Maryland’s largest school district has spent nearly $1.8 million on legal fees to fight two pending cases, according to a recent financial report. Those fees are investments, Montgomery County Public Schools said earlier this year — “investments in ensuring that our school system operates within the bounds of the law, ethically, and always in the best interest of our students and staff,” communications director Christopher Cram said.
So far in fiscal year 2024, MCPS has spent $1,801,886 on fees, up 147.04 percent from the same period in fiscal year 2023. Two of the largest bills that MCPS incurred came from Wilmer Hale and Jackson Lewis, firms defending the school district from a challenge to the district’s no-parental-opt-out policy and investigating the promotion of a former principal despite multiple reports of sexual harassment against him, respectively.
“Legal expenses are a necessary part of Montgomery County Public Schools’ budget,” Board of Education communications coordinator Christie Ann Scott told local news. But MCPS had the opportunity to allow parents to opt out of radical gender and sexuality curriculum. MCPS also had the chance to fire the principal when staff members first started to disclose his sexual advances, instead of waiting to launch a sex-pest investigation when the media finally reported his wrongdoings.
Although to a school district with a more than $3 billion budget, $2 million might seem negligible, the district could have allocated money to programs that help students or teachers, instead of spending big to thwart parental rights and cover up its misconduct.