By Adam Pagnucco.
This year was a huge one for the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), wielder of the mighty Apple Ballot. The union and its parent organization knocked out three school board incumbents, something I can’t remember seeing before, outspent all the general election school board candidates combined and saw more than 20,000 Democrats vote straight Apple Ballot in the primary. If I were MCEA, I would use that latter stat over and OVER with recalcitrant politicians.
Now comes David Stein, MCEA’s new president, to the school board hearing room with a message. Following is a transcript of his remarks at yesterday’s board meeting.
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MCEA President David Stein.
Hello President Silvestre, Dr. Taylor and the Board of Education. In Tuesday’s general election, Montgomery County voters made their voices clear in several important ways. First, voters emphatically said it is time for a change in MCPS’s elected leadership. These past few years have been traumatic for our members, the district and the community. They’ve been marred by scandal, misdirected priorities, obfuscation and a lack of communication. I think we’ve been making fundamental changes to address these but we expect the new board to be a vanguard of these changes.
Secondly, Montgomery County voters clearly value and respect the views of educators in a way, quite frankly, that this board and district administration have not always done. We are the ones closest to the work. We are the ones who see the problems vividly and immediately. When educators tell you through climate surveys or otherwise that there are morale issues in certain workplaces, when we tell you that there are problems with the curriculum and services that we are delivering to students, when we tell you we don’t have enough time and we don’t have enough control over the time we do have, when we tell you our physical environments are unhealthy and unsafe, you need to listen. And then you need to act because listening is not enough. And work with us to develop solutions even when those solutions are hard and expensive.
On Tuesday, voters listened to us and I hope you’re listening to us now.
Lastly, it is clear we are entering a national environment that will be dark and perilous. Public education and its champions will be under more intense scrutiny and attack. Our detractors will target our most vulnerable students. This includes our LGBT students, immigrant, Black and brown students among others. We must come together to defend public education, our students and our values. To do that, we must work together and find common ground. The voters agreed. On Tuesday, they also rejected taking a path towards less tolerance and less inclusivity in our schools.
MCEA is committed to doing this work day in and day out. We may not see eye to eye on every issue but I know that each of you believes in the power, promise and potential of public education. I know we can find ways to work together to build and invest in our public education system that will not only endure but will light up this dark time.
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The ascendancy of MCEA, a long-time power in MoCo politics that is coming off a peak performance, will be a major factor in county affairs over the next two years. I will have thoughts about what that means in a future post.