Chants from teachers and parents filled the air outside the Montgomery County Council building in the hours ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting, as councilmembers began the critical process of formulating next year’s budget. The crowd, united in their concerns, demanded that councilmembers refrain from making cuts to education, stressing the importance of maintaining adequate funding for the county’s schools.
Kember Kane, a dedicated kindergarten teacher with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and the treasurer for the Montgomery County Education Association, which represents the county’s teachers, explained that cuts in education are not just a matter of dollars and cents. “It’s even more human resources our children won’t get. Our kids are already struggling to get what they need in the classroom. We don’t have enough paraeducators. We don’t have enough special educators. Cutting the funding is going to cut some of those human resources that support children actually being able to participate in their educational process,” Kane said. “When tens of millions of dollars are pulled out, those are human beings that would support kids. Those are funding programs for training, so that teachers would know what to do when we have kids with certain issues in the classroom.”
The Montgomery County Executive, Marc Elrich, has proposed increasing the education budget by $250 million. If approved, this would represent the single largest year-to-year increase in education funding in the county’s history. However, this increase still falls short of the $284 million increase requested by the superintendent and the board of education, underscoring the significant gap in meeting the true needs of the district.
“Kids are having to raise their hands and wait. They’re becoming more frustrated. They’re not getting what they need, and they’re becoming disengaged from their education,” Kane said. “Parents are already recognizing the larger class sizes that resulted from last year’s budget struggles. They already know their students aren’t getting the help that they need when they have a question, when they need a little bit of support, when they need directions repeated. There’s only one adult in these elementary school classrooms.”
The proposed funding increase would, according to Elrich, help boost the number of special education teachers and paraeducators in the district. Paraeducators play a crucial role as teacher assistants in classrooms, providing extra support for students who require additional attention and guidance.
Alesha Drain, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher within the district, also voiced concerns about the potential consequences of insufficient funding. “We’re understaffed, and we need the budget to make sure we can provide the services and the teachers our English language learners need,” Drain said. “We do not have enough funds to fund the programs, the teachers they need, the paraeducator support they need. It’s important the budget gets passed so that we can have those important adults that support our students.”
As a parent of a student in MCPS, Drain emphasized how the budget impacts not only her professional life but also her personal experience as a mother. “My daughter is in elementary school, and she also needs money to fund our schools and support her future,” Drain said, standing beside her daughter who was holding up a sign advocating for more funding for teachers.
Similarly, Maya Wolf, a special education teacher at MCPS, shared her experience with the challenges posed by larger class sizes and insufficient resources. “I feel, every day, the deficit. I don’t know if this particular budget will help my caseload, but it is a large caseload,” Wolf said. “If we get the budget approved, that will affect my ability to teach and plan for my students, and hopefully impact their functioning in the classroom and lead to better results for them, educationally.”
Wolf also spoke about the intersection of her roles as both a teacher and a parent. “If [parents] care about how much attention I’m able to give their one child, how much time I’m spending focused on that one child when I’m planning and when I’m writing my IEPs, that’s important. The more children I’m having to deal with, the less I am able to put aside that amount of my brain space or that amount of time to focus on their child,” Wolf explained. “The more adults around, the better our children are doing.”
Councilmember Will Jawando, the chair of the council’s education committee, made an appearance at the rally before the council meeting to show his support for the demands from the teachers and parents. “I’m here as a parent. I’m a parent of four kids that are in the school system at four different schools. I’m here as a former MCPS student. I’m here as a member of this community,” Jawando said. “We’re the number one school system in the state. If we want to keep that going and make sure kids have what they need in a period that’s really challenging, we have to make the investments.”
During a conversation with 7News, Jawando discussed the challenge of balancing the demands for increased education funding with the need to minimize property tax increases or cuts to other county services. “It’s a balance,” Jawando acknowledged. “We want to make sure they’re safe and they’re getting what they need. I think we’ve got to do that first, and if we have to make other adjustments—whether it be looking at taxes, I’d like to not raise property taxes right now, but we might have to shift some things around in this budget. I think we just have to prioritize this right now, especially when you’re seeing cuts at the federal level.”
The uncertainty surrounding federal funding adds another layer of complexity to the council’s planning. The Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Education have already affected funding allocations, and a recent report from 7News revealed that the U.S. Department of Education had pulled back on a promised $360 million in federal funding for Maryland, which could result in the loss of up to $400 million in critical funding, including post-COVID relief funds.
“Thankfully, initial estimates of that money that’s not coming to the state look like it’s only $1-or-$2 million that might impact us, but that’s even more of a reason we’ve got to double down,” Jawando said. “The vast majority of funding from our schools comes from us,” he added, referencing the importance of local funding to ensure educational quality in the county. To avoid education cuts, it’s crucial for local leaders to make strategic decisions about the budget that prioritize educational services while considering the broader fiscal constraints.
The Montgomery County Council is scheduled to approve its budget on May 22. Until then, teachers like Kember Kane will continue to make their voices heard in the fight for more resources to support the county’s students. They believe that with sufficient funding, the educational experience for all students can be enriched, ensuring their success both now and in the future.
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