Educators Are a Critical Link for Students and Families

Educators have stepped up in a big way during the coronavirus pandemic — food and nutrition employees, custodians and grounds workers, office staff and tech support personnel, teachers, administrators, and so many more. Your work is critical to meeting the physical, emotional, social, and educational needs of our students. Thank you for everything you do and continue to do during this time of crisis.

Your dedication is once again filling in for the structural inequities and disparities across our state and our country. For years, we have collectively been sounding the alarm of inequities in our state based on economic status, race, and geography. Pundits and elected leaders are now talking about the digital divide as if it’s something that just popped up during this pandemic, but we know better. The divide is not just who has devices and access to technology.

Studies show that here in Maryland we fund more affluent schools more than schools serving students in poverty. These disparities are exacerbated during a time of crisis distance learning and have shone a brighter light on decades of institutional racism and economic oppression.

It’s clear that all of our work to organize to pass the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future and a new, adequate, and equitable funding formula are more important than ever in the wake of the pandemic. We must keep pressing for these new investments and make sure that they are implemented to do the most good for students, educators, and schools.

Together, we must continue our advocacy for our students, for our communities in poverty, for our laborers, for our colleagues who barely make minimum wage or who don’t have access to healthcare. We must continue to organize and amplify our voices, even when we get back to “normal.” We cannot forget or allow others to forget.

We’re in this together and must stay together. Please stay well.