5-15-2025 4:48am

COUNTY BUDGET

Jeff Barto Editor

Baltimore County Blueprint Expense Breaks Into the Billions 3 Years Early, Enrollment Dropping

With a loss of more than 1,000 students in the last two years, Baltimore County Public School Blueprint funding still hits the $1B mark three years early. This proposed FY2026 allocation represents the fifth year in a row the county government has exceeded the funding requirement, based on obsolete State estimates, for the Blueprint by hundreds of millions.

In a well articulated and meticulously substantiated report from Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) Superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers, school leadership shared that BCPS has a tough road ahead as budget decisions are finalized for FY26. In a meeting last week with the Baltimore County Board of Education, Rogers shared that even beyond the historic and unanticipated funding from Baltimore County the school budget gaps are still significant. Although the county government has proposed a 3.5 percent increase in funding for FY26 an almost $43M gap remains.

Rogers reiterated a desire to be very clear about the next steps for the school system as they work to close the gap in an effort to make sure employees and the public know what to expect. Eliminating positions, potential salary reductions from prior negotiations, and supply and materials cuts are all on the table.

While a large portion of this gap is driven by salary increases agreed upon between the school system and union representatives, other costs have skyrocketed in recent years, particularly in non-discretionary categories including:

utility costs
non-public placements
transportation
special education
employee health care and benefits
post-employment benefits

The Baltimore County budget conundrum marks another instance where the costs to implement the Blueprint have gone beyond what lawmakers could have anticipated. Regardless, the schools are required to move forward with the system overhaul while continuing to cut anything considered to be non-essential according to the statewide plan. The consequences for lack of compliance include state funds being withheld.

For FY26 Superintendent Rogers’s cost saving measures include:

reopening union negotiations with 5 bargaining units
eliminating supervisory central office positions
extending a hiring freeze for a non-school-based positions
reducing funding for supplies and materials by almost a quarter

Budget charts from the meeting show a $1.4B allocation from County Executive Klausmeier, with just over one $1B allocated for Blueprint funding, not including debt service and capital projects. This funding amount was not anticipated to be reached until FY29 and is $123M more than the updated state estimates for Blueprint costs in Baltimore County – $883M. As previously covered on Conduit Street, County Executive Klausmeier proposed the county budget in early April. The Baltimore County Council is set to make a final approval of the FY2026 budget on May 22, 2025. The Council can only vote to cut additional items from the proposed budget, they cannot add funding to the proposed budget.