School systems in the Washington area are bracing for the worst budget season in a generation, and many have started lobbying for limited dollars by reaching out to moms and dads.
In Montgomery County, dozens of parents who cheered a recent school board decision were asked to return the favor when the County Council takes up the school system’s budget request next year.
The parents, dressed in school colors, crowded a school board meeting in November at which the board voted to reject Superintendent Jerry Weast’s request to close Monocacy Elementary in Dickerson.
Board member Phil Kaufman turned to them at one point and said, “When the time comes for us to be advocating to the [County] Council for our operating and capital budgets, I hope you all head down the street.”
The council has projected a countywide budget gap of more than $600 million for fiscal 2011.
In Fairfax County, too, the school board has made early efforts to reach out to parents and explain to them exactly what’s on the line, including an end to full-day kindergarten, gutting foreign language programs, and cutting band and orchestra to address the schools’ projected $176 million gap. School officials hope that informed parents will be the best lobbyists when the Board of Supervisors takes up the budget early next year. Already, a list of comments and suggestions collected at community meetings with supervisors and school board members fills a 225-page document posted on the school system’s Web site. Fairfax School Board member Jane Strauss said part of the challenge is teaching parents about how local government runs, including that the system can’t borrow its way out of tough times. “If at the end of the process, the budget is unbalanced, individual school board members are individually criminally liable,” she said. “That’s in the state constitution — I can’t change that,” she said. “I meet many young parents who are surprised to learn that.” That lack of understanding likely will prove a challenge in Prince George’s when budget negotiations begin in the coming months. Prince George’s faces a unique challenge in that its property tax cap, called TRIM, that limits revenue even in times of dire shortfall. Johnson said that lobbying before the County Council will likely focus on many things, but not TRIM. “TRIM is a sacred cow,” she said. “And in this year? I seriously doubt it.”
