CECIL COUNTY — For the third consecutive year, Cecil County Public Schools (CCPS) have received Maintenance of Effort — the state mandated minimum a county is able to give its school system — funding from the county government. As a Cecil County constituent, it is important to understand exactly what MoE is and the effects it can have on both CCPS and Cecil County as a whole.
What is Maintenance of Effort?
To start, MoE is money given to a school system from the school system’s county government. MoE dollars can only be used for operating expenses like salaries, benefits, electric bills, transportation, technology, etc.
The only expenses MoE does not cover are capital projects.
The grand total of MoE is broken down to cost per-student using a snapshot of the school system’s student population on Sept. 30 of the prior year. As of Sept. 30, 2023, CCPS has a total student population of 14,365.33.
CCPS’s current cost per-student is $6,160.78, which means MoE for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) is $88,501,618.
The main initiative of MoE is to ensure that a county’s cost per-student either remains the same or increases. Per-student spending, mandated by Maryland state law, is not permitted to decrease. The only time the grand total of MoE dollars can decrease is if the student population decreases.
For example: in FY23, CCPS had a student population of 14,478.08 with the same $6,160.78 per-student allocation.
With a higher student population, FY23’s grand total of MoE dollars was nearly $700,000 more than FY24 at $89,196,266.
Since FY24’s student population is roughly 112 students lower than FY23 at the same per-student allocation, the total number of MoE dollars set by Maryland State Department of Education has decreased.
What happens if the county funds over Maintenance of Effort?
If a county government decided to fund its school system above MoE and increase the cost per-student allocation, then the following year, the cost per-student allocation in the county will either need to match the increased cost per-student or exceed the increased cost per-student- the cost per-student number can not go back to any lower number from previous years.
For example- If the Cecil County government were to fulfill CCPS’s initial county budget request of $94 million, then Cecil County would need to fund $5.5 million over MoE and raise the cost per-student by $382.86- each student’s allocation would then go from $6,160.78 to $6,543.64.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that regardless of if a county government wants to fund over MoE by $1, or $100 million, they will be thinking long term and if the county’s revenue is in a sustainable position to be able to handle increased funding for the coming years or not.
If a county does not evaluate their spending for the long term and decides to fund over MoE when they cannot afford it, the county may run the risk of a spending deficit which could result in tax hikes within the county because taxes are the highest source of revenue for local governments.
What happens if the county funds under Maintenance of Effort?
If a county attempts to fund under MoE, they will be met with consequences from the state, as this is illegal.
What happens if the county funds its school system at Maintenance of Effort?
In FY23, seven out of the 23 counties in Maryland funded their school systems at MoE – Cecil County being one of them.
Cecil County government officials explained that since CCPS has received an increase of nearly $18 million in funding from the state from FY23 to FY24 because of Blueprint for Maryland- a funding plan that will increase statewide funding for education by $3.8 billion in 10 years- that they can make MoE level funding from the county work.
School officials argue that although the state has increased its funding by nearly $18 million, that money is considered restricted – meaning that it can only be spent on things that the state says CCPS can spend the money on, like expanding English Language Learning programs – which does not help lower class sizes.
School officials said that if they were to be funded above MoE, they would use the additional funds to hire more teachers and alleviate growing class sizes within the county which they speculate will lead to a better education for students within the county.
Officials noted that per $1 million CCPS is short in funding would translate to roughly 15 positions – ranging from teaching positions to administrative positions – needing to be cut to balance the budget.
As of press time, it is unclear if CCPS will need to resort to cutting positions or not.
Are there alternatives to funding schools without increasing Maintenance of Effort?
The only alternatives to investing more money into a school system without increasing MoE is through non-recurring contributions.
The most common non-recurring contributions from a county government to its school system is through large and small capital projects.
Oftentimes, a school system will submit a list of large and small capital projects to the county as part of its budget request. From there, the county government will then pick and choose which projects to fund and at what amount.
In Cecil County, the county government chose to fund 50 percent of all large capital projects and 50 percent of all but one small capital projects, as well as a field house at Perryville High School – a project that CCPS hasn’t requested since 2021.
Another form of non-recurring contributions a county government could make to its school system would be through allocating money specifically to something like technology, textbooks, transportation, etc. to alleviate MoE dollars that would otherwise be used to cover those expenses.
CCPS officials explained that this method of funding from the county would only allow CCPS to balance its budget with MoE dollars- not hire additional staff with the funds since the funds are not promised in subsequent years and could put CCPS in the position to layoff the hires since they were hired with one-time funds.
With MSDE setting MoE based on the history of investments from county governments to their school systems and the gradual introduction of Blueprint for Maryland, county governments are not required to provide additional investments to their school systems.
The Cecil County Council will hold a budget town hall meeting Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 7 p.m. at Elkton High School for county residents to voice their opinions on the FY24 budget.
Cecil Whig Clip
https://www.cecildaily.com/news/explainer-maintenance-of-effort-and-its-impact-on-cecil-countys-schools/article_7a998a09-fb1c-5833-a43a-634bd3a31fc6.html
