Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Thomas Taylor presented his fiscal year 2026 budget Wednesday night – a $3.6 billion budget that asks for almost $300 million more in funding – and the first reviews from community education leaders and activists are in: Taylor’s proposal, however high, depicts the real needs within the school system.
But plenty of questions remain, including whether Taylor’s proposed budget will be fully funded by the County Executive and County Council.
Budget depicts needs, issues to solve within MCPS
“When you take out the dollar figures, there’s nothing he’s asked, he’s identified in [the budget] that seems unreasonable,” Byron Johns, the co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition for Equity and Excellence, told MoCo360 on Thursday afternoon.
Johns said while seeing the large budget number may have been shocking, Taylor’s proposed budget aims to solve on going issues including underfunded employee benefits and lack of adequate special education staffing.
“Special ed has been a mess for years,” Byron said.
Some of the most significant expenditure portions of the budget include an expected 3.25% salary increase for teachers and the addition of nearly 700 special education workers. The budget also includes funding to solve financial issues such as the underfunded employee benefits plan and an add-on to the funding formula for school materials to address equity. To save money, Taylor’s budget would cut 81 central office positions.
County Council President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) said Taylor clearly laid out his budget and showed that there are “clear needs” within the district.
“As we have seen, even though our student enrollment has been relatively flat over the last few years, the complex needs of our students has dramatically increased,” Stewart told MoCo360 on Wednesday after the budget presentation.
County Executive Marc Elrich echoed those sentiments Thursday night, telling MoCo360 that there’s nothing in the budget that doesn’t have merit.
David Stein, president of the county’s teacher union the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), said he was taken by Taylor’s comments about focusing on the need, instead of the number.
“What he laid out last night was really plain talk about what our needs are and what we have not, in the past, been doing,” Stein said. “He’s setting out what exactly we have to do, and he’s setting out a lot of it over many years.”
Stein said he appreciated that the district is finally agreeing to start addressing needs the MCEA has been advocating for over several years.
While Esther Wells, president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League, said she appreciates the focus on special education and cuts in the central office, she said Taylor needs to help community members understand how the budget could impact them.
Wells said she wants Taylor to share how far the proposed budget is above maintenance of effort, which is a state law that requires localities to spend at least as much per student from year to year. Wells said she wanted a commitment that if the district were to receive more state or federal funding than what was expected, the district wouldn’t increase the budget more.
Wells also raised concerns that the district wouldn’t be able to hire 688 special education professionals and that the central office cuts may be lower-level employees instead of executive level positions. According to Taylor’s budget, cutting 81 positions in the central office would save the district $6.3 million, which Wells noted is an average salary of about $77,000.
In a press release, the MCEA said it was waiting to learn details about reductions in the central office before weighing in. Johns of the Black and Brown Coalition also raised questions about what the reorganization of the central office will look like.
Johns said one of the biggest questions for community members will be how the budget will impact them, and their children’s education.
Not every need was met
While the budget is asking for almost $300 million in additional funding, Taylor acknowledged the budget wouldn’t solve all the issues in MCPS.
“I would love to say that this budget is a budget that will move MCPS forward in terms of innovation, that it will fulfill all of our hopes and dreams. But the reality is that it is not,” Taylor told MoCo360 on Wednesday afternoon before presenting his proposal to community members. “There are a lot of budget vegetables that we need to eat in this budget just to become stable and solvent.”
One aspect Taylor’s proposal didn’t touch on was class sizes, something Taylor and Stein said they wanted to be addressed.
“We all know that class sizes is a big issue, but, right now, I think we can all agree that we really need to focus on the special education,” Stein said. “This budget certainly does not solve all the needs that the school district has.”
Taylor’s budget missed the mark for two virtual learning advocates, Courtney Evans and Sterling High, who are parents of students who attended the Montgomery Virtual Academy (MVA). The district’s online education program was discontinued after the County Council approved a fiscal year 2025 MCPS operating budget that was $30.5 million less in spending than was requested. The operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which ends June 30, is $3.32 billion. Fiscal year 2026 starts July 1.
Evans and High said the almost $2.1 million allocated toward expanding blended, online and distance learning Taylor’s budget was “worthless” if it didn’t include a similar virtual school model like the MVA. Blended learning programs, the pair said, aren’t enough for many students who need to participate in online education due to things like medical issues.
“If we’re talking about filling holes, there’s a big gaping hole where the MVA was, and this does nothing to fill that hole,” Evans said.
Will the county council fully fund the budget?
Following Taylor’s presentation, the budget will go through several public hearings and school board work sessions in January before being voted on by the board. Then the budget will go to County Executive Marc Elrich and the County Council for approval.
School board President Julie Yang (Dist. 3) said there’s always a concern the budget won’t be fully funded due the many needs of the county, but believed Taylor cutting central office positions was a sign that he was trying to be a good steward of county money.
Additionally, Stein said not fully funding the budget concerns the MCEA because not meeting certain needs for students like those participating in the special education program will negatively impact the students and school communities.
Elrich said whether or not the county fulfills Taylor’s budget depends on “people’s willingness to do things” like potentially shifting money away from other county programs or increasing taxes.
“Our challenge is to figure out how much of a hole do we fill?” Elrich said. “I think we’re gonna have to think outside the box.”
Stewart said there are “many factors” the County Council must consider between now and when the County Executive sends the council his budget.
“We need to see how this fits into the other pieces of what we need to provide to county residents,” Stewart told MoCo360 Wednesday night. “As the superintendent mentioned, the complex needs of our student body is really increasing, and that’s reflected in our overall county community.”
There are also a variety of potential changes that may come when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, some of which can be predicted, but also a number of unknowns, Stewart said.
“Tonight, we’re really focused on MCPS’s budget and their request moving forward, and the focus on the needs of the students,” Stewart said. “We’re going to need to take that over the next couple of months and put that into a broader context of our county overall and what we’re facing and our needs.”
