Elrich and Friedson confusingly blame each other for underfunding MCPS

[Anonymous]

SOURCE: https://moco360.media/2024/05/22/elrich-friedson-butt-heads-over-mcps-funding/

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich is criticizing the County Council for “underfunding schools,” even though his proposed fiscal year 2025 county operating budget includes less money for Montgomery County Public Schools than the council’s spending plan.

In a straw vote Thursday, the County Council preliminarily approved a $7.1 billion county operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which includes $26.3 million more for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) than had been allocated in Elrich’s proposed spending plan.

Elrich’s $7.1 billion budget proposal represents a 4.9% increase from the current fiscal year’s budget. His proposal for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, includes $3.3 billion for MCPS, funding 98.2% of the county school board’s request. The total school spending showed a $107 million increase over spending in the current fiscal year, but also represented about a $60 million cut in the school board’s funding request, according to board documents.

With the additional proposed money for MCPS, the council’s proposal would fund 99.2% of the school board’s budget request. The council is set to take a final vote on the budget Thursday.

“The school budget’s coming up pretty short. And it didn’t have to be,” Elrich said Tuesday in an interview with MoCo360. “I’m a little baffled about the logic behind some of this.”

In the interview, Elrich said he had always planned to use money from a tax dollar-fueled fund used to pay retirement health benefits to county employees to close the 1.8% gap between what he proposed for MCPS and what the school board requested.

“People are paying a whole lot of money into this fund for nothing,” Elrich said. “That money could have been used to meet the current needs of the school system.”

However, Elrich did not include that funding idea when he introduced his proposed budget on March 14.

Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) told MoCo360 Tuesday that he had never seen a written proposal to use so-called Other Post-Employee Benefit (OPEB) funding and that it was not part of the spending plan or amendments Elrich submitted to the council in March. He first heard of Elrich’s idea when asked by a MoCo360 reporter about it Tuesday.

“It’s hard to take seriously criticism about underfunding education from a county executive who recommended a budget that funded education dramatically less than what the council supported and ultimately has recommended and is poised to approve,” Friedson said.

Friedson dismissed Elrich’s idea as not serious and said the county executive has a “history of robbing the OPEB trust fund.”

“OPEB is not just an abstract conglomeration of four letters. It is the public health benefits that we are obligated from a fiscal standpoint to pay,” Friedson said. “So if the county executive is suggesting that he would fund education on the backs of the health care of educators, retirees and public servants, I think that is a really bad idea.”

When asked if he thought the public were aware of his idea for schools funding, Elrich said he was “not sure it was obvious” because the money wasn’t listed as a budget line item since it would come from an existing fund.

I have a headache reading this. Elrich seems more wrong here than Friedson and the Council. If he had a plan for funding the EBP, it was on him to communicate that to the Council and the public. The fact that he feels otherwise makes question his sanity....

It's no wonder MCPS has so much chaos and misdirection going on. Look at how the CE and Council are so clearly disconnected.

[Anonymous]

More from the article :

Elrich said he believes the council’s decision during budget deliberations in 2023 not to raise the property tax rate by 10% to help fund MCPS, as he proposed, set the school system back. The council compromised with a 4.7% rate increase, while still fully funding the school budget proposal. Friedson, who was then council vice president, did not support a property tax rate increase.

“The council created the problem last year when they told the school system to use $33 million to hire people. But that was federal money, not county money,” Elrich said. “Those costs rolled into this year’s budget, putting additional pressure on the budget, leaving aside the normal inflation and everything else the school system had to deal with.”


——-

I think Elrich is in the right totally pointing out that hiring people whose salary is to be paid by federal funds that they knew would disappear was a fiscally irresponsible choice. The county needed to have raised property taxes so they could fund these new hires after the federal funds dried up or not to have hired people they knew they could not afford to keep the following year. Everyone knew ESSR funds were ending this year so there is no excuse for not planning ahead.

[Anonymous]

They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

[Anonymous]

two peas in a pod

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

This one: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/clusteradmin/equity/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

Didn't McKnight add like 30% more staff to the CO for various DEI committees? And why does MCPS have 2X more admin positions than FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

The budget already cut 56.6 FTE central office positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

The budget already cut 56.6 FTE central office positions.

And how many thousands are left?

[Anonymous]

Maybe they wouldn't be so hard up for $$$ if they stopped hiring comms firms or paying out millions in avoidable settlements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

The budget already cut 56.6 FTE central office positions.

And how many thousands are left?

If you don't know, your opinion on if it's too high is meritless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

This one: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/clusteradmin/equity/

And this one:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/otls/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

This one: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/clusteradmin/equity/

I am a teacher feel these positions are a waste. Well meaning but basically useless except for spreading talking points. None of it applies down to the instructional level. At best it feels like preaching. Staff dont feel that we can challenge it though. Just endless summer PowerPoint video to watch over and over again without any teaching advice given.

And this one:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/otls/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

Didn't McKnight add like 30% more staff to the CO for various DEI committees? And why does MCPS have 2X more admin positions than FCPS?

Why do people keep repeating this when it’s been proven false multiple times now???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to cut the central office bloat first and foremost. After that happens we can talk about funding.

I keep reading this sentence over and over but what bloat does it refer to? List the positions that you think don't support the school system.

Didn't McKnight add like 30% more staff to the CO for various DEI committees? And why does MCPS have 2X more admin positions than FCPS?

Why do people keep repeating this when it’s been proven false multiple times now???

Others have posted this here time and again. It sounds like you're just for the CO bloat.