Teachers respond to Jim Smith's mischaracterizations

Highlights of the Baltimore County Teachers Association response to Jim Smith:

Recently County Executive Smith wrote a press release letter (3/4/08) to teachers regarding his decision to not include, in his upcoming FY09 budget, salary increases for ALL teachers and other county employees. Interestingly this letter was not sent to teachers, but instead was sent to all of the media. In his four page letter, the County Executive stated selected facts and figures to support his decision. Unfortunately, it’s the facts and figures he didn’t select that raise questions about his fiscal priorities. We do agree with some of his facts, however, below we have outlined major points we feel he either failed to highlight or only gave partial information to describe.

Baltimore County has the third highest turnover rate of teachers in the state. Two factors leading to the flight of quality educators include the lack of competitive salaries for our veteran teachers and the ever increasing daily workload demands.

In the Thornton Commission’s Final Report, it states, “achieving adequate funding will demand that counties continue to display the level of commitment to public education that the majority of counties have repeatedly demonstrated in previous years…” This indicates that local counties should at least maintain their level of education funding commitment through the Thornton years. Somehow, County Executive Smith, President of the Maryland Association of Counties, didn’t receive the same message as other jurisdictions.

Baltimore County leaders continue to grossly underestimate revenues, thus directing available funds away from what could be used for employee compensation and/or program enhancements.

The salary numbers don’t look as rosy for educators as they appear in County Executive Smith’s letter.

Nobody in “TABCO’s leadership” has suggested that the county go into debt or increase property taxes to fund salary increases.