Letter By Teachers' Union Head Ignores Real Issues
It is the yearly budget battle between the Talbot County Council and the Talbot County Board of Education. It's always the same. The formula works like this. Talbot County, because of a local property tax rate that Dems in the state hate, has to fund approximately 77% of the mandated school budget while the state gives the remaining 23% of funds. Each year the TCPS Board comes to the table and negotiates for a ridiculous amount over that maintenance of effort. We reported on this:
The 92 Million Dollar School System? - The Easton Gazette
This year the school system "negotiated" by asking for $10 million over what the county is required to pay. Of course, they had to back off of that and only ask for $1 million over maintenance of effort. They ended up getting $400,000 to cover half the costs of added security measures for the school system. The increase was in addition to the state requiring locals to cover an additional percentage of retirement costs and capital projects (renovation of Chapel District Elementary School).
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Did we mention this is taxpayer money and not some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
In FY 24-25 (the latest per pupil costs we can find) the per pupil amount funded by Talbot County funds alone was $12,905 per student (4th highest in the state). The state funding per pupil was $6,333 per student, 4th from the bottom in the state. The total per student in 24-25 was $19,238 per pupil or 14th in the state. Almost $20,000 for students who test at the 18th percentile in math and the 45th percentile in reading. Not a very good return of investment.
According to sources, education funding by the Talbot County Council has increased from FY 26 to FY 27 by 16 to 17% or an estimated additional $8 million dollars. When including capital and categorical items, the county’s total school support rose by around $10–11 million, or around 20%.
But it is never enough, especially for the Talbot County Education Association. As soon as the budget was released, the union screamed about how unfair it all was because teachers wouldn't get a big enough pay raise. They railed against the council members who voted against the original increase. President Andy Burke shared his utter dismay in a letter to the STAR DEMOCRAT. We have reprinted parts of his letter.
From a letter to the editor by Mr. Burke:
As a community, we must face an uncomfortable reality: Talbot County is failing its public school students by zero-budgeting TCPS. For years, educators and staff have been handed the exhausting directive to “do more with less.” While intended to sound fiscally responsible, this concept is a damaging myth. You cannot infinitely stretch a budget without snapping the quality of education, and our schools are feeling the strain. What makes this situation particularly disappointing is that it is a deliberate choice.
In light of the information regarding the increase in the TCPS budget, Burke's statements are foolish. A 20% increase in a public agency's budget over the past two years is massive. Somehow, TCEA doesn't think it's enough. They say it is unfair because teachers aren't getting a big enough pay raise. They blame the county council for "failing its public-school students." Apparently $20,000 a year per pupil doesn't provide a basic education, much less a good one.
The "average" salary for a Talbot County Public School teacher in 2024-2025 was $64,000. This year, the state is mandating a $60,000 salary for first year teachers so that average will no doubt go up. The salaries for teachers in Talbot will increase by 5.25% this year. The union wants more.
The union gets it wrong. They should be complaining that TCPS misappropriates funding in many ways. For example, have they looked at how the system padding the budget with too many middle management positions in the area of instruction?
As for educators and staff being asked to "do more with less" I suggest Mr. Burke look at the above organizational chart shared by the system. Right now, TCPS has approximately 39 staff members who are middle management/supervisors for instruction. That seems excessive in a system of 4500 students and 7 schools. That number has grown by over by over 200% since around 2008 when the instructional section of the central office was comprised of approximately 11 people, many covering multiple areas.
Salaries for middle management also grew astronomically. Instructional "supervisors" or coordinators currently cost the system approximately $3.5 million (assuming an average salary of $90,000 a year) without including retirement, health insurance, etc. That's about a $2.5 million increase in middle management expense. Part of that growth is due to Blueprint mandates. However, that is money in salaries and fringe benefits that could go to funding a pay raise for the current teaching staff or even funding more classroom teachers.
What do these supervisors do to improve instruction? Ask a classroom teacher that question. You'll get an interesting answer; they improve instruction very little if anything at all. In fact, classroom teachers will most likely tell you that middle management gets in the way of teachers doing their jobs.
It's also interesting that Mr. Burke talks about having to "infinitely stretch a budget without snapping the quality of education." We should apply that concept to the fact that teachers and schools, whether by local or state decisions, are being asked to do social engineering, mental health treatment and societal activism that they were never designed or intended to do. Meanwhile, they are told to ignore basic accountability for student behavior and academic achievement, instead lowering standards in every way.
Teachers will tell you how difficult it has become to teach with the constant student combativeness and disruption. They also describe lack of support by school level and district administration as well as their union.
Did we mention that test scores are down and many Talbot students are graduating without the skills and knowledge they need for continuing education or jobs? That's not a result of the budget. It's a result of poor school system management and low standards.
Burke continues:
Talbot County consistently maintains the lowest property tax rate in the entire state of Maryland. While a low tax burden is often celebrated, it comes at a severe cost. We are effectively prioritizing artificially low tax rates over the fundamental right to a robustly funded public education system.
It's interesting that those who will paid by local taxes always want the taxpayer to dig into their already shallow pockets and shell out more for what is currently a mediocre school system. Let's be clear. It's not the teachers but those who hold the most power and make the most money; the top-level administration, who need to be held accountable for the decline of the TCPS as evidenced by the test scores for the past ten years.
There are no requirements or standards of success for the people in these administrative positions to keep their jobs. Some of them have been in these top positions for decades and have not implemented ONE successful reform that has improved student learning and achievement. The needle on test scores and student achievement has remained flat, yet these top administrators continue to collect a six-figure paycheck. They spend their time attending meetings, "admiring" the problem of poor student performance, and devising methods to sugarcoat and hide that poor performance from the public.
While the Superintendent has only had one contract term in the county, one wonders what metric the school board used to determine what she got paid when her contract was recently renewed. Were there any benchmarks she had to hit with student achievement? Did she achieve some standard of performance that influenced the board to give her a renewed contract AND more money? We're not sure because it seems as though nothing is being "transformed" towards excellence in Talbot County.
Mr. Burke, after whining about the county's tax rate, then puts up what has to be the most ridiculous straw man argument regarding the budget:
Adding insult to injury, while our local public-school budget remains stifled by these self-imposed revenue limits, public resources and tax incentives have found their way toward supporting private school initiatives. It is fundamentally unjust to starve the public school system— which is legally obligated to serve every single child in our community regardless of background or need— while simultaneously facilitating the funding of private institutions.
As soon as we saw that statement, we investigated what these "public resources and tax incentives" are that have found their way into supporting private school initiatives in the Talbot County budget. We could only find one expenditure that is pointed towards a private school in Easton, Saints Peter and Paul. That expenditure? Eighty-eight thousand dollars for a school resource officer.
Where did that come from? Interestingly enough, it came from the Town of Easton after SSPP Elementary was targeted by a transgender activist in 2025.
Local Catholic Elementary School Target Of Transgender Graffiti Attack - The Easton Gazette
That "activist" was initially charged with 26 counts but plead down to defacing religious property, and malicious destruction of property.
This incident caused concern among parents of these children and the surrounding neighborhood, prompting the Town of Easton to ask to make an emergency appropriation for a school resource officer for that school. The Talbot County Council approved that request. All of Talbot County's public schools already have SRO's funded through the Talbot County Sheriff's Office. And let's not forget that TCPS got half of the funding for requested metal detectors from the county council. The other half will be funded from the system funds. *
Clearly, the county council is focused on student safety for ALL students.
While we mention the topic of the public-school system's discretionary funds, let's see what they have. TCPS currently has $8M in reserves, called a "fund balance". Yet, the school system is reluctant to use any portion of those dollars for items such as the metal detectors they requested from the TCC or other system needs that are not approved in the Talbot County budget. Not only that, but TCPS is adding $1 million a year to that fund balance.
A fund balance is there to be used for "risk mitigation." One would think the recent violent fights at Easton Middle School or other events that threaten student safety in schools would be in that category. Yet the system comes to the taxpayers to pay for metal detectors when they could have easily paid for them out of the reserves. Frankly, they should be thanking the Talbot County Council for the half they gave them.
Mr. Burke forgets that parents of private school students pay county taxes. There is no county "tax break" for those who don't use public schools to educate their children. There is no state tax break either. So, not sure how this one expenditure of $88,000 from the Town of Easton compared to a budget of close to $78 million for the public schools is "strangling public education."
Even more disturbing is that Mr. Burke, by his complaint about this expenditure that supports student safety in a private school, seems willing to disregard that these children in private schools deserve the same protection against violence and/or harm as public school students. Is he willing to sacrifice children in private schools for partisan, union politics? Has he sunk that low?
In closing, Burke makes this inane summary:
Our public schools are the bedrock of Talbot County’s future. The “more with less” philosophy is never a sustainable strategy; it is an abdication of our responsibility to the next generation. If we truly value retaining our staff and our community’s longterm health, we must reconsider our taxation model and fully invest in the public schools that serve us all.
In light of some of the platforms of the National Education Association, the Maryland Education Association and the Talbot County Education Association, Burke talking about the "abdication of our responsibility to the next generation" is ridiculous. Go to the NEA and the MSEA websites and read their priorities. You won't find much about actual academics and learning. Go look up their finances and where teachers' union dues are spent on.
National Education Association - Americans For Fair Treatment
Why Teachers Unions Should Be Decertified - The Easton Gazette
Let's not forget it's an election year. Mr. Burke and the Talbot County Education Association are closely allied with the Democrat party locally and state wide. In fact, we can't think of ONE election cycle where they supported a Republican candidate for any office. This year is special because it's a year when the President of the School Board, Emily Jackson, whose husband, Phil Jackson, is the head of the Talbot Democrat Party Central Committee, is up for re-election and faces stiff competition from former teacher Mike Butler. Ms. Jackson has already received the "endorsement" of the Talbot County Education Association "members", and we haven't even gotten through the primary. Two other Democrat aligned candidates have also been endorsed by the union, Amy Dodson and Kate Logan.
It's also interesting that the Union only endorsed ONE county council candidate, Pete Lesher, a Democrat.
Surprise, surprise!
Here is a copy of the FY 27 Budget:
Talbot County Funds $1.3M Increase for Education in FY27 – Conduit Street
EARLY VOTING STARTS THURSDAY. The Board of Education candidates are NOT in the Primary, but all others are! GET OUT AND VOTE!
