By Adam Pagnucco.
Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) President David Stein has released a video calling on his members to resist “devastating cuts” to MCPS. The video comes as the county council gets into the heavy lifting of rewriting County Executive Marc Elrich’s recommended FY27 operating budget, which contains unpopular tax increases. Is Stein right to ring the alarm bell?
First, a bit of context. Back in February, the school board requested a $190 million increase in their FY27 operating budget, of which $180 million would come from an increased county appropriation. (The rest would mostly come from the state.) One month later, Elrich included the entire increase in his recommended budget and financed it in part with property and income tax increases. The increase contrasts with a drop in enrollment from 156,050 (FY26 actual) to 155,500 (FY27 projected).
Once budget debate began at the council, two council members proposed appropriating less than the school board’s request. Council President Natali Fani-González recommended appropriating $59 million less than what the board wants. Council Member Will Jawando, who has been endorsed by MCEA for county executive, recommended appropriating $30 million less than what the board wants. Both approaches would still give MCPS a substantial increase.
At the moment, the council president has placed 10 equal tranches of $18 million, each representing a 10% increase in the county’s contribution to MCPS, on the council’s reconciliation list for consideration. The council could ultimately adopt all ten of them, none of them or some number in between. An absolute dollar cut is not under consideration at this writing.
That said, price inflation is roughly 3% now and rising (thanks in part to gas prices) and the MCPS unions have negotiated wage increases ranging from 3.25% to 6.75% for most employees. At some point, a funding increase that does not account for these factors will place pressure on MCPS.
Against that backdrop, let’s consider what MCEA’s president has to say in the video embedded below.
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Hello family. I want to wish you a happy Teacher Appreciation Week. The work that you do is truly appreciated in our classrooms, in our buildings, in our work sites all over the county. The work that we are putting in to make sure that our students are receiving the world-class education that they deserve is deeply, deeply appreciated and you deserve all the kudos that you get this week. All the presents, the pizza lunches, all of that. Great! You deserve it.
But I gotta tell you, teacher appreciation needs to be more than just words. Right now, the county council is considering a budget that would be devastating to MCPS. It threatens our already negotiated cost of living increases and steps. It threatens important programs that we have throughout the county. It even threatens positions of our members and members of our sister unions across the county.
We cannot let this happen.
We cannot let them say on one hand that they appreciate teachers and on the other hand that they’re willing to put through devastating cuts to our school system.
So we are repurposing Teacher Appreciation Week. We are making it a Teacher Appreciation Week of Action and we need you to join us. We need the county council and the community at large to understand that we cannot sustain cuts to our workforce and to our programs at MCPS.
So join us. I’m so happy to be in this fight with you. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week but let’s make this week a week where we make sure that our elected officials show that appreciation is more than just words. Thank you.