Prince George’s County public schools face a roughly $43 million budget shortfall for next budget year as both enrollment and tax revenue drop.
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Superintendent William Hite is expected to recommend cuts to close the gap when he pitches his fiscal 2013 budget in December.
Fewer students and less tax revenue at both the county and state levels inevitably add up to fewer funds for the county’s schools, according to Matt Stanski, the school system’s chief financial officer.
While grim, the outlook is better than last year, when Hite was faced with making as much as $140 million in cuts.
The smaller gap in funds can be attributed partially to the steep cuts that were made last year, when about 700 teaching positions were eliminated and the school’s budget shrunk by about $13 million. Hite also cut about $4 million from central administration, and another $10 million was cut from the county’s special education budget.
“Because of the amount of cuts we made last year, our cost of doing business is a lot smaller than what it usually is,” Stanski said.
The Prince George’s County Educators Association, the teachers union, lost about 8 percent of its members due the teaching cuts, according to President Kenneth Haines. But the cuts were necessary given the abnormally high ratio of teachers to students, he said.
Haines called the shortfall an improvement, but is still harshly realistic about the upcoming budget debate. Enrollment is expected to shrink by another 1,400 students next school year, meaning more teaching jobs could be on the chopping block.
“This is not warm and fuzzy, make-teachers-feel-good time. You need to know what the numbers are telling you,” Haines said.
Meanwhile, teachers at recent budget hearings pleaded for a raise. The county’s educators have spent the last three years without pay raises.
Haines, who negotiates on behalf of the teachers union, declined to comment on teachers’ salaries.
Derrick Leon Davis, who is scheduled to be sworn to the Prince George’s County Council on Tuesday morning, said it may be time to take a more long-term approach to solving the school system’s budget woes by making plans to consolidate schools and transportation services.
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“The reality is if we have declining enrollment, if we have under-populated schools, we have a bad situation,” Davis said. “We have to learn how to get the maximum effect from all our resources.”
