Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposed budget for the next year does not include money to expand an after-school program focused on providing “high quality, accessible programs for students,” constraining the county’s ability to address disparities in after-school care, County Council members said Monday.
A report released last month by the County Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight showed differences in availability of after-school programs based on income, parent involvement and access to transportation and recommended, among other ideas, expanding the program known as Excel Beyond the Bell.
But in Elrich’s proposed $5.7 billion budget, there is no money earmarked for an expansion.
“The Council has been intentional in setting forth priorities to address equity needs, and it looks like we may have to step up to the plate again,” Council member Craig Rice said during a joint meeting of the council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development and Education and Culture committees. “I’ve stood next to the county executive who’s pitched about how he supports education and the equity framework we’re working on, best represented in a situation like this. If he was serious about that commitment, he would certainly put forth a budget that reflected that.”
In a memo after the release of the oversight office’s report, Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine responded to two recommendations to offset “widespread disparities,” but did not mention the recommendation to expand Excel Beyond the Bell.
A spokesperson for Elrich said the county executive had to make “some tough decisions” about the budget and chose to expand early childhood care and education over after-school care.
County officials in March announced a “four-year action plan” to address shortcomings in providing early childhood education services to county children. Elrich allocated $7 million in next year’s budget for the program’s first year.
“The County Executive supports Excel Beyond the Bell and will consider expansion of the program in the future,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
About 46 percent of the county’s overall budget, about $2.6 billion, is dedicated to the kindergarten through 12th-grade public school system, a $51.1 million increase over this year’s budget.
Elrich’s budget proposal falls about $15 million short of what the school system requested, but is $2.5 million above state-mandated per-pupil funding.
The report on after school programs recommends county and school officials consider expanding the Excel Beyond the Bell program, now available at six elementary and eight middle schools, to more locations with high rates of students eligible for reduced-priced meals, at an estimated cost of $269,000 per school. Each school serves a maximum 120 students for a cost of about $2,200 per student.
“It would be helpful if the executive had included money for this in his budget, and I’m disappointed he didn’t,” At-large council member Hans Riemer said. “There were plenty of priorities funded in the budget and unfortunately this isn’t one of them. We’ll pick it up from here and do our best.”
Each of the five Council members present at Monday’s joint committee meeting voiced support of expanding Excel Beyond the Bell and exploring how to partner with the school system to expand school-level after school programs, which are cheaper and utilize more community partnerships.
Riemer, who has said he believes the council can “find areas of savings” in the county executive’s proposed budget, said he would support allocating around $750,000 for after-school programs, including adding two schools to the Excel Beyond the Bell program.
Elrich left $10 million of his proposed budget unallocated for flexibility to allow council members to decide “what’s important for them” to fund, he said when unveiling his budget last month.
Council members said they plan to launch a strategic plan to broaden access to affordable after school care, like the recently announced four-year plan to expand access to early childhood education. The Council will revisit the issue later this month.
“I really feel as though … we’re going to have to invest more to make this happen, so if that means other things have to give, so be it,” Rice said. “We have to be very intentional about everything we want to see. If we want to see movement primarily in our communities of color or more challenging economic status, we need to focus our resources primarily in those areas.”
This story has been updated to include a comment from Elrich’s office, which previously could not be reached for comment.
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
