More News

ANNAPOLIS — The Montgomery County public school system is close to getting a reprieve from the state legislature on a multimillion-dollar penalty it was assessed this month after the local government failed to comply with a mandatory education funding law.

The state's maintenance-of-effort law requires local governments to fund their school systems at least at the level of the previous fiscal year. Governments that fail to do so face a reduction in state aid for their school systems.

On Wednesday, the Senate discussed legislation to eliminate the $23.4 million penalty levied by the state school board against the Montgomery County school system. The penalty was imposed after the Attorney General's Office said an alternative county government payment plan to the school system in fiscal 2010 was illegal.

The bill was scheduled for a vote Thursday, but it was pushed back to today's Senate proceedings.

The legislation still must pass the House before it becomes law. It now goes to the House Ways and Means Committee. If it passes the committee, it goes to the full House for a vote.

The House committee has until April to vote on the maintenance-of-effort bill, even though Sen. Nancy J. King, the lead sponsor, said the legislation must be passed soon.

Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot will begin withholding state aid from the Montgomery County school system March 28, so it is imperative to have a law passed and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) by then, said King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village.

There's a "100 percent chance" the bill would be passed in time, she said.

"There's nobody against it," said King, a former Montgomery County school board member. "We just got to get it done."

In April, the Montgomery County government requested a waiver from the state school board from its maintenance-of-effort requirement because the recession made it difficult to fund the school system. The school board publicly supported the government's request.

In May, the state school board denied the Montgomery government's request. Soon after, the government loaned $79.5 million to the school system through a debt service option — a plan that school leaders supported, given that the loan was only for fiscal 2010.

The following month, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast wrote a letter to state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick questioning whether the county's funding plan was legal. That letter irked County Council members and caused dissension between the county and school system.

A similar bill to King's, proposed by the Montgomery County delegation, was heard Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee.

"It doesn't matter if it comes from the House or the Senate," said Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac, chairman of the county's House Delegation. "The goal is to get this $23 million penalty eliminated for the Montgomery County school system."