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Montgomery County officials say they welcome an increase in state funding this year but question whether the relatively modest growth will keep pace with growing pockets of diversity and impoverishment in the wealthy Washington suburb. “As our population has shifted, we are running into higher educational expenses,” said state Sen. Karen Montgomery, D-Silver Spring. “We are trying to do the right thing. We have large areas where people don’t seem to understand the extent of poverty there.”
With more than $8 in every $10 in state aid devoted to local school systems, Montgomery lawmakers say that an increase in special-needs students certainly will boost the amount of dollars devoted to Montgomery from Annapolis.
Yet, with seemingly annual battles over state-mandated levels of local education funding and the County Council wary of increasing the schools budget dramatically beyond the rest of county government, the funding forecast for Montgomery County Public Schools remains hazy at best.
School advocates point to the fact that since 2007, the poverty rate for children between 5 and 17 nearly doubled in the county to roughly 9 percent.
“How many people know the number of kids we’ve got on reduced-price lunches?” asked Councilman Marc Elrich, D-at large.
Last fiscal year, about one-third of students participated in the free-and-reduced lunch program, county data shows.
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According to demographers, the radical shift from just a decade ago is tied to younger families with high birthrates — often immigrant populations dependent on low-income jobs battered by the recession.
For the first time in its history, Montgomery County is now majority-minority, as communities of Hispanic and Asian residents have filled neighborhoods formerly dominated by whites.
The population explosion in the Washington region — which represents more than one in every four Maryland residents — is in sharp contrast to other metropolitan areas in the state. While Montgomery and Prince George’s counties gained roughly 160,000 residents over the past decade, the Baltimore region experienced little to no growth.
Baltimore, the biggest recipient of state aid, actually lost tens of thousands of residents, which will cut into its share of state funding.
