The Carroll County Educators Association – the local teachers union – has agreed to a delay in salary increases due to State funding challenges cited by the Carroll County Board of Education. Local leaders want independent state oversight committee to hold Governor and General Assembly accountable for actual education costs. 

The Carroll County Board of Education recently ratified an agreement with the Carroll County Educators Association that delays some previously anticipated salary increases. Documents from the meeting outline the tentatively agreed on measures that were approved unanimously.

From the agreement:

According to a Baltimore Sun report,the delays are due to state funding challenges. By contrast, Carroll is one of 15 counties spending millions more in local contributions than the state requires for education funding, including proactively increasing the starting salary base for teachers to the statutorily required amount of $60,000 a few years early. This resulted in a $19.2M funding increase in one year, making Carroll one of seven jurisdictions to meet the mandate early. Regardless, without reasonable state contributions the shortfalls still persist particularly in areas where sufficient funding is intended to be provided in the less restrictive foundation amounts.

As previously covered on Conduit Street, school leadership recently brought up similar concerns with the adequacy of state funding. During a public comment session for the Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) to receive feedback on the implementation and oversight process, school leaders cited concerns that the AIB is disproportionately holding local actors accountable but not their state counterparts. Local stakeholders implored committee members to hold the Governor and General Assembly accountable for their role, including addressing state funding shortfalls that are well known to the AIB.