Spending on Montgomery County’s public schools has grown over the last four years while other agencies have been slashed as much as 35 percent, county figures show. Under budgets proposed by County Executive Ike Leggett, school spending has grown by nearly 3 percent over the last four years, while funding for libraries shrunk by 35 percent, transportation nearly 30 percent and recreation nearly 25 percent, according to council staff.
But this year, the County Council is planning to cut $25 million from the schools budget, including reductions in employee benefits, to fill a massive funding shortfall.
| Schools salvaged while agencies take big hits |
| Change in Montgomery County executive budgets between fiscal 2009 and 2012: |
| Public schools: +2.6 percent |
| Mongomery College: +2.3 percent |
| Police: -3.7 percent |
| Fire: -6.2 percent |
| County government: -8.1 percent |
| Transit services: -9.5 percent |
| Parks and planning: -14.8 percent |
| Health and Human Services: -16 percent |
| Recreation: -24.6 percent |
| Transportation: -29.7 percent |
| Libraries: -35.4 percent |
School officials, saying they are “disappointed” in the planned cuts, argue that growing enrollment has forced them to ratchet up spending and that failing to keep pace would be irresponsible, particularly in light of an increasingly diverse student body.
“We are frustrated and disappointed,” said Board of Education President Christopher Barclay, adding the council was redirecting student aid for unintended purposes. “Clearly, we are not in agreement with the recommendation.”
The council is proposing $18.7 million in reductions to pension and health care plans for school employees, which they say would lessen the burden on the rest of the work force to balance a $300 million shortfall.
The council is expected to give initial approval to the benefits changes Wednesday. The plan calls for school employees to pay 5 percent more in medical costs regardless of coverage.
Leggett and the council are ignoring Maryland rules that require them to give the schools an extra $82 million next fiscal year, which will cost them millions of dollars in state aid.
“This will continue the County Council’s recent history of ignoring Maryland law and taking state funds meant for our neediest students and using those funds to balance its side of the budget,” Barclay wrote Tuesday in a letter asking school advocates to protest the cuts.
County schools opened this school year to about 144,000 students, 2,300 more than the previous fall.
The surge led to an additional student in each classroom, and enrollment is expected to grow for the next decade, Superintendent Jerry Weast said.
Even though the school board dictates school spending, the council decides the amount of money devoted to the “fixed-costs” pool, which includes benefits. In theory, the school board could resist the changes but would be hard-pressed to produce the same savings from elsewhere in the funding category.
