County Councilmember Will Jawando, appearing on the radio show The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi Friday, discussed his displeasure with both the council and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) officials in regard to school funding.
The Board of Education is expected to adopt its $3.2 billion budget on June 11. MCPS had asked for about $30 million more than the council allocated in its Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
Jawando heads the council’s education committee and was one of two councilmembers, along with Kristen Mink, to abstain from voting on the school funding allocation.
While MCPS received 99.2% of its budgetary request, “Our kids need a lot,” Jawando said on WAMU.
He pointed out that the per pupil allocation is $1,000 less when adjusted for inflation than it was in 2012. Since then, the needs of students have increased greatly, Jawando said, pointing to issues resulting from the pandemic as well as an increase in students whose first language is not English.
He said the adopted budget probably will call for increased class size, a delay in pre-kindergarten expansion and the end of the Virtual Academy.
The council should have been informed earlier that so many cuts would be made, Jawando said. The council was told the morning of their vote on the budget that the number of students in each classroom would be increased by one, he said.
He wished the council had been given “more details,” adding the proposed cuts “should have been communicated” to the council prior to its vote.
It is hard to cut a budget when so much of the money already is allocated, including teacher and staff salaries and the costs to provide meals and transportation. According to Jawando, about $2.8 billion of the $3.2 billion MCPS budget is for salaries.
He noted that teacher layoffs may no longer be necessary since MCPS extended its deadline on when a teacher could retire. That enabled “100 or so more teachers” to announce their retirement, he said. But he added that it is not ideal that more experienced teachers are leaving.
Jawando also expressed disappointment that Virtual Academy parents were told in February that the program would continue for one more year and then suddenly told that the program was ending this year.
That’s 800 children who won’t be able to continue learning virtually. “Some have severe health problems. Some are dealing with anxiety,” he said.
During his radio appearance, Jawando said that his family, including his four children, all sheltered in their basement during Wednesday’s storm. They live near Olney, where forecasters had predicted extreme weather.
“My kids thought it was cool.”
