In Maryland, thousands of teachers and public workers gathered last night at the state Capitol in Annapolis to protest Governor Martin O’Malley’s (D) budget plan, which propose to freeze educational funding and raised employee pension contributions. The protestors chanted, “keep the promise” and “hands off our pensions.”
At the conclusion of the rally, Governor O’Malley spoke to the crowd “I don’t like this budget either, but I wanted to come here and say this: Our state is not like other states. We are a great state…because our public employees do a good job every single day. You will not find in Maryland the sort of Midwestern repression that goes on in places like Wisconsin…Ohio, that are doing away with collective bargaining.”
Earlier this month, approximately 1,500 demonstrators gathered at City Hall in Providence, Rhode Island to protest the dismissal of Providence’s entire teaching force. Due to a Rhode Island law, which requires that teachers receive notification about potential layoffs or terminations by March 1, the school board sent termination notices to all of Providence’s 1,926 teachers, though many will be rehired.
