Fairfax Creates Online Budget Tool for Cost Cutting Suggestions

The Montgomery County Public Schools budget is put together behind closed doors, even the Board of Education members are not part of the budget meetings.  Yes, Maryland law calls on Boards of Education to actually set the local public school budget, but here in Montgomery County our Board of Education can not be bothered to spend their time on such mundane matters.

Take a look at what is going on over in Fairfax County Public Schools.  In that jurisdiction they have made available an online system to gather suggestions from the community.  Granted the choices have been pre-selected, but it is possible to eliminate the deficit and not impact classrooms.

Budget Proposal Tool is an online way for stakeholders to provide their recommendations for how to address the projected deficit that FCPS is facing in FY 2017. FCPS is gathering proposals for two different deficit amounts:  $50 million and $75 million. The shortfall contains uncertainty because there are costs and funding that are not determined until later in the budget process.

 http://www.fcps.edu/news/fy2017/budget-tool.shtml