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PRESS RELEASE
3/17/2014
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Janette Gilman
President
Montgomery County Council of PTAs
MCCPTA Welcomes Funding Over MOE,
but Urges County Executive to Close the Gap

Shortfall in Proposed Local Funding Impedes Critical Initiatives 
Germantown, Maryland - March 17, 2014 - MCCPTA welcomes County Executive Leggett's operating budget recommendation and his inclusion of roughly $26 million in county funds above the minimum required by law (MOE), but is disappointed that the recommendation does not provide the additional modest funding needed for initiatives aimed at closing the achievement gap.  MCCPTA recognizes that this proposal also uses and eliminates the school system's remaining $11 million in reserves and anticipates and expects that the intent on the part of Montgomery County leaders is, in the future, to add and maintain this additional funding.  

 

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MCCPTA President Janette Gilman, who had previously authored a letter to county leaders urging full funding for the Board of Education request, noted, "We commend the County Executive for looking at the needs of our students and schools, rather than a legal minimum, and proposing an operating budget that goes above MOE for the first time in six years. We recognize that politics require compromise, but insist education should not. With the needs and numbers of our students on the rise and the imperative of closing the achievement gap, Montgomery County--led by County Executive Leggett--must go further. We must go the distance. We need to be able to both compensate teachers and staff fairly and support new programs specifically designed to close the gap.  

 

With unemployment down, housing sales up, construction everywhere, and county reserves, according to the County Executive, at the highest point in history, it is clear that an economic recovery is underway in Montgomery County. This community today--and its future tomorrow--is built on the strength of public education; great schools are the heart of safe, thriving neighborhoods, opportunity, and hope. We are all working together--the County Executive, County Council, Board of Education, our Annapolis delegation, and PTA--to find the funds to meet the demand for school buildings and capacity in MCPS; together, let's also find the additional $15 million missing in this budget proposal to ensure the continued quality of the learning that goes on inside our structures--permanent or portable--and make the full $50 million investment in equity and excellence."

 

MCCPTA Treasurer Susan Burkinshaw commented, "It was great to hear all our elected county leaders say education was their top priority when we came to Annapolis to push for state construction funds for our schools. I and others are looking for that same level of commitment now when our county revenues--over which the County Executive and members of the County Council have sole authority--are on the line. County Executive Leggett's readiness to fund above the minimum required by law is indeed welcome and heartening, but is it enough?  With the requirements of maintaining same services for our growing body of students, fairly compensating and retaining quality staff, and introducing new initiatives to close the achievement gap, it falls short. I hope Council President Rice and the members of the County Council will run with County Executive Leggett's recommendation and work to find the $15 million missing to enable MCPS to undertake new programs designed to help every child and close the achievement gap which the Council's own staff noted last year would require 'a long-term, broad-based commitment and a working partnership among policy makers, elected officials, and administrators.'  We think that commitment must begin with adequate and full county funding of MCPS starting next school year, remembering that the #1 job of government is to provide public education and public safety." 
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MCCPTA is an association of local PTAs in Montgomery County, chartered by Maryland PTA, working with parents, students, school staff, and our community on behalf of every child. MCCPTA assists local PTAs by exchanging information and experience, serving  as the primary parent interface with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), and leading advocacy efforts at the local, state, and national level. MCCPTA represents approximately 50,000 members who belong to our 190 local PTAs and PTSAs, accounting for nearly one in three PTA members in the State of Maryland.