Furloughs to come

Teacher furloughs, that is. Couple that with a wage freeze and it looks like MCPS teachers are in for a pay decrease. I do find it kind of interesting how the state budgets seem to lag the rest of the economy. After all, the economy has actually been growing for six months, and the states are just now getting slammed by smaller revenues.

Can't say I'm thrilled but I'm happy that the county council is taking a stand. The following seems to be the key:

“Years of spending without regard for sustainability coupled with a global economic meltdown got us into this situation. Since 2006, a new County Executive working with this Council has steadily decreased the growth in the spending. This year we will actually spend less than we did last year. Going forward, we must insure that spending is sustainable over the short and long term,” continued Elrich.

I'm not sure I completely understand why there should be a big "to do" every year over the budget. If there were a list of pre-recongnized cuts that were initiated were the county to experience a short-fall in revenues in any given year, we could all just go about our business rather than yelling and screaming and lobbying. Something tells me the quote above is lip-service, though. Sure hope I'm wrong.

Now we'll just have to wait and see how the Montgomery County School Board decides to proceed. The Parents' Coalition seems to think this is all one big waste.