Provocative & redundant? Yes. But teacher's union report is not wrong
A deliberately provocative report from the Frederick County Teachers Association did what it intended to do. But whether it’s provoked the right people is doubtful. Very few people, certainly a majority on the County Council, seem to believe we’re giving too much money to the school system. Education is a critical investment that has been overlooked in the county for far too long. While funding at the bare minimum level known as “maintenance of effort” was necessary to see county government through the recession, we’ve now passed the point where any sensible jurisdiction should have restored reasonable per-pupil funding increases.
The 10-point paper from the teachers union, “Frederick County: Starving its Public Schools,” argues that, as a fundamental driver of a healthy economy, school funding needs to be increased — and it does. In fact, that’s what County Executive Jan Gardner has committed to do. To see how much beyond the preliminary baseline of $245.9 million that’ll be will have to wait for Gardner’s budget release on April 15. It’s doubtful the school board will get the $268.9 million it’s asked for, especially with declining aid from the state. But an infusion of cash is needed.
The report and its title is quite plainly, as Gardner’s education aide Janice Spiegel says, meant to be inflammatory. But the provocation is unnecessary. Returning to adequate funding of education after the lean years of the final Board of County Commissioners was a campaign platform for nearly everyone who ran for the new County Council. Even so, there’s little to disagree with in the points the teachers union report makes. The county has begun to lag behind other jurisdictions.
For example, as the report reminds us, Frederick County still hasn’t resolved its low ranking with regard to starting teacher salaries. We are behind all but one jurisdiction in the state and D.C. The county’s teachers begin at $40,706 annually; Carroll, the only county with a lower wage than Frederick, starts teachers at $40,400. That’s point 9 in the report. Here are some others:
Point 7: Frederick County is one of nine that have delivered only maintenance-of-effort funding for schools. Fourteen others and Baltimore city have provided anywhere between 1 and 14 percent more from fiscal 2013 to 2015 in per-pupil spending.
Point 6: Regionally among 12 jurisdictions Frederick isn’t doing great for the percentage of personal income that goes toward schools — just 1.9 percent. That puts it on a par with Montgomery County and Arlington County, Virginia. However, here is where some context would have benefited the report. Both of these jurisdictions and a number of the ones above us in the scale have much higher incomes that aren’t reflected with a simple percentage calculation.
So where’s that money going to come from? Councilman Kirby Delauter, in an email exchange with teachers union President Gary Brennan, said, “I believe there are a lot of non-essential items ... that can be cut in order to raise all teacher salaries.” If there is, we hope Delauter makes that list available soon. We don’t think he can, though, as he’s complained only vaguely about waste during four years as a commissioner and has never offered any specifics.
If it doesn’t come from higher taxes — a political nonstarter — it means shuffling some priorities. The teachers association takes pains to argue in point 6, as we mentioned above, and 3 and 4, that schools receive an Provocative & redundant? Yes. But teacher's union report is not wrong - The Frederick News-Post : Editorials: