A School Budget Era May Be Over

"They all say the same thing. They all want more. And they have a right to want more," said Marvin Weinman, president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League. "But the question is, how much more do they need? Not want, but need?"

The amount spent to educate a Montgomery student has almost doubled since 1998, from $7,068 to $13,704, during an era of virtually flat student enrollment. Top pay for a teacher is $98,700, a 56 percent increase over 10 years.

The school system requires almost $100 million in new funds next year just to meet payroll. Teachers are in the first year of a three-year agreement that guarantees pay raises of 5 percent in 2009 and 5.3 percent in 2010. Coupled with step increases available to most teachers, the raises will total about 8 percent a year.

A handful of elected officials have spoken out against the raises, a danger in a county where most politicians rely on labor for reelection.

Two County Council members, Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville) and Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large), have publicly proposed that all employees, including teachers, take a 2-percentage-point reduction in their raises.

But Weast and most elected officials say they have no intention of breaking labor agreements.

Instead, the County Council is targeting other reductions that could trim $20 million to $30 million from the school board's request. These include eliminating about half of Weast's academic initiatives, such as hiring more assistant principals and guidance counselors in elementary schools and adding math and reading specialists in middle schools.

Parents, students and teachers are feeling the effects of the downturn. More than 150 long-term substitutes are filling in for departing teachers, whose jobs are being held open as part of a countywide spending freeze. Many other jobs are going unfilled.

Teachers in magnet programs are being asked to teach additional classes and combine under-enrolled classes next year, part of a $10 million package in cuts made before the school board submitted its budget.

Larry Bowers, Weast's chief operating officer, said the school system could cut $51 million from its budget request only by breaking union contracts or laying people off. The system "could live with" the smaller cuts recommended by the education committee, he said.

But, he added, the most visible effect on students might be an upward drift in class sizes at schools with unexpected enrollment gains. The school system normally can dispatch extra teachers to relieve such schools but might not be able to do so in the fall.

School officials remain skeptical of the county's budgeting process, which relies on projections of future revenue. County staff members have underestimated income tax receipts in each of the past four fiscal years, school officials contend, by amounts ranging from $32 million to $186 million. Another under-projection could mean the difference between $51 million in cuts and none at all.

School employee union leaders sent Leggett a formal public records request yesterday for income tax revenue figures.

Leggett, for his part, says the county cannot afford to gamble on revenue projections.

"They're going to change," he said. "But they may change going the other way."