Maryland Elects Pro-Public Education Leaders
While the national election results promise challenging times ahead for public education and unions, MSEA members and educator-recommended candidates had very successful local election results here in Maryland. Hundreds of MSEA members and allies knocked on doors throughout Maryland, called and sent postcards to voters, and handed out Apple Ballots on Election Day—and won in over 70% of races where educators supported a candidate.
Educator-recommended Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) became the first Black woman and second woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate, and all of our recommended candidates won their races for U.S. House of Representatives seats. Educator-recommended school board candidates also had very strong results in counties across the political spectrum, proving that the endorsement of educators remains the most powerful in the state when it comes to board of education races.
Educator-recommended candidates swept their school board races in Cecil, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s, and Worcester counties and won six out of seven races in Anne Arundel County. Those victories elected pro-public education champions (and in some cases educators!) and prevented extremist candidates from being able to use boards of education as platforms to promote racism, book bans, and anti-LGBTQ policies that threaten students and educators alike.
Gordy, and member Susan Sterling.
Educators were instrumental in electing Alsobrooks, whose victory against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) prevents him from widening President-elect Trump’s path to enacting policies that will negatively impact our freedoms and our students. In the U.S. House contests, educator-recommended candidates swept the state’s open Congressional races, with wins by Sarah Elfreth (D-3rd), April McClain Delaney (D-6th), and former teacher and MSEA member Johnny Olszewski (D-2nd).
MSEA also supported the right to reproductive healthcare ballot measure, Question 1. It passed with 75% support, to constitutionally guarantee “every person…the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” National ballot measures showed just how unpopular private school vouchers remain, with voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska rejecting ballot measures that would have allowed private schools to siphon taxpayer funds from public schools. In an environment where proposed federal cuts to public school funding seem overwhelmingly likely, it’s all the more important to reaffirm our commitment to public schools and make sure their funding is not redirected to private schools.
Bracing for the Future
The second presidential admin-istration under Donald Trump is going to be an unprecedented challenge for public education and unions like ours (see Inside MSEA with Executive Director Sean Johnson for the expected threats to organized labor). Always extreme in campaign rhetoric, Trump and is now more emboldened by the structure of
Project 2025 and a more organized and vindictive team. His campaign platform would weaken federal protections for students and educators, expand vouchers, increase support for private schools, and cancel Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students. In his first administration, he censored curriculum that he deemed “divisive,” and in the 2024 campaign, he recommended cutting off funds to schools that promote “inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”
Project 2025 calls for the abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education and in the nomination of Linda McMahon as secretary of education, oblit-erates the expectation of competence and serious leadership. McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment with no practical education experience, chaired the America First Policy Institute, whose agenda called for defunding public schools and privatizing them through voucher schemes. NEA Prezsident Becky Pringle described McMahon as “DeVos 2.0.” That may be an understatement.
“By selecting Linda McMahon, Donald Trump is showing that he could not care less about our students’ futures,” Pringle said. “Rather than working to strengthen public schools, expand learning opportunities for students, and support educators, McMahon’s only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools, where 90% of students—and 95% of students with disabilities—learn, and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.”