded part of my brain overrides the partisan part.
Having the fastest recovery speed in the nation sounds great until you realize how low our floor was. Bouncing from 40th to 20th in reading is impressive velocity, but overall math proficiency across Maryland still sits at appalling levels. Roughly three out of four public school students in this state are still not proficient in grade-level math.
You don't throw a victory parade when 75% of your kids are struggling with basic algebra.
Furthermore, the hardest political and fiscal tests are knocking right on the door of the General Assembly:
The Blueprint Fiscal Wall: The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future was written as a bold 10-year promise. But paying for universal pre-K, higher baseline educator salaries, and expanded community support while balancing a tight state ledger is going to test every ounce of political capital in Annapolis.
Implementation vs. Reality: Delaying or tweaking implementation milestones—like teacher collaborative time—shows that the administration is wrestling with real-world staffing shortages, but it also signals that turning landmark legislation into daily classroom reality is far more grueling than passing a bill.
The District Divide: A statewide average can hide a lot of pain. A recovery in Montgomery or Anne Arundel County doesn't automatically fix chronic absenteeism in Baltimore City or resource starvation in rural counties.
The Verdict
Governor Wes Moore has every right to point to the metrics and say, "We stopped the bleeding, and the plan is working." He earned those bragging rights because he took over a disaster and pointed the ship in the right direction.
But changing the direction of the ship isn't the same as arriving at the port.
Moore has proven he can stabilize the system. Now he has to prove he can fund it through a fiscal squeeze, execute the Blueprint without tearing the state budget apart, and get math and reading proficiency back to true gold-standard levels.
He’s guided us onto the road back. But it’s a long, steep road, and nobody should be breaking out the marching band until our kids are actually at the top of the hill.