Maryland’s largest district mulls fewer staffing roles to address budget deficit

More than 400 positions across Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) could disappear under a proposal the state’s Board of Education will consider June 4.

“The proposed cuts come as MCPS faces a reported $36 million budget shortfall, despite what officials describe as record overall funding for the upcoming fiscal year,” reported the local ABC affiliate.

The district, which ranks as one of the largest nationwide, enrolled about 155,500 students in the 2025-26 school year.

“Among the positions under consideration are counselors, social workers and family engagement staff,” the ABC affiliate wrote. “Those roles have drawn the most concern from parents and school staff, who said they are already stretched thin in addressing student behavioral and mental health needs.”

Some of these roles were funded through federal aid after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the district.

“The budget debate is also reviving scrutiny of how MCPS has managed spending in recent years,” journalists noted, citing an inspector general report where more than $1 million in spending “exceeded procurement limits without required Board of Education approval.”

However, MCPS defended its fiscal policies and blamed “rising labor costs, debt service, and other long-term obligations contributing to structural budget pressure, even as total funding continues to increase.”

‘Parents have every reason to be concerned’

The district recently drew attention over internal documents explaining “Characteristics of Anti-bias/Antiracist Curriculum” for children starting in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“This internal guidance from Montgomery County Public Schools looks and sounds a lot like Critical Race Theory, despite repeated assurances to parents nationwide that CRT is not in K-12 schools,” said Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives of the parental rights group Defending Education.

“Parents have every reason to be concerned that lessons framed around ‘resistance to and liberation from white supremacy’ and that ask students to ‘challenge the current social order’ risk dividing students and indoctrinating them into far-left ideology rather than upholding the American ideal that individuals are judged by their character and achievements, not the color of their skin.”

The district was also involved in the 2026 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, where parents had not been allowed to opt out their students from curriculum discussing LGBT lifestyles.

However, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 against the district.

“We have long recognized the rights of parents to direct ‘the religious upbringing’ of their children,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. “And this is not merely a right to teach religion in the confines of one’s own home. Rather, it extends to the choices that parents wish to make for their children outside the home.”