Editor’s note: This story, originally published Jan. 28, 2025, at 10:26 a.m., was updated Feb. 4, 2025, at 3:40 p.m., to correct that the proposed $298.7 million increase is the total increase from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026.
State funding for the upcoming fiscal year is in flux for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) after Gov. Wes Moore (D) proposed a state budget that recommended a $53.7 million increase for the district, but also outlined additional spending requirements, according to MCPS officials.
“We are all very much on shifting revenue sands at the moment,” Superintendent Thomas Taylor told the county school board Thursday during a work session in Rockville on the district’s own proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2026. “This is a really interesting situation for us to be in because even though [Moore’s budget recommendation is] reflective of additional revenue, it also carries with it the expectation of additional expenditures.”
Chief Financial Officer Ivon Alfonso-Windsor told the school board that Moore’s proposed $67.3 billion budget released Jan. 15 would provide more than $53 million to the district for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1. However, additional state requirements would eat up much of that funding, leaving just a potential $6.1 million net increase for MCPS, Alfonso-Windsor said.
The numbers are “changing day to day” and are not set in stone, Alfonso-Windsor said. Moore’s proposed budget is under deliberation by the Maryland General Assembly, which will approve a final spending plan by March 31, the 83rd day of the 2025 legislative session.
Taylor’s recommended $3.61 billion budget, presented in December, anticipated an increase of $11.6 million from the state – much less than the $53.7 million increase in the governor’s recommended budget.
“So, of the $53.7 million, we are still better off today than we were yesterday, but the changes only leave us with an additional $6 million in state revenue,” Taylor said Thursday. “So, what that looks like on our books today, if we were to revise the [budget] … our local request goes down because our state revenue goes up by $6.1 million.”
Taylor’s proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2026 represents a nearly 9% increase over current spending. According to a budget spreadsheet shared online by the district, Taylor is requesting $2.4 billion from the county.
The proposed $298.7 million increase from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 follows a difficult budget season in 2024 in which the county school board had to make significant cuts. The cuts were needed to close a spending gap after the County Council approved a fiscal year 2025 MCPS operating budget that was $30.5 million less in spending than the school board requested. The operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which ends June 30, is $3.32 billion.
A difficult budget year
Maryland, along with its counties and cities, is facing a difficult budget year as the state government grapples with a nearly $3 billion deficit.
Many of Moore’s recommendations for school funding are related to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s 2021 landmark education reform bill. The recommendations provide funding for MCPS to designate more schools as community schools, which partner with the community to provide a variety of services for students, but not necessarily enough for increasing teacher planning time — both of which are Blueprint mandates.
According to Alfonso-Windsor, Moore’s recommendation includes $10.7 million for MCPS to spend on adding resources to establish new community schools. It would require MCPS to increase its number of community schools by 24, from 53 to 77. The addition of community schools would require the county government to increase the money the district must also provide for the new designations by $8.6 million for fiscal year 2026. The additional $53.7 million the district would get from the state would go toward filling that $8.6 million hole, on top of other expectations from the state.
Many school districts have struggled with complying with continuing Blueprint requirements amid tight state and local budgets and rising education costs, according to The Washington Post
The district’s anticipated funding to increase teacher planning time, another Blueprint requirement, could also be impacted by shifts in state funding. On Jan. 10, the state board overseeing the implementation of the Blueprint voted to extend the law’s timeline for increasing teacher planning time, but any changes to the Blueprint law would have to be made by the General Assembly, Maryland Matters reported.
Alfonso-Windsor said Moore’s recommendation may include changes in how much school districts will receive to pay for additional planning time. While the state calculations haven’t been released, Alfonso-Windsor said the district could see a decrease of up to $15 million for planning time funds.
Taylor said despite the potential shift in funding, there isn’t clarity on whether the expectation for increased planning time has changed.
Board member Karla Silvestre asked if MCPS staff had insight into why the state was prioritizing the designation of community schools over planning time, when more planning time would “have an impact on our academic achievement.”
Taylor said staff did not know, but the answer may have to do with short-term versus long-term costs.
“The short-term costs seem comparable, but the long-term costs are more significant with planning time because of the need for changes to staffing,” Taylor said. “We don’t have any concrete insights as to why the administration chose that as part of their budget.”
The governor’s proposed budget also recommends reducing how much the state pays for non-public placements, referring to when special education students are placed into private schools to better meet their needs, which the district must pay for. According to the district’s Thursday presentation, this would be particularly impactful because non-public placement costs have been on the rise.
Alfonso-Windsor said the state reimburses MCPS 70% for the annual cost of each non-public placement, but Moore’s budget recommendation would lower the reimbursement to 60%. This fiscal year, the district expects to receive $19.1 million for non-public placements. Under Moore’s recommendation, that could decrease by $2.5 million or $4 million for fiscal year 2026.
Moore also recommended shifting $93 million of the costs of the state retirement plan onto local budgets, which would require MCPS to pay $20 million in fiscal year 2026, in addition to its base pension cost of $81.8 million.
School board President Julie Yang noted that many of the costs that may be shifting to local governments will have to be built into budgets moving forward, increasing the base budget for the school district.
Taylor agreed.
“It’s actually quite troubling,” Taylor said. “Because not only will this have a multi-year downwind effect, this is one of those things that it is hard for a lot of our public to … understand.”
