In 2015, County Executive Rushern Baker, in cooperation with the Prince George's County Council passed a controversial increase of property tax rate that is now being challenged in court by two homeowners in the county asviolating the County Charter (TRIM), which requires approval of voters in advance.
As reported publicly elsewhere, County Executive Baker says the increase is necessary to improve county school performance. In January 2015, however, the General Assembly's Department of Legislative Services (DLS) reported that Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) spends nearly the same per pupil as Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), $15,171 and $15,553 respectively, yet MCPS is ranked #1 in the state in student performance and PGCPS is ranked #23. Money alone will not solve the problems with the county schools. There are structural problems within PGCPS administration that must be addressed. Some of the these problems were highlighted in a 2014 General Assembly audit of PGCPS finances that exposed repeated failures by school administrators, not teachers, to properly manage expenditures, resulting in millions of dollars in wasted county and state funds annually. The examples of waste identified in the report include former employees paid after they stopped working, duplicate payroll checks issued to employees, the fleet of school buses operating at only 48% efficiency, and poor accountability for over $100 million in contracts with private vendors.
Are Prince George's Public Schools Underfunded?
According to recent reports, to justify raising property taxes, local government officials claim that massive taxes increases on residents is needed to ensure the Prince George's County Public Schools System (PGCPS) is adequately funded and competitive with neighboring jurisdictions. However, a 2015 report by the General Assembly's Department of Legislative Services (DLS) found that Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties already spend nearly the same amount per pupil, $15,171 and $15,553 respectively, yet Montgomery County is ranked #1 in terms of student performance and Prince George’s County is ranked #23. The school system that spends the second most per student is Baltimore City at $16,740 per pupil but their student performance is ranked #24 -- the lowest in the entire state! [A recent"Project Baltimore" report on May 17, 2017 by Fox45 TV, stated that in 50% of the City high schools, not a single student was able to pass the minimum proficiency test in Math and English] This clearly demonstrates that increased per pupil spending does not equate to higher student performance but that there are other issues that are contributing to the poor performance of PGCPS students.
Bradley Heard in Prince George's Urbanist (April 9, 2015) analyzed school funding in Prince George's County with other jurisdictions in the area, and in a comparable district elsewhere. The result was clearly that County residents are over-taxed and under-served by a low-performing school system that will NOT be fixed or improved by "more money".
What is the REAL Problem with Prince George's County Public Schools?
There are serious structural problems within PGCPS administration, some of which were highlighted in a 2014 General Assembly audit of PGCPS finances. In that audit was exposed repeated failures by school administrators, not teachers, to properly manage expenditures, resulting in millions of dollars in wasted county and state funds annually. The examples of waste identifed in the report includ former employees paid after they stopped working, duplicate payroll checks issued to employees, the fleet of school buses operating at only 48% efficiency, and poor accountability for over $100 milion in contracts with private vendors. A recent article in the Washington Post found that in PGCPS, 299 staff members were on leave for misconduct as of March 8, and there had been a total of 636 misconduct cases so far for the 2016-2017. In Montgomery County, less than 20 staff were on leave for misconduct. This high-level of "misconduct" suspensions is evidence that out-of-touch administration and top-down control that works against a healthy learning environment at the classroom level. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]