Tuesday, July 28, 2009

$4,651,000 Surplus in Textbook Fund!

In 2008, Superintendent Weast reported $6,607,000 in MCPS Textbook and Instructional Supplies funds surplus.

At the Monday, July 27, 2009, Board of Education meeting Superintendent Weast reported a $4,651,000 surplus in the Textbooks and Instructional Supplies fund for Montgomery County Public Schools.

$4,651,000 is about $33 per child that has been declared surplus. Surplus means that the funding was allocated to Textbooks and Instructional Supplies in the budget, but the funds were not spent on your child's textbook and instructional needs. For a classroom of 25 students that would work out to $825. Rumor has it that teachers only get around $200 per classroom to spend on instructional supplies. Can anyone verify that number? If so, please post in the comment section below.

While Superintendent Weast has stated that he will not provide all MCPS students with their constitutional right to a free public education, the reality is that he hasn't been spending all of the funding that is allotted in the MCPS budget for textbooks and instructional supplies.

4 comments:

  1. I teach at a school in Bethesda and I only got $120 to spend on classroom supplies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bethesda: was the $120 that you got to spend on classroom supplies an allocation from MCPS or from the PTA? That doesn't seem like enough to set up a classroom for a year.
    That's why it drives me crazy that the central office people spend so much money on Honey Baked Hams, and lunches and dinners at expensive restaurants. That money should be going to the classroom. Is your union willing to advocate for shifting that money, since they are, as they say, "at the budget table?"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lyda, that was from the school. Luckily, our PTA gives us an additional $150 to spend each year on school supplies. Our staff and school are very lucky to have such a well-funded and generous PTA, I know other schools are not so lucky.
    I agree with you that money is not spent wisely in our county. I want to know how much those beautiful glossy Seven Keys pamphlets cost. The pamphlets and the "program" is a waste of money since they have no intention of supporting it with extra support and more teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some parents say the campaign is costly and unnecessary. (School officials say the brochure cost $18,895, with half the sum covered by business partners.)

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051701884.html

    ReplyDelete

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