Baltimore County negotiated a three-year deal to raise teacher pay by 14 percent by 2026–2027, with annual increments built into budgets. Year one of the agreement proceeded as planned and teachers welcomed the predictable increases. Beginning in November 2024, federal and state funding cuts prompted the school district to request renegotiation of raises that had already been approved. Months of talks resulted in a mid-July agreement that reduced the originally negotiated raises for the 2025–2026 school year. Union leaders said the revised deal fell short of guarantees and criticized reopening negotiations after prior approval.
"Nobody goes into education to become rich, but we deserve what was guaranteed to us," Cindy Sexton, president of the Teacher's Association of Baltimore County (TABCO), told Truthout. After months of renegotiations regarding a pay-raise deal for teachers for the 2025-2026 school year, in mid-July, both TABCO and the school district reached an agreement that grants teachers less than they'd bargained for.
The initial pay raise deal was part of a three-year negotiated agreement with the Baltimore County school system last year, which would have increased teachers' compensation by 14 percent by the 2026-2027 school year. Educators called it a monumental move that not only saved teachers unions from the bargaining table but also ensured incremental pay increases that would be accounted for in each year's budget.
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