By Adam Pagnucco.
A group of former members of the county council and school board have written to County Executive Marc Elrich asking him to attach some strings to MCPS’s budget in his forthcoming recommended operating budget. Specifically, this group would like MCPS to make more progress on reading in elementary schools.
I wrote about this issue last May. In August 2020, MCPS launched a pilot program partially funded by the Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation that produced astounding results in boosting reading skills in East Silver Spring Elementary School. At the time, the school was 52% Black and 21% Latino. 55% of its students received free and reduced price meals. Despite the promising results, the program had apparently lapsed two years later. That prompted an inquiry by Council Member Natali Fani-Gonzalez.
Reading advocates have not given up. Yesterday, they sent a letter to County Executive Marc Elrich asking him to put strings on MCPS’s budget in an effort to restart efforts targeted to improving reading in elementary schools. Technically, the executive’s authority is confined to making recommendations to the county council about MCPS’s budget. And the council does not have line item authority over school budgets. Rather, the council may only appropriate to large budget categories specified in state law. However, none of that stops the executive or council from bargaining with MCPS over its budget. The council did that in 2016 when it offered MCPS proceeds from a tax increase in return for its trimming employee raises.
Signers of the letter include former County Council Members Steve Silverman, Gail Ewing, Nancy Floreen, Mike Knapp and Mike Subin as well as former Board of Education Members Chris Barclay and Judy Docca. The letter is reproduced below.
*****
March 12, 2024
VIA EMAIL ONLY
The Honorable Marc Elrich
Montgomery County Executive
Executive Office Building
Rockville, MD 20850
Dear County Executive Elrich,
We, the undersigned, are very concerned about the lack of reading progress being made by MCPS students, starting in third grade and continuing into upper grades.
The status quo is not working, especially given the obvious losses to learning that occurred during Covid remote learning.
We are asking you to be a change agent in your budget submission for MCPS for the coming fiscal year.
We need a strong message from you to MCPS that it’s long past time they made the improvement of reading scores a major priority. We need your leadership at this critical time.
In Montgomery County as a whole, only 57 % of third graders are reading at or above grade level according to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program results. That number, however, masks the even more alarming rates in many of our County’s schools. At Arcola Elementary, the number is 39%– at Joann Leleck Elementary, 34%.
According to a national study, “Double Jeopardy: Third Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation,” children reading below grade level in third grade are four times less likely to graduate high school. Add family poverty to the mix and the results are even worse.
And, of course, this problem affects Latino and African American kids to an even greater extent than white and Asian children. Overall 49% of African-American children and 33% of Latino children achieve third grade reading proficiency. It’s 81% of white children and 79% of Asian children.
We know that significant learning loss took place in County schools due to the pandemic.
Present fourth graders were then in kindergarten or first grade. Results indicate that, barring some change, they will catch up with where they should have been then in four more years, when they are eighth graders.
If this isn’t the definition of an emergency for the Montgomery County Public Schools – and the County in general – we don’t know what is.
Twenty years ago, the County Executive, County Council, Superintendent and the School Board got together before passing a budget to make sure the system implemented smaller class sizes. Our kids’ education was too important to be just the work of the school board.
MCPS hired a consultant in Fall, 2023 to provide support for elementary school reading at 9 schools at a cost of $950,000. Why wouldn’t we extend it to at least our 35 Title I schools or design a different program to get results?
Last Spring, you and the Council approved a budget that was $158m above MOE with no strings attached to ensure the money was being targeted. And now, MCPS is asking for over $150m more for 2024-25.
You and the Council can make sure that money is focused on helping kids to read by requiring MCPS to enact a targeted program as part of their budget. It doesn’t require more money; it just requires targeting the resources they already have. You and the Council control the purse strings; MCPS can come up with the program that would have a sense of urgency lacking today. We are happy to work with you, the Council and the Board to assist our kids.
If we are truly about racial equity and social justice, nothing is more important than helping all our young children down a path toward success. If we don’t, then shame on us.
That’s why we are asking you to demonstrate commitment and leadership in your recommendations about the MCPS budget request to the County Council.
Sincerely,
Steven Silverman
Gail Ewing
Nancy Floreen
Michael Knapp
Michael Subin
Chris Barclay
Judy Docca
Barbara Ebel
Stewart Edelstein
Sol Graham
Jason Green
Wilma Holmes
Frieda Lacey
Yamina Leggett-Wells
Agnes Leshner
Teresa Wright
CC:
County Council
Board of Education
Monique Felder, Interim Superintendent MCPS
Essie McGuire, Council Staff