The MCPS Board of Education received $30 million less from the Montgomery County Government than the school system’s requested budget of $3.3 billion. Despite receiving $147 million more than in 2024, board members insisted last June that it isn’t enough to fund everything.

“This is not a budget that makes me happy at all,” board member Shebra Evans said. “There are no winners.”

Cuts have been made across the county, including the controversial choice to shut down the Montgomery Virtual Academy (MVA). The outrage triggered by this decision brought attention to the new budget. While only 800 students were a part of the MVA, broader changes are being felt throughout the county. One of these is the increase of class sizes by one student.

In most classes, the increase is not noticeable. However, courses in STEM and health are struggling to include all students.

“We have enough materials for everybody, it’s just the space,” chemistry teacher Michael Bauer said. “There’s not enough space for everybody to do [experiments].”

Students in harder courses also say that they have become even more difficult due to the larger classes.

“People can’t get the help they need because we have so many students and it’s hard for the teacher to get to everyone,” junior Ben Auerbach said.

Adversely, smaller courses that do not have enough students are no longer available. Several classes at WJ have been cut, including Latin American history and advanced Italian courses like AP Italian.

“I have been impacted because I have to go to the library every day and study Italian on my own without a teacher,” junior Olivia Fioravanti said.

Increasing inflation nationwide over the past few years has strained the resources of many school districts. The problem is compounded by the fact that the federal funding provided to support schools during the pandemic known as ESSER has run out. Costs previously covered by federal funds must again be accounted for in the budget. This explains why students have to pay for summer school and Chromebook replacements moving forward.

The only two departments that received additional funding were the Special Education department and the Community Schools program. The county also affirmed that two-year negotiated salary agreements between staff and MCPS would remain.

The new budget has led to tough decisions countywide. Some cutbacks such as the MVA have sparked anger, but most have gone unnoticed.

“I think it’s fair. I don’t know their money situation,” Fioravanti said. “It hasn’t been that big of a deal. I mean it was sad that my language was cut, but it’s not a very popular language so I understand why it was cut.”

Compared with the lack of funding, the reductions have been minimal. No new programs or initiatives have been started, but all school services and programs are still available.

“We have made the best decisions that we could make with what we have,” board member Brenda Wolff said.