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School Funding

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We’re $3 Billion Behind and We’re Pushing Back

MSEA President Betty Weller introduces MSEA’s This Is Our Moment campaign at a Calvert Education Association building rep assembly October 16. Every educator has stories — the kind that give you goosebumps or bring a tear to your eye. Those are the stories that help keep educators in the classroom — but what also helps are working conditions that lead […]
School Funding

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What’s Changed Since 2002?

…but there was the Bridge to Excellence Act (also known as the Thornton Plan), which the General Assembly passed in 2002 thanks to MSEA’s advocacy. It was an “historic” accomplishment according to the New York Times. Thornton funding helped make Maryland the nation’s highest rated school system five years in a row. In 2002, Marshall […]
School Funding

Latest Updates

“Maryland Schools Are OK, But They Could Be Better”

Washington County educators attended the Western Maryland Kirwan Commission Public Hearing on September 29. Jim Rossi, third from left, and Neil Becker, center, made presentations to the Commission. Read excerpts below. In opening the Western Maryland listening session — the second of four scheduled — Kirwan Commission chair Brit Kirwan, former chancellor of the University of Maryland, said, “Maryland schools […]
School Funding

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What Would YOU Change?

The news came in last year: Maryland schools are underfunded by a huge $2.9 billion. That’s according to national school funding experts advising the Kirwan Commission, the 25-member board rewriting Maryland’s education funding formula. This daunting figure can come as no surprise to on-the-ground educators. We see the effects of this funding shortfall snowball every […]
Legal Questions

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Collective Bargaining — It Makes Your Contract Legally Binding

You probably know that every several years your local education association negotiates the employment contracts for educators through the collective bargaining process. It’s serious business and a very big deal. Collective bargaining is so important that it’s part of the Education Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, which gives certified and non-certified public education […]
Union Updates

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MSEA’s Summer Leadership Conference — Empowering Educators and Building Skills

MSEA’s 2017 Emerging Leaders at the Summer Leadership Conference. They will be studying and meeting throughout the year. MSEA members came to MSEA’s 2017 Summer Leadership Conference at Salisbury University July 19–21 for insight, support, and skill-building to improve their schools and workplaces. Eight different three-day schools focused on union and workplace issues like advocacy, conflict […]
School Funding

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Inside MSEA: Build Power, Get Stronger, Organize

MSEA Executive Director David Helfman Here’s the good news: according to a recent Gallup poll, unions have their highest approval rating in nearly two decades. Here’s the bad news: the far right realizes our effectiveness fighting on the front lines for the working class and against income and social inequality. In state after state, they’ve introduced — and […]
Discipline-Related Issues

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Nurturing Resilience — Post-Traumatic Growth

“So many educators are already using trauma-informed practices and don‘t know it. It’s the nature of educators to be nurturing and accessible, but the real win for students is when we have schools that are consistently responding to students with trauma–sensitive classrooms, embedded restorative practices, and high-quality social-emotional learning resources.” — Prince George’s County School Psychologist Robert […]
Legal Questions

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Medical Cannabis and Your Job

In 2014, Maryland decriminal- ized the possession of small amounts of marijuana and legalized medical marijuana. Since then, patients must acquire written certification from a licensed physician and register with Maryland’s medical marijuana program. Medical cannabis is only available in forms that can be vaporized (not smoked), or as extracts, lotions, ointments, and tinctures. On […]
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