Education and Culture Committee Meeting - April 27, 2026: FY27 Budget Reviews for MCAEL, KID Museum, Montgomery College, and MCPS
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Education and Culture Committee Meeting - April 27, 2026
The Education and Culture (EC) Committee of the Montgomery County Council met on Monday, April 27, 2026, from approximately 9:49 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. in the 3rd floor Council Hearing Room, Rockville, Maryland. The committee reviewed the FY27 Operating Budget and Capital Improvements Program for four major agenda items: Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) Non-Departmental Account, KID Museum Non-Departmental Account, Montgomery College Operating Budget and amendments to the FY27-32 CIP, and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Operating Budget (continued). Committee members present were Chair Will Jawando, Councilmember Shebra Evans, and Councilmember Kristin Mink.
MCAEL Non-Departmental Account
- Discussion: MCAEL Executive Director Gerard Etienne spoke on behalf of the coalition and partners, urging the committee to reject proposed cuts in the Council President’s budget approach memo. He noted that MCAEL funded 30 programs through 24 organizations in FY26. Enrollment declined in the first half of FY26 due to fear from immigration enforcement and rising costs, but demand remains high: MCAEL received 40 grant applications for FY27 (a 21% increase over last year), requesting a total of $2.35 million (a 25% increase), compared to $1.5 million distributed in FY26. Director of Programs Rudy Jeung presented mid-year data: 3,185 unique learners enrolled in FY26; the latest ACS data shows over 144,000 adult residents with limited English proficiency. The committee heard that reducing MCAEL’s budget would shrink system capacity, reduce classes, and impact hundreds of learners.
- Key Outcome: The committee voted unanimously (without objection) to recommend approval of the FY27 Operating Budget for MCAEL as submitted by the County Executive (same services budget, including the 2.5% inflationary increase), pending full Council action on other budget items.
KID Museum Non-Departmental Account
- Discussion: Founder and Executive Director Cara Lesser testified alongside a student (Mohammed Benmansour), a teacher (Joe Doerrman), and board members (Robbie Brewer, Yamina Leggett-Wells). They emphasized KID Museum’s impact: 84% of middle schoolers report increased STEM confidence; a maker math pilot showed 9 percentage point gains in math scores for underperforming students; and 91% of teachers reported stronger student engagement. KID Museum serves 35,000 people annually through direct programs and reaches 40,000 more through teacher training. Over 60% of students identify as Black or Latino, and over 50% are from under-resourced communities. The nonprofit warned that a funding reduction would be “catastrophic,” undermining its financial model and forcing severe program cuts. Director of Recreation Albornoz noted the synergy between KID Museum and county recreation programs.
- Key Outcome: The committee voted unanimously (without objection) to recommend approval of the FY27 Operating Budget for KID Museum as submitted by the County Executive (same services budget with inflationary increase), pending full Council action on the overall budget reconciliation list.
Montgomery College Operating Budget and CIP Amendments
- Discussion: Senior Legislative Analyst Prouty presented three funding options. Chair Jawando proposed a creative solution: authorize the use of $4.6 million from Montgomery College’s OPEB trust (now 86% funded, with $101 million in assets) to reduce the tax-supported appropriation, and remove the remaining $1.7 million increase above Maintenance of Effort from the Reconciliation List. This would fully fund the College’s requested $6.3 million increase (a 1.3% increase, only the second above-MOE request in five years). The committee also supported restoring $3.625 million for the College’s Information Technology program, but that will remain on the Reconciliation List for full Council consideration.
- Key Outcome: The committee unanimously approved Chair Jawando’s proposal: (1) authorize drawing $4.6 million from the OPEB trust, (2) recommend that the full Council not place the remaining $1.7 million increase on the Reconciliation List, and (3) support the IT restoration of $3.625 million as part of reconciliation.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Operating Budget (Continued)
- Discussion: This was the third of four worksessions. Council staff presented staffing and compensation details: the Board of Education proposes a net decrease of 84.5 FTEs ($13.5 million) and an increase of $189.7 million for compensation (3.25% COLA plus step increases averaging 3.5%). The employee benefit fund (EBP) contribution increases by $40 million, offset by a $20 million reduction in local pension costs. Superintendent Dr. Taylor and staff discussed vacancies (411), involuntary transfers (401), and the high lapse rate ($70 million) as a budget red flag. Councilmember Mink requested a comparison of starting teacher salaries with neighboring jurisdictions; it was noted that MCPS starting salary is $2,000 less than DCPS and below Baltimore City, despite higher cost of living. Councilmember Evans inquired about the shift from Parent Community Coordinators to Family Engagement Specialists in a cluster model, and the impact on family touchpoints. Marcus Jones, Director of School Safety, discussed the elementary security assistant rollout: FY27 budget includes 28 new positions, with a goal of one per school over four years. Councilmember Jawando requested future reports on the cost of Restorative Justice interventions and the impact of expanded security presence.
- Key Outcomes: No vote was taken; the committee will make a funding recommendation at the next worksession on Friday, May 1, 2026. The committee requested additional data: comparison of salaries/benefits with other area school systems, cost analysis of Restorative Justice, and an update on security staff placement.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comment period was held. All testimony was provided by invited agency representatives and stakeholders as part of the agenda items.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Education and Culture Committee. It is April 27th, Monday. And we have three or four. What do we have? Four? Four items. Three. Okay. We have three items. The first, uh, McHale, uh, which we're excited to see the team here. Um, and uh, not a uh good thing is you're not on the reconciliation list, you know. So, but we're just talking about uh the great work that you're doing, anything you want to add, and then uh maybe I'll have council staff just do the her part real quick and then I'll go to you, Mr. Etina. Yes. Thank you, Chair Joonday. Um in our packet, we have an overview of the recommended FY27 increase for the McHale NDA. It's the 2.5 inflationary increase, um bringing the FY27 recommendation to $2,652,000. Um, and just a few things highlighted in the packet. We have um some programmatic highlights on pages two and three, and an overview of the um McHale grants that were requested and awarded on table one on page three. And with that, we can turn it over. Thank you. Sure. Anything you'd like to add as uh you're you're in your second budget here, right? I think. Yes, indeed. Um good morning, thank you. Um Chair Jawando, Councilmember Ming, Councilmember Evans, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. We're always very happy to share some of the great work that we're doing at McHale, and we want to thank you and the council for the ongoing support that we've received over the years. So we very much appreciate it. Um I have a couple of remarks that I would like to share with you, and then we have a presentation where we can share some of our data for uh some more of most recent data. So today I am speaking not only on behalf of McHale, but also on behalf of our coalition partners and the thousands of learners that they serve. And the issue that's on top of mind for all of us is the proposed uh reduction to McHale's budget that uh Council President Fanny Gonzalez has laid out in her budget approach memo. I had the opportunity to speak with the council president last uh Friday, and I completely understand that this budget season is going to be exceedingly difficult. However, I'd like to point out that the proposed cuts in her memo will have a direct and significant impact on the very social safety net organizations that these cuts are supposed to avoid. Um professional developments to ESAW programs throughout the county this fiscal year. McHale funding supported 30 such programs administered by 24 different organizations. These organizations are all social service, community-based, faith-based organizations, and I'm going to read the names uh of these organizations to illustrate the scale of the impact that these potential cuts will have. Anna Brito Foundation, the BRICS Center for Faith in Action, CASA, Catholic Charities, Chinese Culture and Community Service Center, Church of Atonement, Classroom to Community, Covenant Life Church, Ethiopian Community Center, First Church of Silver Spring, Francophone Africans Alliance, Gaysburg Beloved Community Initiative, the George B. Thomas Learning Academy, Germantown Global Connection, Identity, Impact Silver Spring, Islamic Society of Washington Area, Mill Creek Parish United Methodist Church, Project Access, Seneca Creek Community Church, Solutions and Hometown Connections, and St. John the Baptist School. We thank each of these organizations for their caring, compassionate and tireless efforts to teach English and to support our immigrant communities, our friends, our families, and our neighbors, despite increasingly challenging circumstances. In the first half of this fiscal year, these organizations serve 3,185 learners during the same period. McHale expanded professional development opportunities for instructors and program administrators, increased capacity to teach new conversation skills, and entered into new partnerships, including with Montgomery County Public Libraries, as well as a community organizations, organization that is directly supporting individuals impacted by immigration enforcement. We are eager to build on these partnerships in FY27. And to address the issues of instructor recruitment and retention. We are actively working with a consultant who has already examined our data, conducted research, and who will be providing actionable recommendations that we can start implementing in FY27. We continue to ensure that learner and instructive voices and perspectives are taken into account in all our programming through our learner leadership group and our McHale advisory group. We are currently working with a consulting firm to develop our FY27 through FY29 strategic plan, and we do not foresee any changes in our strategic priorities. Also for FY27, we will hold our biannual professional development conference in addition to providing all our regular courses, workshops, and convenings for adult ESOL practitioners.
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