TOWSON, Md. — Baltimore County teachers plan to wear “Red for Ed” on Tuesday to show solidarity to get the raises they say they deserve.
Baltimore County educators have been asking for raises to make up for inflation and the teacher shortage.
The union and the Board of Education reached an agreement in August on about $50 million worth of raises but county officials and the union are not in agreement where the money should come from to pay for those raises.
Teachers in the largest school system in the areas said inflation has taken a bite out of their pay and the ongoing teacher shortage is taking its toll on educators.
The Teachers Association of Baltimore County or TABCOfor short, plans to hand deliver a petition at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting, asking Baltimore County officials to come up with the money for their raises.
TABCO urges members to sign the petition called ‘Back-to-school, Back to the Table.'
The petition is called ‘Back-to-school, Back to the Table' because the union states thousands of BCPS teachers returned to the classroom in August without knowing if they were getting their negotiated raise, step, or scale adjustments.
The union is asking the school system, County Executive Johnny Olszewski, and the county council to jointly develop a five-year plan, with TABCO, to fund their agreed-on salary scale adjustment no later than September 13th.
In August, the school board voted unanimously to ask the county executive to use $50 million in surplus funds for one time pay raises but the school system would have to come up with millions more within future budgets to sustain the higher pay.
Olszewski called the request fiscally irresponsible and that it would cost taxpayers a half-billion dollars over five years.
The union also suggested that the money for raises could come out of the millions of dollars already saved from open teaching positions.
The school board’s regular open session starts Tuesday at 5 p.m.
