County Council President Evan Glass suggested leaders revisit the state law around the school budget process in order to strengthen transparency.
“I think as Montgomery County’s school budget has grown to be more than $3 billion, I think we need to take a look at how we operate together, and how information is shared and how budgetary expectations are met,” he said during a media briefing Monday.
On Friday, councilmembers voiced support for fully funding Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) employee contracts, but appeared unlikely to fully fund the system’s entire budget request.
Under state law, Glass said, the council appropriates funding for MCPS in categories and then it is up to the school board to apply funding directly to the categories. He said the budget is given to the council in “a dozen or so broad categories,” so councilmembers are not able to dive into details of specific programs or line items.
Glass suggested leaders in Annapolis revisit the law that sets the guidelines for school budgets to be adopted.
He said it is all about “making sure that we share information in a transparent way so that every dime that goes to our school system supports our teachers and supports the learning of our more than 160,000 students.”
Glass first stated the idea in an op-ed for MoCo360 last week.
