Most systems avoided teacher layoffs School districts in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia will receive a combined $450 million in federal funds to save teachers’ jobs, even as most local school systems avoided major job losses.
“Maryland has not had the problem with teacher layoffs that other states have had, mostly because the state has pumped so many additional funds into education,” said Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the state’s schools. “Exactly what effect [the $179 million in federal money] will have is uncertain.”
Reinhard made an exception for Prince George’s County, where the school board cut 355 classroom positions to help close a $45 million budget shortfall. The federal dollars will allow the county to hire back some teachers.
In Montgomery County, about 20 employees were laid off from schools and the central office after the district secured a generous budget from the County Council and school staff gave up pay raises. Most of the teachers who lost their jobs were not victims of the economy but failed to meet necessary certification requirements, said schools spokesman Dana Tofig.
Montgomery teachers union President Doug Prouty had little information on how his own county would benefit. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to use it to avoid further cuts later in the year,” he said.
D.C. Public Schools have made nearly 500 highly publicized layoffs over the past year, but the majority were based on poor classroom performance, not a budget shortfall.
A spokesman from D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent said the city is awaiting word on how its $18 million will be divided and directions on how to spend it.
Fairfax County schools — Virginia’s largest district — cut about 1,400 positions since the start of the recession in 2007, but enrollment growth has kept layoffs to a minimum, said school board member Jane Strauss.
How the board would spend its share of the state’s $249 million remains uncertain, Strauss said.
“But we’re not depending on it — we’ve learned to be cautious,” she said. “There’s no pot at the end of the rainbow.”
The funding, passed by Congress on Tuesday as part of a $26 billion extension to the federal stimulus, also includes money to fill states’ Medicaid shortfalls. In Maryland, $273 million will help to fill a projected $389 million gap. Virginia will receive $289 million, and the District will receive $54 million, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
