Fund Public Education to Drive the Cecil County Economy

Updated 4/28/17 with current council member contact info and links to CCPS annual reports

Updated 3/10/19 with county executive contact info and updated links

It’s time to reframe the conversation about public education in Cecil County as one about investment–in both the students who are the future of the county and in the county’s economy. In fact, the BEACON group at Salisbury University has quantified just how much Cecil County Public Schools contributes to the Cecil County economy in local jobs and economic activity yet all we ever seem to hear is school funding talked about as a necessary evil.

BEACON dashboard
BEACON dashboard showing CCPS contribution to Cecil County Economy

If you think funding education is expensive, wait a few more years and see just how much not funding it costs the communities of Cecil County.

For over five years a decade the funding for our schools has been a favorite target–for both short-sighted citizens who seem to feel any spending on public education is wasteful as well as county officials who find it easier to yield to this outspoken but relatively small bunch of malcontents than to invite even more constant haranguing from them.

Have the courage to stand up for our schools

I would like to believe that county officials want to do right by our children but they lack the courage to stand up to this angry group and, if those who support adequate public education funding in Cecil County aren’t going to speak up, attend meetings, write emails, and otherwise make our voices heard, maintaining the status quo may be seen as an easier path for officials to take. We need to change that.

We need to make sure the members of the Cecil County Council know that we have and will continue to stand up for the schools. We are tired of the school system having to beg each year just to receive adequate funding. And when I say adequate funding, I’m being generous; Cecil County ranks 21st out of 24 school systems in Maryland In 2019, we’re up to 17th! for education funding per student.

Yes, education is the largest segment of the county’s budget so it’s understandable that the school system is asked the hard questions about the way those funds are spent and the academic return on investment. And CCPS has more than held up its side of the bargain: they have scrimped and saved and found efficiencies in ways they probably never thought possible yet they continue to meet and exceed established metrics for measuring educational success. (Don’t believe me? Here’s a link to the CCPS Annual Report for FY 2018)

Education HAS been doing more with less

In case you’re new to the discussion of Cecil County budgets and the constant battle for school funding, here’s the Cliffs Notes: CCPS is a victim of its own success. This isn’t just one or two difficult years because of the economic downturn; this is over five years a decade of being told to do more with less, which they have done and continue to do but, at a certain point, the lack of funding will show up in the classroom. Larger class sizes, the loss of quality teachers and administrators to other nearby jurisdictions, the reduction of programs–those are just some of the ways we’ll be able to measure the damage the county is doing to public education.

You want to drive the local economy? See to it that your schools are adequately funded

If full funding of our public schools is important to you, please contact the County Executive today as he prepares the budget he will present to the county council on March 29.