March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 48 F

Schuh floats $5 million to keep school’s healthcare fund afloat

Steve Schuh
Steve Schuh, Anne Arundel County Executive

Continuing with his commitment to ensuring a stronger educational system in Anne Arundel County, County Executive Steve Schuh announced today a $5 million plan to keep Anne Arundel County Public School’s healthcare benefits fund solvent, avoiding possible teacher furloughs between now and June.  

“As we work with the school system and the State of Maryland to address the structural deficit in AACPS’ healthcare benefits fund, this investment will ensure the fund can keep paying claims and ensure the AACPS can avoid teacher furloughs during the current fiscal year, which ends July 1st,” said Schuh. “We committed last June to doing what we could to assist the school system if needed, and this is the next piece in a multi-step plan to ensure we can fix the school healthcare funding crisis once and for all.”

“We knew a year ago that restoring structural stability to our healthcare fund would be a complex process,” Board of Education President Stacy Korbelak said. “We did not get here on our own, nor can we fix this issue alone. In addition to our successful efforts to renegotiate our contract with our insurance provider, we need and value the persistent collaboration between the school system, our unions, the County Executive, and the County Council to ensure a healthy self-insured fund going forward.”

“This is not a place in which any of us wanted to find ourselves, but it is unfortunately the place where we are,” Schools Superintendent Dr. George Arlotto said. “We have scrimped and saved money throughout the year to try to be able to keep our healthcare fund solvent through June. Despite those efforts, it now appears we will not be able to do so. We appreciate the County Executive fulfilling his promise to work with us and bridge the gap if necessary.”

Last year, Schuh and the school system requested – and the Maryland State Department of Education and the County Council approved –  a plan to invest $10 million in non-recurring funds in FY2017 to help ensure the school system’s healthcare fund remained solvent.

The plan also involved both the County and AACPS agreeing treat various one-time costs designated outside Maryland’s Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Requirement, a practice routinely used by other jurisdictions around the State. The Maryland State Board of Education approved Anne Arundel County’s MOE waiver in April 2016, and the County Council approved the plan in its final budget adoption in June 2016.

The County and AACPS are currently working with the State to enact a multi-year plan to address the healthcare fund crisis in the FY 2018 and FY 2019 budgets.

The County Executive’s $5 million fund transfer legislation is expected to be submitted to the County Council in May.

Previous Article

The Arc recognizes exemplary community members

Next Article

Baysox seeking nominees to be honored on Military Night in July

You might be interested in …