Education
Our public school system has long been a hallmark of this County's quality of life. As a parent with four daughters in our public schools, I have a personal stake in ensuring the continued success our public school system. Although Mr. Leggett says the schools are his priority, his actions indicate otherwise.
Last year Mr. Leggett proposed to underfund our County school budget by $79.5 million. He asked the State Board of Education for permission to do so, as required by a State law known as the "Maintenance of Effort" law (or MOE). When the State Board said "no," he underfunded the school budget anyway. As a result, he exposed the County to a potential penalty of $23.4 million in lost State education funding. Mr. Leggett's actions distinguished our County as the only one in the State ever to be penalized for violating that State law. His response was to call the law "stupid" and to expend an enormous amount of County resources to convince the General Assembly to pass a law excusing the County from the penalty.
Nothing in politics is free. We will never know what the County had to give up in order to be absolved of the $23.4 million penalty. The cost to the County may have been even higher. One thing is certain: our State representatives had to focus on cleaning up Mr. Leggett's mess at a time when they could have been working to secure other benefits for the County.
Even after the County dodged the $23.4 million penalty, Mr. Leggett showed no contrition. With the penalty gone he saw no need to return the $79.5 million to the school system -- so he didn't. And now, having successfully overriden the State Board of Education once, he has decided to do it again. This year he "doubled down" on the money he withheld from our schools. This time the State Board knew better than to say "no." This week, the State Board gave Montgomery County permission to underfund our schools by $138 million. Only one of Maryland's other 24 Counties sought to underfund their public schools -- tiny, rural Wicomico County was granted a waiver of $7.5 million.
Mr. Leggett's lack of commitment to the County's public schools has not been limited to violating the State's education funding law. He has also continued to undermine teacher morale through a variety of means. In addition to failing to fund teacher raises, he has withheld funding for pension and health benefit obligations, and has proposed layoffs and furloughs. His proposal of furloughs led the County Board of Education to take the extraordinary step of threatening to file a lawsuit against the County. Broken laws and broken contracts are hallmarks of Mr. Leggett's administration, leading one local union leader to say that Mr. Leggett has "turned his back on labor."
I have been following these issues for a long time. This past December I sent an open letter to the County's school employees voicing these concerns and warning that things would get worse. Clearly they have. You can read that letter by clicking on the link below.
My mother was a public school teacher. I remember how hard she worked after school hours to do her job. We entrust our teachers with the wellbeing of our children. They deserve better treatment than this.
As County Executive I pledge that I will never violate the State's education funding law, that I will never furlough County schoolteachers, and that I will work to ensure that the contracts I negotiate with our teachers and others are honored.
