Maryland School Districts Continue to Fight for Funding

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Montgomery County residents rallied for school construction funds at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis last Thursday. County Executive Isiah Leggett, Superintendent Joshua P. Starr, and other county and school leaders gathered with about 200 parents, students and other members of the community to fight for House Bill 1323, which would direct money toward aging and overcrowded school buildings.

Del. Anne R. Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville, chairwoman of Montgomery’s House delegation, proposed a bill that would establish the Supplemental Public School Construction Matching Fund Program, reported The Gazette. The bill would make it so that counties with a triple-A bond rating and school systems with at least 100,000 students would be eligible for a portion of up to $20 million each year to be used towards school construction projects or project debt.

Elected leaders in Montgomery County have complained for years that the school system accounts for 17 percent of the state’s student enrollment but has received about 11 percent of recent state construction funding, The Washington Post reported. The school system now ranks as Maryland’s largest, with 151,300 students after an enrollment surge of 14,000 students since 2007. That number is expected to continue to rise in coming years.

Leaders hope that banning together will help make a difference in the outcome of the bill; however, the week before the rally, Leggett told The Washington Post that it may take more than one year to secure passage of the bill.

Del. Heather R. Mizeur, a gubernatorial candidate, said that the push for more school money from the state is a three-county effort that also includes Prince George’s and Baltimore counties. When Leggett announced his plan to request funding back in October, he made it clear that Montgomery County expects support from Baltimore City after the county served as a major factor in the Baltimore school system receiving funding.

Montgomery County would use the funding for a proposed $1.55 billion capital improvement budget that would begin in July. The money would supplement the county’s share of regular annual state contributions for school construction. It would support bonds of up to $750 million for 56 construction projects that would add space to the crowded schools.