Word is coming out of Elkton that the Cecil County Commissioners are planning to “hold the line” on school spending this year. This is great news for those who would like to see lower taxes and fiscal discipline in Cecil County. I sincerely hope that the Commissioners stand strong throughout the budget process and stick to their word.
The state mandated maintenance of effort regulation on local government needs to be re-assessed if not eliminated by the state legislature. This spending requirement institutionalizes government waste and inefficiency. What incentive does the school system have to be fiscally efficient if they know that they will always be funded at a baseline level no matter what? Barring a full-scale revolt by the counties (which is what may be afoot) the maintenance of effort regulation on local government will continue to be rubber stamped by the state legislature and governor. Why? They have embraced the tired mantra that somehow spending more money on something automatically makes it better, for education this is far from the case. See research on this topic here. Another paper focused on the link between resources and output in education for developing countries finds no clear evidence that more money equals better students even there. The developing countries education study can be read here. I highly recommend it.
I’m sure that many readers of this website saw Superintendent Shaffer’s article in the Cecil Whig recently threatening job cuts if the school system was not funded above maintenance of effort this year. I fail to see why the School Board and Superintendent Shaffer see themselves as above current economic conditions. The school system has been funded above maintenance of effort for years and years and years and years. Last year was the first year that their funding request was not rubber stamped and this year will mark the second.
UPDATE 2-2-10: I have a copy of the “maintenance of effort” levels vs. the actual funding levels for CCPS since 1998. CCPS has been funded well over the maintenance of effort level every single year since 1998 with the exception of last year. When I say “funded well over” I mean that basically every year they were funded millions of dollars over the “maintenance of effort” level.
Where did all this extra money go? How is it that county government gave CCPS more money than they should have received for nearly 12 straight years (the records only go back so far), yet for this year’s budget cycle (FY2011) the CCPS is in fiscal free-fall if we fund them to “maintenance of effort”?
I see the efforts of CCPS leadership as nothing more than political posturing. I can find no evidence over the past decade that shows that the school system was under funded, quite the contrary. It seems to me that for all these years that the School Board was receiving extras from county government they should have been getting their financial house in order to be prepared for economic times like these.
What’s more interesting is that from 1998 to 2009 the total county-wide school population only increased by 1785 kids, yet appropriations rose $1598.17 dollars per student and the CCPS budget almost doubled from approx. $39M in 1998 to approx. $70M in 2009. The CCPS budget almost doubled for an approx. 11% increase in student population over 11 years.
