Statement from PGTAG Board
Supporting the County Executive’s FY’2015-16 Budget
to Fund PGCPS’ Strategic Plan
April 12, 2015
Prince George's County Association for Talented and Gifted Education
(PGTAG), during its April board meeting, agreed to support County Executive Rushern Baker’s fiscal year 2015-16 budget to fund PGCPS’ strategic plan.
For far too long, our school system has been requesting only the local funding for what it thought it might receive vs. what is really required to improve the quality of PGCPS. This practice of requesting the minimal funding needed to continue with the status quo is called “maintenance of effort.”
Our students deserve more than “maintenance of effort.” This constricted funding stream for our public education system has denied PGCPS the ability to gain momentum on a host of educational priorities critically needed to create and maintain the kind of quality education system that is needed for the children of our county.
We don’t take our decision making—to support funding the budget through the lifting of our local property tax cap—lightly. But the cap is partially to blame for our limited success in the past. The four-decades long cap on property taxes means that we’ve been funding schools at the same percentage of dollars as we were in 1978.
Also, we must acknowledge the fiscal reality of our school funding:
· Montgomery County Schools, for example, receives 35 percent of its funding from the state; 65 percent from its own local county.
· In Prince George’s County, the opposite is true: We receive 65 percent of our school funding from state and 35 percent from local government.
We think it’s time for our local community to invest in the type of public education system our children need. Regardless of whether or not county residents have school-aged children, all citizens benefit equally from a high quality public school system.
Our support for this strategic plan, however, does come with conditions:
o We expect our CEO, school board, and county executive to provide clear, transparent, and timely updates on school progress—specifically as it relates to professional development, programmatic improvements, and increased student performance—based on what this new budget will provide.
o We expect the County Council to revisit and assess property tax rates in 2018-19, when revenue from the local casino are anticipated to become available—a portion of which is expected to be shared with the school system.
We plan to hold our school and local officials accountable. Our children deserve no less.