Based on a straw vote taken today by a unanimous County Council, MCPS' FY11 budget will be 56% of the county budget, not the 57.2% that the Board of Education wanted.
The Council's vote today shaves $24.4 million off of the Board of Education's desired budget.
County Council Education Chair Valerie Ervin announced the reductions as $4.7 million from MCPS' technology modernization and relocatable classrooms budgets, and $19.7 million from MCPS' Operating Budget. Councilmember Ervin announced these recommendations on behalf of the Education Committee.
The full Council then voted unanimously to support these recommendations.
The entire Council meeting was over in about 3 minutes. There was no sign of anyone from MCPS or the Board of Education at the table in front of the Council during this brief session.
Councilmember Ervin also announced that the Education Committee recommended that $2 million in unused MCPS FY10 funding be carried over to be applied to the FY11 rate increase on the energy tax.
While I'm glad the Council appears to be holding its ground that MCPS needs to be part of the Montgomery County Community and share the pain w' significant reductions.
ReplyDeleteSimultaneously I am very disappointed. I too watched the proceedings on TV and agree with the assessment that there may well be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
MoCo will never fix its budget problems if our leaders aren't willing to have open debate in the sunshine.
Bob Astrove