Two top Montgomery County Public Schools officials and presidents of three MCPS employee unions published a letter to the County Council on Tuesday afternoon asking for an eight percent funding increase for next year’s school operating budget.
The letter was prompted by a May 5 vote of the council’s Education & Culture Committee recommending a minimum seven percent increase in funding for next year’s MCPS budget and a maximum increase of nine percent.
“We collectively have analyzed the Committee’s action and considered the impact on the MCPS budget and our ability to fund negotiated agreements,” the letter states.
It is signed by Superintendent Monifa McKnight, Board of Education President Karla Silvestre (At-Large) and the presidents of the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals and Service Employees International Union Local 500.
MCEA president Jennifer Martin said her union signed the letter out of a desire to protect the quality of the county’s education system at a time when students are struggling with a variety of new post-pandemic needs.
“We’re not here just looking out for our own paychecks. We’re looking out for the kids of this county—trying to get them what they desperately need,” Martin said. “This is the time to make sure we’re providing for our students through the strong public education system that undergirds our county’s prosperity and livability.”
According to the letter, anything less than an eight percent increase in budget funds would jeopardize the hard-earned fruits of salary agreements between MCPS and its employee unions and force the parties to return to the negotiation tables.
“For over five months, we have bargained night and day in good faith to determine how to fairly compensate the MCPS workforce,” the letter reads. “Thanks to this collaborative hard work, all associations have reached tentative economic agreements with MCPS; however, at least an eight percent-increment increase is needed to fund our negotiated agreements.”
Yesterday, MCEA members disrupted a County Council meeting with a demonstration demanding full funding for the school budget instead of the minimum 7 percent increase proposed by council on May 5. The protest forced council into an unscheduled recess, and E&C Committee member Gabe Albornoz (D-At-large) later said he was “deeply saddened and troubled” by the action.
Martin said while the teachers’ display was “uncomfortable for everyone” and that educators didn’t enjoy being disruptive, they’re finding that “polite conversation and logical reasoning has not been getting through to the council effectively.”
The County Council will take a straw vote on the MCPS operating budget on Friday. The final county budget vote is scheduled for May 17.