County Faces Budget ‘Doomsday’
For those who depend on the county for services and employment, this is very bad news.
Budget cuts may run deeper than expected next fiscal year, Prince George’s County schools superintendent William Hite Jr. said Tuesday, likening the school system’s shrinking purse to a “doomsday type of budget.”
“I don’t want to talk in specific numbers, but they are significant,” Hite said to residents at a budget work session and hearing in Upper Marlboro. “We’re talking almost a doomsday type of budget … . We’re going need your help.”
Last week, school officials estimated a $28.4 million cut to the already beleaguered school budget after Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) announced the proposed state budget was $1 billion leaner than anticipated.
County schools Chief Financial Officer Matt Stanski said budget cuts will likely be worse than they anticipated last week, abating several years of academic and financial progress.
“By the time we’re out of this difficult period the system will have lost five, six, seven years climb,” Stanski said.
Budget cuts, layoffs, “six, seven years” of lost time – a total loss to the school system of nearly $70 million – the county is trapped between real challenges and perceived fortunes:
State funding cuts are directly related to a decline in student enrollment and a significant increase in county wealth last year, specifically property taxes, Stanski said.
“If the state deems the county is wealthier, the assumption is the county [government] will give more money to the school system,” Stanski said. “Whereas we know, our county government is struggling as well.”
Meanwhile, this really is a dire situation on the budget, and there seem to be no clear solutions. While many are considering cuts, others have different ideas:
Board member Rosalind Johnson (Dist. 1) argued that such a budget would provide students with an “anemic diet” and burden the school system for years to come.
Both Johnson and board member Pat Fletcher (Dist. 3) argued against cutting programs and using next year’s funding until it runs out.
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Budget cuts are a reality during an economic downturn. My thought is that proper planning including a real rainy day fund should have been implemented. It is no secret that the Bush administration and state republican administrations have always given schools less than any reasonable person would have wanted for our public schools. The American public school system is has been under siege for many years and I find it difficult to believe that elected and appointed administrators were unaware of the need for creative budgeting. It appears to me that this much discussed school system in the county could save money by building less schools and tearing down fewer of the elementary and middle schools. Closing schools should be changed to realigning schools and getting rid of single campuses large high schools. Quality education does not mean a large campus dominated by gang type behaviors and Type A administrators who need to keep control of students instead of looking for innovative educational techniques to reach all students. We do have a budget crisis but we also have a brain drain crisis at the top in my opinion. Get better administrators and you can produce better standards for teachers and students designed to meet the needs of society not the needs of the administrators.
Comment by tcannady - January 31, 2010 @ 4:58 pm