With school programs and 800 jobs at risk, top Montgomery County education officials lined up before the County Council Monday morning to plead for their $2.1 billion budget request, already shorted more than $50 million on the county executive’s recommendation.
Superintendent Jerry Weast blamed a shortage of state and federal dollars for the system’s dire financial situation, even as the number of poor and non-English-speaking students has skyrocketed in the county.
“This has been the saddest 12 months I’ve spent in many, many years,” Weast said. “The federal government is shirking on its duty to [provide aid for low-income students], we’ve seen midyear cuts on Medicade money, and then the state. Forget formulas, they’re not fair.”
Although Montgomery County has 4 percent more low-income students this school year than it did in 2000, the county’s relative wealth increased. State aid came in $17 million less than expected to about $400 million.
Exasperated council members attempted to steer Weast back to the county’s influence. Of the $126 million increase in the schools’ budget, $116 million, or 92 percent, is requested to be funded by local taxpayers.
“You’ve laid out a number of prices beyond your control,” Phil Andrews, council vice president said. “The things we have the most control over are the level of increases we have projected for salaries.”
A full 88 percent of the total budget request, or about $1.85 billion, is for salaries and benefits. Before arriving on the council’s desks, the schools cut $4 million at the central office level, the largest of their reduction categories.
Contracts negotiated with the schools’ three unions include a 5 percent cost-of-living adjustment. Andrews wondered aloud if decreasing that adjustment, especially for higher-salaried positions, might be a way to shave money off of the budget.
Tom Israel, executive director of the county’s teachers union, remained optimistic after the meeting, asserting this is the beginning of the process and salaries are not the only card on the table.
“There are questions we all need to work through before we say, ‘The sky is falling.’”
