Posted on 01/27/25
| News Source: FOX45
Is Baltimore County Public Schools intentionally omitting important information about the upcoming budget in its messaging to taxpayers? One government watchdog says the district is not giving the public the full picture.
Baltimore County Public Schools, earlier this month, issued a news release to the school community. It outlines Superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers’ proposed 2026 operating budget. The release contains important information for taxpayers, parents and students. But it’s the information not contained in the release that caught Project Baltimore’s attention.
“This is disingenuous, to say the least,” said David Williams with the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “They're not giving taxpayers the full picture of what the increase in education spending will be.”
A school district’s budget is comprised of several parts. The overall budget, every dollar spent by the school system, is called the operating budget. The two largest expenditures are typically the general fund and capital fund budgets. The general fund pays teachers, buys material – it’s the money used to educate students. The capital budget mostly funds school construction projects. All of it is taxpayer dollars. With this in mind, let’s look at the news release.
The headline is clear, Dr. Rogers is recommending a total operating budget of $2.98 billion. She explains how next year’s general fund budget proposal is $126.4 million more than this year’s - a 6.5% increase. But that is only for the general fund budget. Dr. Rogers makes no mention of her proposed increase to the total operating budget. Project Baltimore found the proposed operating budget contains a whopping 21.7% increase from this year.
“They are filtering this information to present a rosier scenario of what the increase is going to be,” explained Williams.
This is how the numbers break down. This year, BCPS’ total operating budget is $2.4 billion. Next year’s proposal is $2.98 billion. That’s a $530 million increase, which is nearly 22%. And most of that $530 million is going to the capital budget.
Project Baltimore inspected the full 181-page Budget Book found on BCPS’s website, which details how BCPS is asking for an additional 21.7% in funding next year. But how many people read budget books? Busy taxpayers rely on their public officials to brief them on the highlights
And Rogers does not mention the $530 million proposed increase in the community news release, or during her two recent budget presentations - one to the public and the other to the school board. Why doesn’t she mention it?
“It adds to the cynicism that people have with their elected and non-elected officials,” said Williams. “This is a problem.”
Project Baltimore sent the district an email, last week, asking why “in BCPS’ news release and in Dr. Rogers’ budget presentation, she did not tell taxpayers the entire story” regarding the budget.
Project Baltimore received this reply, “Dr. Rogers will hold her monthly press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 28, and you are welcome to ask her your questions there.”
Fox45 News will attend Tuesday’s press event and share Dr. Rogers’ response.
“The county, the state, all the districts are facing severe financial issues and there has to be 100% transparency,” Williams told Project Baltimore. “They should have put the full fiscal picture of education spending in the press release and made it easy and accessible for people to see.”