A Montgomery County Council committee is recommending an additional $49.5 million in funding for Montgomery County Public Schools for the coming fiscal year, potentially reducing a $60 million gap between the spending included in the proposed county operating budget and the school board’s funding request.
County Executive Marc Elrich’s (D) $7.1 billion proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which starts July 1, includes $3.3 billion for MCPS, funding 98.2% of the school board’s request. The total proposed school spending represents a $107 million increase over spending in the current fiscal year, but still considerably less than what the school board requested, according to board documents.
“I believe and have seen in my visits with schools … that the needs are really great,” councilmember and Education and Culture Committee chair Will Jawando (D-At-large) said during Wednesday’s committee meeting, which was attended by MCPS officials. “This [additional funding] is not a ‘nice to have.’ This is something that is really required.”
The committee’s decision to recommend the additional funding is in part due to a letter submitted to the committee by Interim MCPS Superintendent Monique Felder, who said one of the reasons more funding is necessary is to support an increased need for special education funding.
Felder said the district could achieve an estimated savings of $10.5 million by increasing class sizes by one student. Excluding schools with Title I status—a measure of a lower-income population—from adding one student to each class would result in lower savings totaling $7.3 million.
“We’re going to be recommending going above and beyond what [Elrich] recommended because of the holistic needs and unprecedented challenges that our families are facing,” councilmember and committee member Gabe Albornoz (D-At-large) said. “I want to obviously do everything that we can within reason to address those needs.”
According to council documents and charts, “through a wide range of fiscal environments, the level of support for MCPS has not fluctuated; the Council consistently appropriates roughly half of all available revenues to MCPS each fiscal year.”
The Montgomery County Education Association, the union representing MCPS teachers, praised the committee’s decision in a press release Wednesday, but criticized county officials for “underfunding” the school board’s budget request.
“This budget proposal is a Band-Aid solution to a deep-seated problem. It fails to adequately address the longstanding underfunding that MCPS as a system has endured over the years,” the release said. “We implore our County Council members to recognize the urgency of this matter and to take decisive action by fully funding the MCPS budget.”
Jawando acknowledged the school board made cuts before submitting its budget proposal to Elrich, noting the board’s proposal was “a reasonable request.” He thanked the board for its transparency and cooperation throughout budget deliberations this year, alluding to debates and tension that emerged between MCPS and the council during the 2023 budget process.
“I think one of the things that we’ve benefited from this year is really digging in deep and understanding where everything’s going, where there will be or could be cuts,” Jawando said.
Councilmember and committee member Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5) asked the board to continue to work toward a culture of transparency in spending and communication with the council. She also said she wanted to put MCPS spending into context with previous years.
“Although we’re looking at big numbers, dollar for dollar compared to years past, we are not looking at big leaps in terms of per student spending, in terms of the percentage of the budget that is covered by county versus state versus federal, in terms of the percentage of the county budget that is spent on [MCPS],” Mink said.
The full council will decide whether to adopt the committee’s recommendation for the additional $49.5 million. Doing so would require the council to reduce funding in other areas of the proposed county operating budget to pay for the additional spending. The council is required by county law to approve a county budget by June 1.