The Montgomery County Taxpayers League believes the proposed Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) budget does not justify the recommended record spending increase. Residents have been tightening their belts to absorb 10% property tax increases, while suffering stagnant academic results, and can’t reconcile cost increases with declining enrollment. Instead, we propose reductions to the increase that will make the county executive’s proposed 3.4% property tax increase unnecessary and improve instruction for low-income students.
The key is better management and communication enabled by linking the budget to expected results. None of the proposed instructional funding spending increases in the budget’s Table 1A are linked to academic proficiency improvements. This budget just documents formulaic instructional cost inputs that don’t tie to strategies to lower the achievement gap, and it’s bloated with overhead costs that haven’t undergone a value-added analysis. There aren’t even any targets for improving reading and math proficiency among our struggling student groups.
A 2019 study showed MCPS resources aren’t equitably allocated to low-income schools, and low-income school students are more likely to have novice teachers and principals. One-size-fits-all budgets and policies designed for west county schools disadvantage east county schools that need the most effective teachers and principals. Did you know teacher and principal effectiveness ratings don’t include student proficiency growth? The consequence: Last year’s MCAP test results showed only a dismal 33% of low-income kids were proficient in literacy and just 14% were on grade level in math. How much more spending or changes in management practices will it take to boost proficiency 10% this year or next?
We recognize that budget adjustments are only part of what’s needed to improve academic proficiency. For example, fixing the grading policy to hold students more accountable will also improve parent communications. Another example is improving school security to reduce absenteeism by shifting responsibility from the central office to east county school principals as was done last month at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring.
Budget approval is now up to the County Council. Our analysis found $340 million in spending cuts in the three areas listed below. This is more than enough to lower spending to the required maintenance of effort level, and will improve east county teacher recruitment and retention.
Compensation and staffing excesses
The budget recommends a 3.25% general wage increase across the board, including overhead functions. On top of the 30% pay increases over the last three years, this brings teachers’ average pay to $107,147 for 10 months of work. Teacher compensation used to be based on an MCPS analysis of parity with Fairfax County Public Schools, our primary economic competitor. Fairfax County’s average teacher salary is $94,891. MCPS teacher salaries are 13% higher, and that doesn’t take into account our teachers’ expensive defined benefit retirement plan with a county supplement, or their generous low-cost health plan benefits. All employees will get a step increase of 3.5%, which is higher than the rate of inflation. Savings of $109 million can be achieved by limiting additional teacher general wage increases to just low-income schools where retention and recruitment improvements would help reduce the achievement gap.
Cadillac health plan overrun
The budget requests a $40 million Band Aid for the $400 million trust fund whose costs are out of control and growing at a 10% annual rate. Employee contributions are half the national average. Employees pay just 12%-17% of health premium costs vs. 21%-33% nationally. Why wait another day to begin fixing this? Savings of at least $44 million can be achieved next year from a 10% employee contribution increase and more thereafter by restructuring to make this trust fund sustainable.
Central office staff spending
This is a major part of overhead for non-instruction spending, which our analysis shows is a high 45% compared to 37% for Fairfax public schools. Incredibly, this spending would increase in next year’s budget. One new driver is proposed cross-functional school support teams that have no accountability or performance targets — at a cost of $5.4 million.
Shared accountability has not worked, and individual school improvement plans are undermined by central office activities whose only performance measure would be customer service. Even bigger is the $182 million for new overhead spending included in the proposed budget as “non-discretionary” spending. When you think about it, there should be no increases for overhead spending when there are underfunded academic strategies that work. Eliminating these increases and savings from additional restructuring next year should be returned to fund low-income school proficiency strategies. Savings? The proposed administrative increase of $5.4 million, plus $182 million for non-instruction spending increases that should be funded with base overhead savings.
Gordon Brenne of Silver Spring is treasurer of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League.
