MCPS Board President Urges Governor to Restore School Funding

Montgomery County Public Schools Board President Patricia O’Neill encouraged Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to restore full funding for the Geographic Cost of Education Index in her blog posted on the school system website Friday.

Hogan has said he wanted to fund the index at 50 percent, meaning Montgomery County would lose out on $17 million. The index helps to offset the higher costs to run a school system in some Maryland counties by distributing extra money to those counties.

In her blog posted on the MCPS website, O’Neill urges the governor to fully fund the reimbursement index.

“To some, $17 million out of our budget may not seem like a lot. But it’s important to remember that 90 percent of the MCPS budget goes toward salaries and benefits—paying the people who deliver and support classroom instruction and provide the services that meet the needs of our students. Any significant cut to our budget means cutting people,” she wrote in her blog.

Maryland lawmakers voted to support fully funding the GCEI.

You can read O’Neill’s blog here.

About Krista Brick

Krista Brick is a multi-media journalist with Montgomery Community Media.

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