UPDATED: PTAs To Rally For State Education Funding At Bethesda School

Updated Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. — The MCCPTA budget rally set for Wednesday afternoon at Walter Johnson High School has been postponed. Officials expect to announce a new date and time for the event later Wednesday. Original — Parent Teacher Associations from around Montgomery County on Wednesday will call on Gov. Larry Hogan to release education funding at a press conference and rally at Walter Johnson High School. The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA) is hosting the event starting at 3 p.m. at the school (6400 Rock Spring Drive). It's part of the effort by education groups across the state to persuade Hogan to release $68 million in Geographic Cost of Education Index funding, or GCEI. The funding was designed to help school systems in the 13 jurisdictions where public education is costliest. Montgomery County would lose roughly $17 million in GCEI funding if Hogan opts not to spend it. The $68 million was included in the budget passed by state legislators. Hogan has said spending it and other funding set aside for state employee pay raises and health care programs would be fiscally irresponsible and hurt the state's pension system. Last week, County Executive Isiah Leggett and local leaders from across the state urged Hogan to release at least the GCEI funding and to make a decision before counties must finalize their own operating budgets. "County governments are already amidst their own budget processes, concluding their deliberations as soon as mid-May," read a letter signed by Leggett and others. "For the thirteen jurisdictions with GCEI funds still pending, the state would be casting a cloud of uncertainty over their own budgeting priorities, with enormous pressure on local tax rates as school systems would surely seek to offset lost funding through local resources." MCPS is preparing to cut 370 school-based staff positions for next year in anticipation of the County Council not fulfilling its wish for a 4 percent budget increase. Parents, teachers, students and elected officials are expected to talk about how the loss of $17 million in GCEI funding would affect local schools at the Walter Johnson event. It's set to take place in front of the school.