Monday, April 22, 2013
Pension issues and local funding will drive spending over the next four years.
While Montgomery County spends approximately half of its annual $4 billion budget on K-12 education, that figure is expected to grow by more than $100 million over the next four years, according to a recent Washington Post article. Two state mandates uncovered by Montgomery County Council staff will drive the increased spending—the shift of teacher pension costs from the state to the counties and the “maintenance of effort” rules that require schools to maintain a level of per-pupil funding at least equal to the previous year, The Post reported. Montgomery County Council Member Valerie Ervin (D-Dist 5) described the increases in education funding as “a runway train.” Montgomery County Council staff director Stephen Farber described the …
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Superintendent remains confident that he can win over the County Council.
Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed $2.2 billion fiscal 2014 budget for Montgomery County schools could face a familiar challenge—how to comply with a state law on school funding minimums while winning approval from a County Council determined to rein in spending on schools. Starr's spending plan, unveiled Tuesday, is $10 million—less than half a percent—above the funding floor mandated by the state’s maintenance of effort law, which requires counties’ per-pupil spending to remain the same or increase from year to year. But the half percent increase could have major implications. County school budgets that dip below the funding level can have the difference withheld by the state comptroller when passing through income tax revenues to…
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Analysis shows changes to Maryland's 'Maintenance of Effort' law will complicate counties' long-term fiscal planning, particularly for schools.
Changes to Maryland’s “Maintenance of Effort” school-funding law will force county governments onto even more cautious fiscal footing when they craft long-term budget plans, compelling them to be more tight-fisted toward schools, an analysis of the proposed revisions shows. The assessment comes in the first investigation into the impact of the MOE revisions, discussed Tuesday by the Montgomery County Council. County officials have for years blasted the state’s MOE law, which dictates how much funding counties must put into their respective school systems’ budgets. The sticking point has been that a county’s contribution cannot decrease from one year to the next. The changes to the MOE law are two-fold. They: A briefing Tuesday by the …
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
In our third video, Starr stresses the importance of funding education and discusses ways to make schools more efficient.
In the third installment of our video series with Superintendent Joshua Starr, he stresses the importance of fully funding education, but also discusses ways Montgomery County Public Schools can maximize its efficiency in the face of shrinking budgets. In tomorrow's clip, Starr talks about the gap in achievment between students of varied socioeconomic backgrounds.
Bastante
11:28 am on Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Holy cow! Damascus high school - where the student's First Amendment rights were violated by an assistant principale - has THREE assistant principals for 1,300 students. Plus a business administrator. What on earth? Why do they need a total of five administrators for a school of this size? This is just ridiculous. more ›