A career in education requires endless patience, skill and years of education coupled with continued education and certification. It is at once rewarding and underpaid in both money and in benefits. Teaching takes dedication of time and personal resources, and is simultaneously revered and reviled by those the profession is trying to guide and instruct.

Though it is required by law that children attend school, budget cuts to education continuously make it harder for teachers to find the resources that help them comply with the law, and find they are continually digging into their own pockets to supplement, while at the same time their salaries fail to keep up with inflation.

It takes dedication of time and personal resources, and is simultaneously revered and reviled by those the profession is trying to guide and instruct. Though it is required by law that children attend school, budget cuts to education continuously make it harder for teachers to find the resources that help them comply with the law, and find they are continually digging into their own pockets to supplement, while at the same time their salaries fail to keep up with inflation. 

On Tuesday June 22, The Calvert Association of Educational Support Staff reached a tentative agreement with the Calvert County Board of Education that would provide eligible employees with longevity increases, as well as an increase in personal leave days, enhanced benefits to bereavement leave and salary compression.

While this sounds promising, many in the education field feel that in the past, contractual promises have not always been followed through.

Last year a 4.5% contracted cost of living wage raise for teachers was renegotiated to .5%, under the threat of having to cut jobs. Though Calvert County Commissioners have continued to allocate funds above the Maintenance of Effort required by the state, many feel that the failure of the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners to provide adequate cost of living increases, while at the same time approving $4 million on a new golf course and $20 million on a new aquatic center, rings false.

Money is a contentious subject that often pits county commissioners and school board members against teachers. Teachers are unhappy that the wage increase percentage is so low, while County Commissioners point out in their 2009 Budget Progress Report that public education funding will increase from 50.4% to 50.6% in fiscal year 2010. It may not be a large increase, but it is still an increase.