The Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club held its monthly meeting on Friday at the Greenbriar Community Building. In honor of American Education Week, the club was joined by Alvin Thornton, Ph.D., the chair of the Prince George’s County Board of Education.
Since 1974, Thornton has played a primary role in the development of enhanced Democratic progress institutions in Prince George’s County by addressing education, political, cultural and economic issues affecting the county in weekly articles for the Prince George’s Journal newspaper. During the meeting, Thornton spoke about the current state of the school system in the county.
“In the early 90s, politicians had way too much fun making fun of county’s education rankings instead of doing anything to change them. That caused great pain for our children and our communities because that caused stereotyping based on where you were.”
“Today, we are definitely doing a better job, regardless of party dynamics, to improve the education of our children but there is still much that needs to be done.”
Prince George’s County Public Schools are welcoming an additional $53 million from the state of Maryland for the next school year, which represents about 2.5 percent of the school system’s $2.09 billion budget for the Fiscal Year 2020.
“The county plans to build 18 schools in seven years and five schools are already in the works,” stated Thornton.
The next Democratic Club meeting will be held on the second Friday of December instead of the third because of the holiday season.