Responding to proposed deep cuts in funding for Baltimore City public schools, 16 Brown Memorial members stood side-by-side with city school principals at a rally organized by BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) Feb. 27 to protest the cuts.
Elizabeth Reichelt, who serves on Brown Memorial’s Session and is an active BUILD participant, addressed the crowd: “We have a problem. A month ago, we learned that there is to be $130 million less in resources for our children next year. And when we learned this, we gathered in our school communities to picture what our schools would look like with $130 million less, and the picture is unacceptable.”
View video of the rally on the Baltimore Sun website.
Senior Pastor Andrew Foster Connors, who is also the co-clergy leader of BUILD, attended and spoke up at the city school board meeting Feb. 28. The gap in funding for the schools, he told the school board, “was caused by a legislature that has mismanaged lottery receipt money. It was caused by a legislature that has frozen the inflation factor for five or six years.”
Read coverage of the meeting in the Baltimore Brew and the Baltimore Sun.
On Monday March 20 at 6:15 p.m., Brown members will return again to the steps of City Hall with BUILD to demand additional city funding for schools. The action will be co-hosted with principals and Baltimoreans for Educational Equity (BEE). Action participants will:
Brown Memorial has a goal of signing up 40 members to attend through a “Needs” request created on Brown’s internal website, CCB. Members with additional questions or requests to carpool with others are asked to email Anne Heuisler at [email protected] or Elizabeth Reichelt at [email protected].
Learn more about how Brown members work to build relationships across our city and pursue justice through BUILD and other organizations.