Statement on Port Covington from BTU President, Marietta English
“As President of the Baltimore Teachers Union, I am deeply concerned with the way the Port Covington deal has been finalized. While I, like all Baltimoreans, am excited about the potential of the new development, I’m concerned because there are still questions about how the new development will affect the state education funding formula. While we had pushed for the city leaders to do what they could to alleviate some of these concerns, they ultimately passed this responsibility off to the state legislature.
Maryland General Assembly Speaker Michael Busch & Senate President Mike Miller have been strong allies in securing education funding for Baltimore and Delegate Maggie MacIntosh’s work on the Appropriations committee has been invaluable in shielding our schools from the full brunt of Gov. Hogan’s state reduction in education aid, I’m concerned that the proposed Port Covington development as constructed will only exacerbate critical funding challenges facing our city’s education system. Our union and our allies will once again lobby our state leaders with all of the resources available to us this upcoming legislative session to be sure every dollar that can be spent will be spent improving the education of Baltimore’s children. We had hoped to point state legislators to a specific plan Baltimore City leaders had in place to increase its contribution to its own school system thanks to this deal. Unfortunately, with this agreement, we cannot do that.
I hoped that a Port Covington deal could be reached that would benefit the entire city. No project should be developed on the backs of our children and their education. Let us instead learn from this and from now on strike deals that truly work for everyone in Baltimore City.”