It was a tough call for the Montgomery County Education Association not to endorse four incumbent County Council members in the upcoming election.
But a week after the announcement, the teachers’ union president said a significant number of parents and teachers are standing behind the group’s decision.
All four incumbents passed over — Phil Andrews, D-District 3; Marilyn Praisner, D-District 4; Nancy Floreen, D-at large; and Michael Subin, D-at large — voted in 2003 to delay by one year planned cost-of-living adjustments for teachers when county revenue fell below projected levels.
Their conservative fiscal approach was one of the main motivations to not support their re-election bids as well as why the public is siding with the education association, according to the group’s president Bonnie Cullison.
“What I’m hearing is that they [the public] understand,” she said Friday. “The contract and the salary aspects of the contract are the backbone of the union’s work, and when that bond is broken, it’s really hard to fix.”
Since the education association’s announcement, Floreen and Praisner have come out swinging. Rather than looking at one vote, they’ve said they wished the union had taken note of their overall focus on education.
“The fact is what happened in 2003 was they were faced with a financial picture that was different than what they expected,” said Cullison. Since then, they’ve been very supportive of us. But we’re worried that when the hard choices come up, they will do this again.”
Calls to Praisner, Floreen, Subin and Andrews for this story were not returned Friday.
In its endorsements, the teachers’ union did back three other incumbent City Council members who voted in their favor on teacher compensation in ‘03.
In the District 1 race, Cullison’s group backed Howie Denis.
In District 2 the association selected Mike Knapp, and it supported George Leventhal in the at large category.
The union has more than 11,000 members.
