Loss of expected funding has school systems on edge as they urge Hogan to release money

Loss of expected funding has school systems on edge as they urge Hogan to release money

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Photo above by woodleywonderworks with Flickr Creative Commons License

By Rebecca Lessner

For MarylandReporter.com

Public schools are set to receive record funding in the projected 2016 state budget, with Gov. Hogan increasing funding by $109 million.

However, Maryland school districts and their unions say they will not be able to fill 3,283 jobs they had hoped to have if Hogan chooses not to fully fund the Geographic Cost of Education Index. It was projected to provide $68 million more.

School advocates are calling these “positions at risk”, sometimes using the term “cuts in educator positions.” Some legislators used the term layoffs.

Based on interviews with several districts, no teacher or support staff will actually lose their jobs due to lack of funding. Eight out of 13 counties affected by GCEI are receiving more funding than last year.

But school systems will not be able to hire more staff as previously planned in order to cope with expected enrollment growth.

“Local school districts would be forced to reduce both teacher and educational support staff positions, leading to larger class sizes and less individualized instruction,” said the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) in a press release.

County council members and commissioners are attempting to wrap up their budgets with its public school funding this month. With GCEI being half funded, school systems are cutting back on future positions and asking teacher aides to pick up the slack.

“It’s extraordinarily uncommon to have a big question mark hanging over this much money, for the 13 jurisdictions impacted by the GCEI, this late in the game,” said John Woolums, director of governmental relations at Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE).

GCEI funding dropped from a projected $136 million to $68 million. Hogan and his staff point out that the last two governors did not fully fund GCEI in their first year. Fiscal year 2016 would be the first year projected GCEI has not been fully-funded since 2010.

“It is challenging, because every jurisdiction is impacted differently and they have different tools to respond,” said Woolums.

GCEI chartHoward County

Howard county plans to absorb the budget blow by repurposing 80 existing instructional support positions.

“While you may have been a paraeducator for grade four, now you’re going to be a paraeducator from grades three, four and five, or something along those lines,” said Renee Foose, superintendent of Howard County Public Schools.

Howard County’s GCEI dropped from the projected $5,474,000 to $2,737,192.

But if you add the GCEI (funded at 50-percent), to direct state aid for primary and secondary education, Howard County will be receiving $6,932,000 more than FY15, for a total of $232 million.

Foose said Howard County will have between 800 and 1,600 more students than this year

More of those students will be poverty-level, requiring more staff, and Foose fears not being able to support positions in the out-years.

“No one has been laid off and no one has lost their job in Howard County to this point,” said Foose. “Millions of dollars worth of students are coming to us, in terms of what we need to continue our level of excellence.”

Montgomery County

Montgomery County schools will get $17 million less in GCEI, and the Board of Education already scaled back its proposed budget by $12 million.

Director of Public Information for Montgomery County Schools, Dana Tofig, said the County Interim-Superintendent, Larry Bowers, will also hold up 370 school-based positions allocated in next year’s budget to help cover the remaining gap.

“That will save about $23.3 million,” said Tofig. “Our hope is that we get the money and then we can release those positions, but right now it doesn’t look that way.’”

Montgomery County says it still faces a budget gap, despite receiving $30 million more (page A-77) in overall school aid than the previous year. Its total state school aid is $655 million.

“Ninety percent of our budget is people. So if we take $17 million in cuts, it’s going to come out of people,” said Tofig.“We not only have more students coming in, but our students have more needs.”

Tofig said the number of students qualifying for free and reduced priced meals, an indication of poverty, is growing “much faster” than enrollment.

As they await a final decision from Gov. Hogan on funding, Howard and Montgomery County public school budget’s remain in flux.

Projected public school budgets are usually approved by local jurisdictions in mid to late-May, with the fiscal year ending June 30th.

Hogan stance on education funding

Hogan

Gov. Larry Hogan on final day of legislature.

Hogan has not said if he will restore GCEI to it’s projected amount, and this is making counties nervous since he is not legally required to do so.

The governor defended his 50% reduction at the 100 Days of Office press event, choosing to spend more on other educational outlets.

“We are all 100 percent in agreement that the top priority for our state is education funding. We’ve agreed on $109 million increase over the last year and $290 million more for new school construction,” said Hogan.

After campaigning to set Maryland on a more fiscally responsible course, funding pensions and reducing the structural deficit creates the opposing balance on Hogans’ scale.

On Wednesday, he announced that he would use $68 million fenced off by legislature to maintain the 2% raises for state employees granted in January. State workers will get no merit or step increases in pay; many teachers will.

Baltimore City

Baltimore City is in the top three of GCEI funding cuts, losing $11 million of the $22 million the city schools were expecting.

GCEI cutbacks paired with reduced tax base, compensatory and special education funding cutbacks has the city receiving $25 million less than FY15.

Baltimore City’s Board of Education adopted their public school budget on Monday, with the assumption that GCEI will be fully funded.

“If we don’t get that money back, then we have to make some choices,” said Ryan Hemminger, budget director of Baltimore City Public Schools.

The Baltimore City public school budget has set aside approximately $10 million, which will not be distributed to schools unless the board receives full GCEI funding.

The extra money was found through “surplus” positions that are not permanent.

These positions, when funded at 100%, cost $15 million.

“Instead of carrying those folks year over year, we’re going to eliminate that surplus pool,” said Hemminger. “We’re going to reduce the surplus position cost by 80 percent…which means that we’ll go from $15 million to $3 million.”

Baltimore City school principals determine the amount of teachers needed, using distributed funds to hire extra hands.

“If the GCEI money returns and we distribute that 10 million dollars, there is a likelihood that our principals will decide to add additional staff into their schools,” said Hemminger.

According to MSEA, approximately 46% of Maryland public school funding come from local sources and 49% comes from the State. The federal government provides only 5% of public school funding.

5 Comments

  1. Lisa Markovitz

    Well maybe if the HCPSS leadership didn’t spend so much more money on the Siperintendent’s contract than other counties, or to upgrade their Board room (the one they didn’t let the public into when they renewed said contract), or paying private attorneys to fight special ed parents and defend not supplying public documents, they wouldn’t have such supposed staffing budget issues.

  2. Adam Meister

    Wasteful union thugs. The last thing they care about is the kids.

  3. Vidi

    I’m never quite sure why an INCREASE from last year has such supposedly devastating consequences. In MoCo, there are many ways in which the school system can hire more teachers but it would involve the teachers not getting a 2% supplemental to their pensions (given to no other teachers in the state of Maryland), and it would involve teachers paying the same share for their healthcare premiums as do the rest of MoCo government workers. How many more new teachers does this add up to – close to 300. MCPS has made its choice – generous benefits far outweigh the hiring of more teachers. Adults first, students last.

  4. Dale McNamee

    An INCREASE of $109 million OVER last year’s budget and $250 million for school construction…And still it’s not enough !

    Why not direct some of the construction money to add to the $ 109 million ?

    There should be a criminal investigation into the expenditure of public funds for schools… I smell ” gold-plating” going on…

    Looking into hiring would be a start… Why is there a need for so many “educational assistants”, how many administrators, etc.

  5. Buypass

    The MD school system is a pig in a poke when it comes
    to doing its job for a reasonable cost. Privatize the whole
    thing and pay only for results.

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