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Education Tops Duncan Agenda In Md. Campaign
Douglas M. Duncan talks with Mary Jo Neville at the Maryland State Teachers Association conference.
(By Cameron Adams -- Salisbury Daily Times Via Associated Press)
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"We are on our way, if we can keep up this pace of improvement," O'Malley said in an interview Friday, while campaigning in Prince George's.
O'Malley campaign manager Jonathan Epstein said he doesn't believe the issue of education cuts favorably for Duncan.
"People look for leaders who are willing to take on the toughest challenges and show progress," Epstein said. "There's no question the schools in Montgomery County are solid, but the mayor and thousands of parents in Baltimore are proud of the achievements our children have been able to make."
The education debate also begins the quest for one of the primary campaign's more crucial endorsements, that of the teachers association.
"The candidate that addresses the pension issue is the one that will get my vote," said Gretchen Howard, a Montgomery social studies teacher.
Under the current state formula, Maryland teachers receive one of the worst pension packages in the country, said Del. Charles E. Barkley (D-Montgomery), a teacher who has championed a total overhaul of the pension system. Most retiring teachers are entitled to take home 38 percent of their annual salaries after 30 years of service.
Barkley said the union has not developed its final plan, but in the past, teachers have pushed for a pension that increases 2 percent for every year worked, so fully vested teachers would receive 60 percent of their salaries upon retirement.
O'Malley said he plans to address the pension issue in his speech Saturday. "We're getting clobbered," he said. "I think we're actually behind Guam and Puerto Rico."
Duncan's loudest applause during his speech came when he said, "The time has come to stop paying lip service to pension reform. . . . Maryland should not be the fifth-wealthiest state with a pension system rated dead last."
Barbara Stroud, a high school health and English teacher at Mark Twain School in Rockville, said she'll need to hear more.
"Talk is talk," she said. "I want to know what he'll do specifically."
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