By Adam Pagnucco.
As this sudden and torturous budgetary upheaval in MCPS proceeds to its doom-laden conclusion, I keep hearing the same question from my sources:
“Do they really need to do that?”
It’s by far the most common reaction to whatever is going on inside the school system. It’s way more common than, “Holy cow, we need to help them.” That latter sentiment is coming from the employees and some parents, but it’s less heard within Rockville’s halls of power.
My source network literally has centuries of combined budget experience. They’re all skeptical that MCPS needs to resort to layoffs and furloughs, and they note the school system’s long history of getting budgets below its requests.
Over and over, my folks suggest alternate strategies to deal with any shortfall. One said, “Every year at this time, a substantial number of teachers either resign or retire. MCPS replaces them with new hires. Why can’t the number of the new hires be trimmed to avoid the need to lay off existing teachers?” Another asked, “What is the budgeted vacancy rate versus the actual vacancy rate? Could probably balance the budget right there. Have they tried voluntary retirement/buyouts to ease out longer serving employees in favor of younger and cheaper ones, as the state did during the Great Recession and its aftermath? Not ideal but better than the alternatives.”
One source even floated the idea of a county “loan” to MCPS as a way to get around the state’s maintenance of effort law. That would probably run afoul of the general prohibition on state and local governmental entities using debt for operating expenditures, but this person gets an A for creativity!
That’s just the start of the questions. Here are two more. What happened to the tens of millions of dollars in fund balance MCPS has piled up over the years? And how can any organization that received a three-year revenue increase exceeding 20% claim that layoffs are warranted? I can’t answer these questions. Can MCPS?
The county council, which is MCPS’s paymaster, has been mostly silent about the drama as it has received many thousands of emails expressing concern. Here is one response from Council Member Marilyn Balcombe that was posted on social media.
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Thank you for reaching out to me regarding your concerns about the MCPS budget. On May 23rd, we approved $3.3 billion in funding for MCPS, but because we do not have line item authority over the budget, we cannot mandate how MCPS spends the money we have allocated. This funding is 99.2% of the Board of Education’s request, and comprises half of all of the funds the County provides to County agencies and departments.
Despite our lack of control over the use of this money, we understand the heightened need for transparency and accountability. Therefore, we included specific performance metrics and reporting requirements in the MCPS budget resolution for the first time ever. The Office of the Inspector General is also growing a division within its office that will be focused primarily on MCPS oversight. In December, the Office of Legislative Oversight will release a report analyzing MCPS’ fiscal management to assess gaps and identify best budgetary practices.
I understand your frustration with the Board of Education and MCPS’ recent announcements regarding lay-offs and budget freezes. I am equally concerned with these drastic actions and recognize the challenges that will be faced by our students and educators should the school system move forward with these plans. My colleagues on the County Council and I will continue to advocate on behalf of our constituents to the Board of Education and MCPS, and will do all that we can within our authority to support our schools.
Sincerely,
Councilmember Balcombe
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Now I don’t mean to single out Council Member Balcombe. In fact, I think this email could have been written by most council offices. Pay attention to the phrase “our lack of control over the use of this money.” That reflects longstanding frustration over Maryland’s quirky system of divided power over school funding, a system that won’t be going away anytime soon. Perhaps an examination of alternatives is warranted.
So what’s the holdup on heading this off? It’s not just about the money. The county’s reserves exceed its target of 10% of revenues. In recent days, the county executive sent supplemental appropriation requests to the council for $5.2 million for the Department of Correction and $6.1 million for the Department of General Services, with both funded from reserves. Money of that magnitude would likely fix MCPS’s short term problem. However, supplemental appropriations for county government departments are not affected by the state’s restrictive maintenance of effort law. And departmental money is under the direct control of the executive and the council. School funding is always more complicated because of state mandates and divided authority.
But the greater complication is a lack of trust. I have seen many ups and downs between the executive, the council and the school system over the last twenty years, but the current rancor may be even worse than it was during the Great Recession. (And it got pretty bad then.) In the wake of the awful Beidleman scandal, the contortions around budgets this year and last year, and the obviously fractured labor-management relationship, almost no one in power believes what the school system says. That’s a colossal barrier to deal making. Here’s a taste from a Rockville source about how county leaders feel regarding MCPS’s finances: “Don’t forget there was enough money for a new facility for the central office and BOE and over $1 million to buy out the superintendent they were fighting with internally. So they’ve clearly got enough for THEIR priorities.”
The reservoir of distrust is so deep that its bottom cannot be seen.
The latest statement from the interim superintendent makes no mention of layoffs or furloughs so perhaps there is hope that MCPS leaders have figured out how to use milder methods to deal with their problems. We will learn soon enough what their adjustment package looks like. And then this becomes the question:
What next?