May 6, 2019
Media Contact:
Scott Peterson, Director of Communications, Office of Public Information, 202-277-9412
ELLICOTT CITY, MD – For National Teacher Appreciation Week, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball has issued the following statement:
“Thank you to our educators for your dedication and commitment. In honor of this National Teacher Appreciation Week, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to every educator in the county. We are fortunate to have such a talented group of teachers who help our children discover a love of learning and a curiosity for the world around them.
As an educator, I am impressed by the teaching and learning environment in our classrooms. As a father of two daughters in our public schools, I am so grateful for the care and support educators provide to our kids.
While I wish we could address a decade of underfunding in one year, this year we helped ensure the most funding for schools ever as county funding increases by $16.2 million from last year (excluding one-time money for non-recurring expenditures), or $5.4 million above the maintenance-of-effort. Our efforts, combined with other sources including additional state funding from Kirwan legislation, contributes to a total budget growth of over $40 million for the school system in FY 2020, the highest growth in a decade.
Our proposed budget also provides sufficient funding to fully fund the collective bargaining agreement, including salary increases to reflect the value we place on our educators. I am confident that with a historically high growth of budget, the school leadership will make sound decisions to avoid class size increases or severe actions that hurt our invaluable educators.
This week, and every week, let’s stand with our educators. Thank you for all that you do!” Ball also released an education infographic which can be found here.