State Budget Slashes City School Funds

Editor’s Note: This story has been revised. An earlier version stated incorrectly the amount of state funding cuts to city schools.

UPDATE (3:25 p.m.)—The budget approved by the Maryland General Assembly Monday would result in $48.6 million in cuts to Baltimore City Public Schools if a special session is not called and measures to boost revenues adopted.

Cuts to school funding include $11.5 million in per pupil spending and $22.3 million geographic cost of education index funding and $14.7 million disparity grants, according to figures released by the governor and speaker of the house. 

The cuts would come as part of the so-called “doomsday budget” the Maryland General Assembly passed that includes a total of $512 million in cuts.  

Bebe Verdery, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland’s Education Reform Project, urged Gov. Martin O’Malley to call a special session to approve new revenue measures to avoid cuts to school funding.

“It’s essential the governor call a special session so the revenue package can be enacted. Otherwise there will be drastic cuts in K through 12 education to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars [statewide],” Verdery said. 

She said cuts in education funding for GCEI will affect counties throughout the state regardless of size or wealth.

“The cuts are of such a scale that it will have a heavy impact on all school districts, but within that the large counties like Prince George’s County, Montgomery County and Baltimore City, as well as the poorest counties, will be hit even more,” Verdery said. 

Del. Shawn Z. Tarrant, who represents parts of Charles Village, Hampden and Roland Park, said he was still in shock about the tactics used by the Senate, and said the state could not go forward with the current budget.

"I was stunned. Like I'm in a boxing match and the referee calls action and somebody sucker punches me before [the ref] even gets the words out of his mouth, and I'm lying on the ground with my mouth piece in my hand," Tarrant said. 

He said the budget dispute is all because the Senate wants an extra gaming license in Prince George's County, but that the measure doesn't have the votes in the House of Delegates to pass.

"We were just totally hoodwinked in the process, all over gaming," Tarrant said.

Tarrant predicted the governor will call a special session that will result in lawmakers making tough choices.

"This is one of those things where people will be voting on things they really don't want to be," Tarrant said.

Del. Jill Carter, who represtents parts of Roland Park and Mount Washington, also said a special session will be needed.

But Carter, who opposed slots, blamed the gaming legislation pursued by the Senate for the state's current budget.

"I think that the gaming bill is the reason we're in this situation," Carter said. 

She said that O'Malley, House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller all share the blame for the need to call a special session to fix the state's budget. 

"I'm unhappy that we didn't finish, but very happy we didn't pass the gaming bill," Carter said.   

A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake expressed optimism that the so called “doomsday budget” would not be what the state is working with at the start of the fiscal year on July 1.   

“We fully expect the General Assembly to reconvene to address the revenue measures that will help the state budget, including gaming legislation, after a brief cooling-off period,” Ryan O’Doherty, a spokesman for the mayor, wrote in an email. 

Edie House Foster, a spokeswoman for Baltimore City Public Schools, released a statement that the schools are concerned aboout the state cuts.

“The absence of a final and clear state budget at this juncture is certainly a concern for City Schools, as we move forward with our own budget making process—one that relies heavily on state funding. That said, we hope and expect the legislature to share our sense of urgency and act quickly to pass the budget that held steady funding for education.  Meanwhile, if the district has to find $30 million, schools will suffer,” Foster wrote in an email.

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