The Montgomery County school board unanimously approved legal action against the county Tuesday if its budget is cut any further, ramping up a confrontation between two branches of the Montgomery County government. School officials had been quiet in the weeks since County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) proposed giving schools $137 million less than the board had requested. But after County Council members began saying two weeks ago that they wanted additional cuts in the school budget, school officials unveiled the unusual maneuver.
"It's not what we want to do," said Board of Education President Patricia O'Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase). "It's much more fun to sit around a campfire and sing kumbaya than be in an adversarial position."
The County Council has long set the spending levels for public schools and other public agencies. But Superintendent Jerry D. Weast and the school system's lawyers have argued that state law prohibits the council from cutting any deeper than the county executive's proposal, if the county already is dipping below state minimums for school spending, which it is. The county's lawyers acknowledge there are ambiguities in the law, but they wrote an opinion for the County Council last week saying that it almost certainly would prevail against a legal challenge by the schools.
At issue is $33 million that the council believes could be saved if school employees were to take a week-long furlough. Many county employees are facing furloughs, but Weast has argued that furloughing teachers would have dire educational consequences and has thus far held out against that move. The county cannot dictate how the schools spend the money they are given. By law, that is the role of the school board. The school board has said it would slash other programs if its funding is cut further, and will not institute furloughs. SOURCE: Washington Post
No comments:
Post a Comment