Montgomery County Budget Hearing Action

Our Budget Hearing Action on Monday, April 8th was powerful!

We showed up to ask our Montgomery County Council to prioritize the following items in this year’s budget:

Pre-K expansion
Linkages to Learning at Burnt Mills Elementary
Funding parent engagement at Excel Beyond the Bell schools
Increasing the Housing Initiative Fund to preserve affordable housing
Funding HHS’ mobile dental clinic, and
Community/recreation center in Montgomery Village.

A special thanks to all our 12 speakers- many of whom were first time speakers at County Council!

Ms. Sadatu Clark, Ms. Ellie Lichtash, Ms. Elena Brindidis Argueta, Ms. Ramatou Bakari spoke about pre-K expansion. Ms. Heidi Garcia, Ms. Angie Logan-Pope, Dr. Marina Azizi spoke about the need for a Linkages to Learning program at Burnt Mill Elementary School. Ms. Barbara Tomar spoke about funding for dental care. Ms. Djamila Bah spoke about the need for a recreation center in Montgomery Village. Ms. Ana Argueta and Ms. Flor Velis spoke about funding parent engagement at Excel Beyond the Bell schools.

45 of us attended in total. Our diverse and powerful speakers and our turnout clearly made an impact on our county council members. Congratulations to all of you and thank you for your commitment!

A recording of the hearing is posted here:

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/OnDemand/index.html

We will keep tracking the council’s decisions on the budget, and will give you an update when it is finalized in May.

Tanushree Dutta Isaacman