MCEA Plans to Force County Gov'ts. to Apply for MOE Waivers

Last year the Montgomery County Council made a decision not to request a Maintenance of Effort waiver. This allowed the County to hit the 'reset' button on per-pupil spending. As a reminder, the MCPS is not a county agency. It is a 'quasi-state agency.' The response from MCEA is below, proposed by Bonnie Cullison, state delegate (D-MCEA):

From the Gazette:
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Montgomery lawmaker seeks to protect education funding
Counties might be required to seek waivers from per-pupil spending requirements
by Andrew Ujifusa and Erin Cunningham, Staff Writers

A state lawmaker from Montgomery County wants to force the government entities that fund schools to apply for waivers from education spending requirements.

Had such a law been in place this year, the Montgomery County Council would not have been able to reduce school system funding as much as it did a move that reduced the base from which future budgets will be derived.

Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Dist. 19) of Aspen Hill expects to introduce legislation next year that could require counties to apply for a waiver from Maryland’s “maintenance of effort” law for education spending if certain economic conditions are met. Her bill also would set a floor for just how low per-pupil spending by a county could be, based on a new formula.

and:


The state’s maintenance of effort law requires counties to spend at least as much per pupil on public schools as they did the previous year, in order to qualify for increases in state education funding aid.

However, counties can apply for a waiver from that requirement with the state Board of Education if they think they cannot meet that per-pupil amount.

This year, the County Council chose not to seek a waiver and make cuts to Montgomery County Public Schools from maintenance of effort levels. This decision allowed the council to set a new and lower per-pupil spending level that it believes will be easier to meet next year.

Instead of spending $1.497 billion on the school system, the maintenance of effort level for fiscal 2012 based on enrollment, the council spent $1.37 billion. That decision has resulted in a $26.3 million penalty in lost state aid to the school system for fiscal 2013.

Read more at The Gazette, here.