Montgomery County, MD School Spending

Some Facts

WTOP news reports,

Montgomery County executive, Marc Elrich (D) is recommending a 6% property tax rate increase he says is needed to fully fund Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in the upcoming fiscal year.

I asked Claude for some analysis of the school budget. Here are some of its findings:

MCPS operates on a $3.60 billion approved FY26 operating budget — an 8.2% increase from the FY25 approved budget of $3.32 billion — serving 158,614 students across 211 schools. Montgomery County Maryland Real Property Tax Over the past five years, the budget has grown from roughly $2.4 billion to $3.6 billion, a cumulative increase of about 50%.

…The bigger driver isn't raw enrollment growth — it's the staffing ratio. From FY17 to FY25, enrollment grew by 1.6% (about 2,570 students), but staffing grew by 10.2%, adding 2,267 positions. Teacher positions grew 6.2%, counselors by 21.2%, psychologists by 17.8%, social workers by 412.7%, and security by 23.5%.

…How pension and benefit costs have driven spending

This is arguably the fastest-growing pressure. MCPS runs a self-insured Employee Benefits Plan (EBP) — meaning it absorbs claims risk directly rather than buying commercial insurance. EBP expenditures in FY24 were projected to total $625 million for active employees and retirees. Montgomery County Public Schools FY25 saw a $40 million increase in employee benefit costs alone.

…The bottom line is that while enrollment growth adds positions linearly [sic: the growth is nonlinear, see above], pension and retiree healthcare costs grow faster because they compound with both an aging workforce and rising medical costs — and are largely outside the district's direct control.

Union featherbedding pads the staffing at schools, which grows much faster than enrollment. Generous retirement benefits are far beyond teacher contributions. The teachers’ union’s “apple ballot” always wins local elections. Taxpayers are helpless.

Possibly related: Tim Carney writes,

since the COVID lockdowns and the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a youth crime wave has swept Montgomery County’s schoolyards and streets.

Thanks to our friendly teachers’ union, Montgomery County had one of the longest periods of schooling not being in person.

The public school board didn’t open in January. The teachers’ union protested a planned reopening in March, and some grades didn’t reopen until April. Even then, and into the next school year, thousands of students remained “remote.”

…In the 2024-2025 school year, 15% of MoCo students were chronically absent, and only then did the school superintendent suggest that COVID-era caution may be going too far.

…Meanwhile, the state and county embraced the racial wokeness and anti-police attitude that swept left-leaning places in those days.

…the official policy of the county was fewer cops on the beat and less police-community interaction.

And I point to the policy of tolerating fare-jumping at the local subway stop. I have never gotten over my fear of using the subway since being mugged two blocks from there.

What if Montgomery County keeps going on its downnward trend? We have really enjoyed our time in Austin. It’s just farther from our children and grandchildren.