First the release:
Following a 9:30 A.M. appearance (yesterday) by Wicomico County Executive Richard M. Pollitt, Jr. and Director of Finance Patricia Petersen before the Maryland State Board of Education in Baltimore, the Board voted 8-to-4 in favor of granting a waiver on the county’s Maintenance of Effort requirement for education funding. The Wicomico County Board of Education will now receive an additional $1.5 Million in state funds.
Upon receiving the news of the positive vote, Mr. Pollitt said, “Against all odds, we were able to persuade the Board that Wicomico County would not be able to provide its required share of funding to our K-12 school children in next year’s budget. I suggested to them that they could mitigate the impact of county cuts somewhat by granting the waiver. We are delighted that the State Board agreed and that our school program will receive the extra funding.”
Of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City, only Wicomico and Montgomery counties sought the MOE waiver.
But the long-term answer isn’t going to begging hat in hand to the state because as you may recall the waiver was denied last year – luckily the BoE “found” the money to keep itself running with its full budget. Instead, we need to adopt a two-pronged solution to addressing this problem long-term.
One part would be to minimize the budget where possible, starting with lopping off a top-heavy administration. Perhaps the idea of lengthening the school day but shortening the school week so fewer bus trips are required is worth exploring. And I don’t think increasing the class size is a bad idea, either. Why not see where private schools succeed while public schools fail?
But the second part of the solution lies in the state of Maryland. Someone needs to stand up to the court which dictated the funding formula to our state (and led to the Thornton Commission law) and ask the plaintiffs (a group which included ACORN) to prove that more money equals a better result. Put them on the defensive because their “stunning victory” is burying the average taxpayer.
The problem with having to deal with Maintenance of Effort (as I understand it) is that education spending can NEVER go down – the amount of money required is equal to the previous year’s. In cases where funding for the next year is dependent on the spending for this one, nine times out of ten (and maybe even 99 of 100) the agency or bureau will spend money at the end of the fiscal year on wasteful items just for the sake of spending it and not losing its allocation.
As we’ve proven with this recession, throwing money at a problem does little to solve it but instead discourages innovative thinking. Yes, Wicomico County dodged a bullet this time but the long-term solution is to disarm those who are robbing the taxpayers blind.