Gazette: Analysis: Winners and losers of the Montgomery County budget

Ervin, libraries are among those coming out ahead

Montgomery County Public Schools  When it became clear earlier this year that the County Council intended to cut funding for schools, elected members of the school board and Superintendent Jerry D. Weast warned that such cuts would harm students' education.
The council, however, took the bold step of cutting funding anyway by $45 million. The school system will receive $1.37 billion in county tax dollars in fiscal 2012.
Ervin said the school system will receive 56 percent of the county's tax-supported funding next year, 1 percent less than the current fiscal year.
On Monday the Montgomery County Board of Education approved a revised budget that keeps class sizes at their current levels, but eliminates 155 positions. Of those, none are classroom teachers.
"All you hear is how children are going to be harmed," Ervin said Tuesday of the school board's claims.
She said the board suggested to the community that any cut to the budget would harm students — "the sky is falling" and "schools are going to be destroyed."
That is not the case, however, Ervin said.