Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the Montgomery County Council.

My name is Natalie Fanny Gonzalez, and it's a pleasure to be with all of you today.

Um agenda item number one is a public hearing on the FY27 operating budgets and FY27-32 Public Services Program and Fiscal Policy for Montgomery County Government, Montgomery College, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, WSSC, and Montgomery County Public Schools.

Committee work sessions on the FY27 operating budgets and FY27-32 Public Services Program and Fiscal Policy from Montgomery County Government, Montgomery College, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, WSSE, and Montgomery County Public Schools will be scheduled through the end of April.

As a reminder of our public hearing testimony guidelines, your comments must be limited to issues relevant to the public hearing topic for which you are testifying and are appropriate for a public meeting.

You will hear it, Tom when your time is up, and we will appreciate everybody everyone abiding by the rules.

Everyone, please do not clap, do not boo, do not interrupt any of the speakers, every single person reserves respect, even if you disagree with them.

So please do not do it.

With that, we're gonna start with Elizabeth Escobar.

Go ahead, Elizabeth.

Please turn on your mic.

Good evening, council president and council members.

My name is Elizabeth Escobar.

I preside in Montgomery County, and I am a person who stutters.

I am asking you tonight to support funding for every voice for every voice supported E BS, a small Montgomery County pilot program for adults who stutter.

Many of us know someone who's who stutters.

Did you know that more than three million Americans stutter?

Yet many adults who stutter feel unseen, feel unsupported, or left to figure things out.

Yet I am here today for my family.

For those who came before me, for those here now, and for those who will come after me.

People just did not always know how to how to listen.

Through MCPS, I had an IEP and I received speech therapy.

I am grateful for that support.

But after I graduated high school, there was no clear path for what came next.

A recent study found that 56% of adults who stutter reported at least one major episode of discrimination related to stuttering.

Research also shows that at that adults who stutter often face social stigma, social devaluation, and mental health effects connected to those experiences.

Today, I volunteer with the National Stuttering Association Rockfield chapter, where people who stutter come together in a safe space to share their experiences.

I hear many of the same stories again being talked over, this dismissed, underestimated, or made to feel small.

Becoming a mom may this even more real for me.

I want a better world for my children and for every person growing into adulthood who needs systems that make room for different ways of speaking.

Every voice supported would not have to be large, wouldn't have to be a large enough pilot program.

It could begin as a small county pilot that offers support, guidance, connection, referrals, and a clear place to turn for adults who stutter in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The deepest pain isn't always the stutter itself.

It's the stigma, the feeling that your voice, my voice, makes others uncomfortable.

Shame, fear, isolation, sometimes what changes a life is not a huge program.

Sometimes it is it sometimes it is simply knowing you are not alone.

EVS would send a message that Montgomery County sees people who stutter, that our voices belong here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

David Stein.

Good evening, Council President Fanny Gonzalez and members of the County Council.

My name is David Stein and I'm president of the Montgomery County Education Association.

I'm here on behalf of 14,000 educators as well as the students and families across Montgomery County to urge you to fully fund the MCPS operating budget.

Let me be clear this budget is not about extras, it's about essentials.

It's about supporting our special education students and enhancing security and fully funding and respecting collective bargaining agreements.

If the council fails to fund improvements, allowing class sizes to remain manageable so students get the attention they need, our children will fall behind.

If the council doesn't fund special education services, mental health supports, and safe learning environments, you will make it all the more difficult to ensure that every child will succeed to their fullest potential.

If the council fails to fully fund the operating budget and fails to preserve the negotiated wages and working conditions in our contracts, the county's ability to recruit and retain high quality educators our students deserve will be in jeopardy.

Every day, educators in our schools are being asked to do more, with more needs in the classroom, more responsibilities on their shoulders, and more pressure than ever before.

And yet too often they do so without the resources necessary to meet those expectations.

We cannot continue to ask our educators to stretch themselves thinner and thinner while expecting better outcomes for our students.

Not honoring cost of living adjustments that keep up with inflationary costs will do just that.

Our educators are expecting and deserve their contractual wage increases and other improvements to ensure a quality education for our students.

But strong schools don't happen by accident.

They are built and sustained through deliberate, consistent investment.

If council chooses to underfund our schools, you are making a choice that affects classroom conditions, student outcomes, and the future of our commun community.

The three scenarios presented yesterday to the council by staff would all result in moving our school system backwards from a cut of $52 million, which will result in an inability to even keep up with inflationary costs to a catastrophic cut of $222 million, a number which goes beyond any proposed increases by tens of millions of dollars.

These scenarios will do serious harm.

We need the council to look beyond these devastating proposals and find ways to fully fund this school budget.