The second major impact of the bill is to restrict how the state could intervene in failing schools. Among other things, it prohibits establishing a state-wide "recovery district" for failing schools, creating a school without the approval of the local board, converting a school to a charter, using vouchers or some other means to send public school students to private schools or contracting with a for-profit educational company. But the state board can't actually do those things without the legislature's approval anyway. It could include them in the accountability plan it sends to the federal government — indeed, Governor Hogan sent a letter to the board encouraging it to adopt some of them — but it couldn't actually put them in practice without the legislature's approval. Lawmakers worry that if those measures are in the plan, the federal government could hold Maryland accountable for not following through, but given the move by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration to provide more leeway to the states, that doesn't seem likely.