Teachers Union Says "Stop Blaming the County’s Budget Problems on the School System"

MCEA Press Release: November 29, 2012

Today, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), the union representing more than 12,000 teachers in the Montgomery County Public Schools, called on county elected officials to stop blaming the school system for the County’s budget problems.

According to the County Council’s own recent report (from their Office of Legislative Oversight), the average increase in the MCPS budget over the last decade has been 4.9%. The average increase in the county government budget over the past decade has also been 4.9% (see Table 1 below). How can the school system be blamed for the county’s budget problems if the schools budget has been increasing at the same rate as the county government’s budget?

In fact, about half of that increase in the MCPS budget has come from increased state funding, not from the county government.  The share of the county government’s local revenues going to our schools has actually been decreasing over the past decade (see Table 2 below).

“There is no doubt that the County has been through challenging fiscal times” said MCEA President Doug Prouty, “ but it belies the facts to say that the problem is funding for education”. The national recession has resulted in serious decreases in state and local revenues at the same time that demand for services has been increasing.

The school system has seen an enrollment increase of more than 10,000 students. Almost all of that growth has been among low-income and non-English speaking students who often need more resources to be successful. MCPS has also seen a dramatic increase in the need for special education services to meet the needs of its 17,000+ special education students.

Thankfully, state aid to MCPS has increased. But the reality is that local per-pupil spending – meaning funding approved by the Montgomery County Council – has decreased as a share of the county’s local taxes and revenues. State aid – intended to meet the needs of our growing population of low-income and non-English speaking students – has instead been used to fill the gap created by the decrease in local per-pupil spending.

The County’s local per-pupil spending is now lower than it was before the recession hit – more than six years ago. (See Chart 1 below)

“Our schools are the solution to our fiscal problems, not the cause” said Prouty. “Good schools raise property values and attract high paying jobs”.

Let’s stop blaming the County’s budget problems on the school system. And let’s start talking about how we meet the needs of all our students for the 21st century and close the remaining achievement gaps.

FACT 1: The MCPS Budget has not been increasing any faster than the County Government budget

Table 1: Rate of Growth in County Budgets

from the County Council’s own Report (page 19), October 16, 2012

FACT 2: For the past 10 years, the Montgomery County Government has been allocating a smaller and smaller share of local revenues to our schools

Table 2: Montgomery County’s Local School Funding as a Percent of Local Revenues

FACT 3: The County's local per-pupil spending is now lower than it was six years ago

Chart 1: Montgomery County’s  Local Per-Pupil Spending: 2006 – 2013