MSEA and your local affiliate play a central role in ensuring that educators and school employees across Maryland receive decent salaries and benefits. Whether it’s bargaining for professional-level salaries and health care or pushing for an improved pension in Annapolis, the work we do is critical to attracting and retaining the expertise and talent in the long run that is needed to maintain a high-quality school system.
In recent years, the association has had a lot of success in this arena. The passage of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future during the 2019 legislative session led to the largest raise for educators since the 2008 recession. We were the first state in the nation to secure a $40,000 minimum starting salary for all teachers, and our unprecedented Push for Pensions campaign raised Maryland’s pensions from worst in the nation to a more respectable level, until recent reforms hit Maryland's pension system.
As state and local school funding has plateaued, these types of advances have become more difficult. Yet by raising our collective voice, we can put pressure on policymakers to close the $2.9 billion gap in school funding in Maryland so we can continue moving forward towards the goal of treating all teachers, support professionals, and other educators with respect and creating great public schools for every child.
