Teachers to mount lobbying campaign to back Kirwan spending

The state’s largest teachers’ union will take to the airwaves and internet to bolster public support for a proposed increase in public school education in Maryland.

The Maryland State Education Association said it plans to spend $500,000 in online, broadcast and cable ads starting Monday morning aimed at highlighting the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission. The announcement comes at the same time that Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is expected to mount his own public relations campaign opposing the plan to increase public education spending to $4 billion annually within a decade.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand career and technical education programs, increase educator pay, better support struggling learners and students with special needs, hire more educators, and more equitably fund schools,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the teachers’ union. “The General Assembly took the first step last year with its near-unanimous, bipartisan vote to pass the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future which adds funding for the next three years. This year we must pass a long-term funding plan that will create lasting educational equity and a more prosperous future for our state.”

The three-week ad run on television, cable and digital platforms comes as a work group moves closer to making recommendations to the Kirwan Commission on how to fund its educations to reform and improve public education and how those costs should be shared between state and local governments.

Included in the plan are recommendations to hire additional teachers statewide and increase salaries...

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