MD PUSHES ON ACA SIGNUPS: Major last-minute changes at the federal level to the Affordable Care Act and additional rate increases at the state level threaten to undermine enrollment in health insurance this year, but Maryland health exchange officials are sticking to a goal of signing up at least as many people as last year, Meredith Cohn of the Sun reports.

• Because Maryland’s Health Connection runs separately from the federal government, it will not see reductions in funding for advertisement or other services, writes Tim Curtis for the Daily Record. Just 1% of the exchange’s enrollees come from the federal health exchange website.

ARUNDEL TURNS OUT FOR MAGLEV PRESENTATION: Hundreds of Anne Arundel County residents huddled around maps on cafeteria tables at Arundel High School on Monday night in an effort to find out if their homes are in the potential path of the Maglev. The proposed superconducting Maglev high-speed rail project, which would cost between $10 billion to $12 billion, promises to cut the trip between BWI Airport and Baltimore down to five minutes, and get from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., in 15 minutes. The train would eventually connect Washington to New York in an hour, Selene San Felice reports for the Annapolis Capital.

TUTORING ‘COULD CLOSE’ ED GAP: Maryland has one of the highest household incomes in the U.S., but only 40% of its students met proficiency standards in reading and math on the PARCC assessments in 2017, a Johns Hopkins University researcher told the Kirwin Commission last week. Glynis Kazanjian of MarylandReporter writes that a $1.46 billion plan using one-on-one and small group and tutoring would help close the gap between top performing students and those who struggle to keep up, according to Robert Slavin, the university’s director of Research and Reform in Education.

READ MORE HERE: http://marylandreporter.com/2017/10/17/state-roundup-october-17-2017/