Some county officials and school advocates, often at odds over education funding, say they are not far apart on key education spending issues — as long as teacher pension costs are not shifted from the state to local governments.

Groups like the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) and the Maryland State Education Association — the state’s top teachers union — with sometimes clashing interests, both are working vigorously with legislators to oppose the pension shift to county governments proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and other top officials.

They also agree that there needs to be new clarity on maintenance of effort, a state law that requires per-pupil spending by counties to be at least at the previous year’s level unless they receive a waiver from the state Board of Education.

But the harmony could dissolve quickly if the two sides are left to fight over which absorbs the brunt of the $239 million cost to the counties in the first year alone of a pension cost shift.

Counties and school boards frequently spar over funding. That’s because counties pay a large portion of their school systems’ operating budgets, but the school boards decide where that county money gets spent.

Tight budget times have fueled tensions, and the budgets could become even leaner for counties if a share of pension costs, which have fallen solely to the state, are shifted to the local jurisdictions.

“If there’s a shift, everything goes out the window,” said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D), MACo’s immediate past president.

Taking the penalty

Last year, seven counties chose to cut their per-pupil spending without seeking a state waiver. They opted to take a penalty — forfeiting an increase in state funding. Legislators say they don’t want to see a repeat this year.

“What we need to do is resolve all of these issues that have brought questions of clarity,” said Del. Guy Guzzone (D-Dist. 13) of Columbia, a former Howard County Council member. “I think we’re going to make (it) clear that you do have to apply for that waiver.”

The teachers union, in its blueprint for reform that was released Jan. 30, also calls for the state to require the waivers instead of merely cutting per-pupil spending and absorbing any penalty as a cost of doing business.

The blueprint also calls for the penalty for failing to meet maintenance of effort to be shifted from school boards, where it currently is applied, to county governments.

The General Assembly also should clarify that maintenance of effort must be treated as a funding floor, not a ceiling, the union and others say.

“There are too many definitions of what people think maintenance of effort is,” said Sean Johnson, the teachers union’s managing director of political and legislative affairs.

The teachers union’s blueprint is supported by the Maryland Association of Boards of Education and the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland.

Despite the different missions of counties and school advocates, Ulman said the union’s blueprint isn’t too far removed from his own views.

One additional element of his plan is for counties and school boards to consolidate some of their offices and functions, such as printing services and data systems.

In Howard County, such a consolidation saved $18 million in schools’ funding, 3.9 percent of the county’s $467 million appropriation to its public schools this year.

But the fear of the pension shift quickly reveals divisions between school advocates and counties.

The union plan seeks to prevent any pension shift, if it occurs, from being incorporated into maintenance-of-effort computations. Such a move could easily crowd out spending on other school expenses.

“I worry that we could have 24 different pension systems,” said Del. Anne Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville.

But for Ulman, the situation is clear. Teachers are employees of the school boards, he said, which should, in turn, take on pension costs if they are dumped in the laps of counties.

“If there is a pension shift, it has to impact the structure of maintenance of effort,” Ulman said.

aujifusa@gazette.net