While many members enjoyed the Presidents Day holiday with a day off of work, AFT-Maryland was in Annapolis for a marathon Kirwan Commission hearing. The joint session included the House Ways and Means Committee and Appropriations Committee as well as the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and Education, Health and Environmental Affair Committee. Each of those committees will have some role in crafting the Kirwan legislation. They will either be responsible for implementing the educational policy or finding funding and revenue sources.
The Baltimore Teachers Union was on hand as President Diamonte Brown offered testimony on the Kirwan recommendations in regards to meeting the needs of Baltimore city students and families. AFT-Maryland’s Legislative Director Denise Riley also testified on the legislation that seeks to adopt the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission. BTU member Morgan Showalter served on the commission and worked integrally with the other commissioners to develop the recommendations that seek to make the educational system in Maryland among the best in the world.
Elected officials from across the state including the Mayor of Baltimore city and county executives from Howard, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore were all in attendance testifying in support of the recommendations, but seeking to ensure local jurisdictions can work with the state to pay for the new policy recommendations. The vote for the bill will come later in the session, and AFT-Maryland will be involved at every step of the way to ensure the policy recommendations that the Kirwan Commission worked so hard to develop are adopted and implemented.
2020-02-20
Member testimony is vital to the work AFT-Maryland does in Annapolis on behalf of its locals. If you would like to submit written testimony or come to Annapolis to provide oral testimony on behalf of your union, please contact Todd Reynolds, AFT-Maryland Political Coordiantor at treynolds@aftmd.org.