Did public school funding get cut this week? The simple answer is yes but it requires a deeper dive.
The fact is the Worcester County Board of Education asked for $106 million from the Worcester County Com-missioners in its fiscal year 2024 budget, representing a $4.1 million increase over the current year’s budget. The budget was approved by the elected school board and moved to the county level as a request. On Tuesday, the Worcester County Commissioners did not approve the school system’s requested budget, reducing the county’s allocation to $100 million at the maintenance of effort level, which is a state requirement mandating each school system maintain at least the same level of per-pupil funding from the previous year. The county’s approved allocation meets the mandate.
What the school system does with the county’s funding will be interesting to observe, but it was made clear by Board of Education President Todd Ferrante last month it will not impact the pay of educators. The proposed budget includes a union ratified agreement for teachers to receive a step increase as well as a 4% cost of living adjustment. On the pros-pect of the school system’s proposed budget being reduced, Ferrante said, “If they don’t give us enough money … we’ll have to figure out how to do what we can do and do with less. We have to find it somewhere.” It’s clear, however, teacher pay adjustments cannot be touched as
it was negotiated and signed as a contract.
Though this budget process has been unique in recent history, it’s important to keep perspective in mind. This is not the first time the school system’s proposed budget has been reduced or not approved as proposed by the commis-
sioners. It’s also not unusual for school system officials and the commissioners to not be on the same page philosophically. It is, however, one of the more public shows of discourse between the two groups.
It’s our hope moving forward lessons have been learned and procedural chang-es are made next year. We don’t believe the commissioners should be able to make changes to an approved budget
by the Board of Education. The commissioners and school board members are each elected by the people of the county through district boundaries.
However, we support better communication through the crafting process of the school system’s spending plan. A work group made of the members of the school board and commissioners during the budget review process could help alleviate these concerns and heighten con-cerns over transparency. We support
the need for scrutiny but believe there
is a fine line to maintain between transparency and micromanaging.
