The Montgomery County Education Association (teacher’s union) has issued the following statement in response to the proposed cuts by MCPS:
“The Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) has issued a demand for action in response to the recent, draconian budgetary decisions impacting Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The updated School Allocation Execution (SAE) report, scheduled for release on June 3rd, confirms there will be alarming staffing reductions, directly impacting students who are already learning in grossly understaffed buildings.
The decision to target classroom teachers for these reductions is a blatant disregard of the crushing workloads teachers have already carried. Year after year, educators continue to be forced to do more with less. This trend isn’t sustainable and clearly has a negative impact on students.
The combination of chronic underfunding and gross mismanagement of the MCPS budget has caused the system to hit a breaking point. Urgent changes must be made to prevent leadership from further eroding the quality of education our county’s children receive. We simply cannot allow the budget to be balanced on the backs of students. We must find a different way.
Every student, parent, educator, and concerned citizen should contact County Executive Marc Elrich and the Montgomery County Council right now and demand a special appropriation to prevent increased class sizes and teacher layoffs.
We must also demand that they use their power to call for an immediate investigation into MCPS by the Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) to ensure transparency and accountability in their use of public funds. Dedicated teachers and our students should not be the ones to suffer from the mismanagement of the school system and failure of the county executive and council to adequately support public education in their FY25 budget. And as the system now seeks a new superintendent, the county must have a full audit of MCPS’s financial structures and adequate funding in place for the coming year.
MCEA President Jennifer Martin stated, “The excellence of our public schools has been our greatest point of pride for this county. Restoring that excellence is the foundation of our community’s future. We cannot stand by while our leaders erode the quality of education our students receive. This is a fight for the needs of our children. We implore County Executive Elrich and the council to use their power to help us fight for the schools our students deserve and to help right what has become a sinking ship.”