A united coalition of students, parents, teachers, labor, and community groups brought together by AFT-Maryland took to Annapolis on Monday night, March 9th, to demand the state legislature stop the cuts to education funding that Gov. Larry Hogan has proposed. The cuts would amount to $144 million dollars statewide, hitting Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Prince George's County especially hard.
In Annapolis, education advocates from this coalition also lobbied their legislative representatives to Oppose SB595/HB486, Gov. Hogan's proposed "charter school expansion" bill, which would lessen the quality of teachers in classrooms, undermine the collective bargaining rights of teachers, paraprofessionals, and school personnel, and give charter school operators free reign with public funds without oversight from the local school jurisdiction.
The statewide coalition represents a variety of educational, labor, and community interests. Coalition members hope to drive home the message that Maryland is currently a top-tier state in Education, and that this charter school legislation combined with across the board budget cuts to education would damage Maryland's national ranking.
Don't Shortchange Maryland. These cuts would be bad for our state, and bad for our students.
#DontShortchangeMD
For more photos from the event, click here to visit our Facebook page.
03/10/15