Governor's Town Hall on Education and the Economy
February 11, 2009
The title of the town forum tonight, as it was in Cumberland and will be in other town forums, is the connection that all of us know between education and the economy. If we want to have better opportunities for our kids tomorrow, we better give them a better education today. And that’s what it’s all about. (Applause.)
We are joined by your cabinet. I recruit and, yes, they serve at the pleasure of the Governor for the most part. But, really, they’re your cabinet. And I’m very proud of the work they do. And I hope that you’ll find that they’re responsive tonight as well.
We are soon going to open this up, we have microphones on either side, and we’ll get the ground rules out of the way. It’s any question you want to ask, you feel free to ask. It doesn’t have to be about education or the economy. I know we have a lot of questions about the budget. The Lieutenant Governor and I had to submit the most lean budget in Maryland history. It was the first one ever that had a negative -- negative -- spending affordability on it. A negative 1.57 percent. Forty percent of your State tax dollar goes to local aid to counties or to school boards.
So everything has been pinched, everything has been hit. What we’ve tried to do, though, is two things; guiding our deliberations in all of this is the knowledge that in this economic downturn, we must protect and strengthen two things. One, the sort of safety net services that more and more of our families are having to turn to, to the State, to make ends meet or to cover their children’s health care when they become unemployed. So the safety net program is critically important.
And number two, protecting that investment in education. Because that’s why our State has a lower unemployment rate than most other States in the union. And that’s why, with President Obama’s leadership, we’re going to lead other states in coming out of this recession.
