When the Montgomery County school board voted in June to close the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) online learning program due to fiscal constraints, Takoma Park parents Sterling High and Courtney Evans did everything they could to try to reverse the decision.
High and Evans, whose son attended the Montgomery Virtual Academy, joined other parents to protest and testify in front of the board, hoping to raise awareness about the potential harm to students who needed to attend classes online instead of in-person.
Their actions drew the interest of state Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17), who met with the couple.
“He said, back in June, ‘I’m going to put [together] the legislation to help this from happening again,’” High said. “And so we’ve been kind of working with him to help spitball what that legislation would look like.”
That spitballing became reality in January when Vogel, who represents parts of Gaithersburg and Rockville, and Del. April Miller (R-Dist.4), who represents Frederick County, introduced a bill in the Maryland House of Delegates requiring all school districts to establish virtual school programs.
“There are many students that since the closure of the virtual academy have been able to adjust to a classroom setting. But there are some that are going to be unable to do so, and I just don’t think the accommodations that have been put in place for them are adequate,” Vogel told Bethesda Today in an interview late last month.
The Montgomery Virtual Academy opened in the 2021-2022 school year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and served students with prolonged health concerns and those who found they thrived with at-home learning. The academy, which served roughly 700 students, was shut down by the school board at the end of the 2023-2024 school year due to budget constraints.
At the time, High said the board’s decision was a “gut punch” as Evans and their children have been experiencing symptoms of long COVID for years, and were unable to attend school in-person. Virtual schooling gave their son flexibility to take breaks when needed, Evans told Bethesda Today in May. Since June, High and Evans and a number of other parents and former academy students have been advocating for the district to reinstate the program or implement something similar.
MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor expanded hybrid learning programs in the fall, but High and Evans have claimed those efforts aren’t enough. Taylor’s proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget also includes $2.1 million to be allocated toward expanding blended, online and distance learning.
Evans said in December the $2.1 million was “worthless” if it didn’t include the creation of a similar virtual school model like Montgomery Virtual Academy. Blended learning programs aren’t enough for many students who need to participate in online education due to medical or other issues, High and Evans said.
The legislation proposed by Vogel and Miller does not explicitly outline which students would be eligible for a virtual school program but does require that districts have “reasonable” criteria and that student applicants must “describe why instruction in a virtual learning environment will lead to successful academic outcomes for the applicant” when seeking enrollment in a virtual academy.
“This is not a program that would just be accessible to any and every student that, you know, wants to have a virtual option,” Vogel said of the legislation. “This is for specific students who, for a number of different reasons, are just not able to be in the standard classroom environment.”
He said the legislation would “require that a [virtual] option be provided to every student who meets certain criteria. Those criteria can be set by the individual school districts. In this case, Montgomery County could set the criteria as it sees fit.”
The bill does not directly address how the state’s cash-strapped school districts would fund the creation and operation of an online program. If the legislation passes the General Assembly, it will go into effect July 1, leaving a short turnaround time for school districts to create new programs and figure out how to fund them.
For example, the Montgomery County school board voted last week to tentatively approve a $3.65 billion operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That proposal is on the desk of Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, who will in turn release his county operating budget proposal, which will include school spending, in March. The Mongomery County Council is expected to approve a fiscal year 2026 county operating budget in May. The upcoming fiscal year begins July 1.
Keeping it local
Some Maryland school districts have kept their pandemic-era virtual schools open, including Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Some neighboring states have some version of an online public school, including Virginia, which has a statewide program that provides online instruction for kindergarten through grade 12.
While statewide virtual school programs exist in other states, High and Evans argued that establishing one in Maryland would cost more money than the local virtual schools and wouldn’t be as good as the district-level online academies such as the former Montgomery Virtual Academy.
“Part of what made [virtual schools in Maryland] so effective” was that the programs were local, Evans said. “Kids are within driving distance of the friends that they make in class, and their teachers are local, and that makes a big difference when it comes to getting buy-in from kids.”
Vogel said the proposed legislation offers districts the opportunity to partner with other school systems to create joint virtual academy programs in an effort to share resources.
“I’ve heard the concerns that there just aren’t enough students in Montgomery County alone to justify a virtual option, I hear that,” Vogel said. “But you can have a consortium model where multiple counties come together to provide a virtual option.”
Vogel said his bipartisan partnership with Miller on the bill came about because Frederick County, the area she represents, is facing similar challenges as Montgomery County with funding and operating a virtual school program.
“This will be up to the Board of Education and the superintendent to decide how to move forward here, but I can see a situation where Montgomery and Frederick County, and maybe other counties like Howard County as well, come together to form a consortium model for a virtual option,” Vogel said.
High and Evans said passage of the legislation would satisfy the concerns of both families and school district officials.
“We’ve got these kids that need to have access to education, and not just access, but access to quality education,” Evans said. “And local boards, they put a … high premium on flexibility, local autonomy. And so this gives them the opportunity to meet the need in a way that works best for them.”
Montgomery County school board President Julie Yang recently told Bethesda Today the board hasn’t taken a position on the bill but will likely discuss it at its Feb. 20 meeting.
Yang said she had questions about whether the legislation would create an unfunded mandate for schools. High and Evans argued that it won’t. High notes that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s 2021 landmark education reform bill, “mandates that a certain percentage, like 75% of the funding follows [students] directly to where they’re being educated.”
High said the virtual schools could be funded with the 75% of state funding that’s supposed to follow the student.
Vogel proposed that the consortium model would help address funding issues. The legislation does not contain a fiscal component, or any guidance on funding sources.
The General Assembly is facing tough budget decisions due to a projected $2.7 billion deficit for fiscal 2026. And amid President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal programming and funding, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Dist. 46) warned his fellow legislators on Friday that they will likely have to look for “several hundred million” in additional budget cuts or increases in taxes to cover expected decreases in federal aid.
In the county, spending for MCPS has long been a topic of contention in county budget discussions, as councilmembers juggle competing priorities across several departments.
“If it doesn’t make sense for Montgomery County to offer a program like that on their own, they should offer a program like that with other counties jointly to reduce the cost,” Vogel said.
Yang said the board is supportive of online education and a virtual academy is included in the board’s statewide legislative priorities. However, according to those priorities, the district is focused on urging the Maryland State Board of Education to develop a statewide virtual learning option.
The legislation proposed by Vogel and Miller is scheduled for a hearing in the House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The legislation must receive a favorable vote by the committee in order to be considered by the full House of Delegates. If approved by the House, the bill would “cross over” to the Senate for a confirmation vote.
