Today, the MCPS Budget is set by a Secret Committee that meets behind closed doors. Which way do you prefer?
The Washington PostJan 15, 1981
Montgomery School Board Begins 1982 Budget Reviewby Kathryn Tolbert
The Montgomery County Board of Education began its painstaking review of the school system's budget last week, calling staff members before the board to answer questions, page by page , about the 600-page document detailing $339 million of expenses expected in fiscal year 1982...
...The budget adds six positions for art, music and physical education teachers; 10 positions in the gifted-and-talented program;and two career preparation and four counselors' positions in high schools...
Officials expect countywide enrollment to drop by another 1,500 students, so the budget eliminates 140 jobs, most of them elementary and junior high school teachers', with a corresponding reduction in monies for textbooks and instructional materials, for a savings of $2.3 million...
The article goes on to discuss budget issues in detail. You can read the full article in The Washington Post archives, or on the Montgomery County Libraries newspapers site.
To be fair, $339 million sounds like real money. $2.2 billion is funny money. Just increase it 3% a year and I'm sure they'll allocate it properly.
ReplyDeleteA $2.3 million savings, or any reduction, is so 1980...
The purpose of posting this article was to show that the Board of Education went through the budget page by page at the Board of Education table during a PUBLIC meeting.
DeleteThat is no longer done.
It is Maryland law that the BOE is responsible for setting the MCPS budget. The BOE no longer takes their responsibility seriously and now has to ASK QUESTIONS about what is in the budget because they are clueless.