The Prince George’s County Board of Education on Feb. 26 adopted a $3 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 that does not outline a clear path for the continuation of language immersion programs like the Chinese track at Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park.
However, board members rejected a controversial Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) proposal to end the Paint Branch program and phase out the Chinese tracks at the schools that Paint Branch feeds its immersion students into—Greenbelt Middle School and Largo High School.
Instead, the budget, which the board submitted to County Executive Aisha Braveboy on Feb. 27, diverts $1.925 million, originally targeted for AI-powered school security cameras, to academic programs, including language immersion, International Baccalaureate (IB) and AVID college-prep tracks.
Combined, those three programs were slated for $7.8 million in cuts in Interim School Superintendent Shawn Joseph’s proposed operating budget.
“It’s not enough to save the affected programs,” said Alexandra Tyukavina, a Paint Branch parent who has helped organize opposition to PGCPS plans to cut or phase out Chinese immersion tracks from public schools.
She added: “This is not the outcome we were hoping for, but we appreciate the board hearing our concerns and we are ready to continue advocating at the county level for more funding,”
Tyukavina called the board’s decision to divert proposed funding for AI surveillance into academic programs “a step in the right direction.”
The board’s move was a response to an impassioned community campaign that included parents of Paint Branch students and those whose children are enrolled in Spanish and French immersion programs throughout the county.
The proposed cuts were part of an effort by Joseph to shave $150 million from the operating budget. This comes during a year when the county is facing a budget gap of at least $58.3 million and is unlikely to fund public schools above the legal minimum mandated by the state.
At the Feb. 26 meeting, Joseph, who drew boos from a meeting room packed with parents, educators and students dressed in red, said it is inequitable to devote county resources to high-cost immersion programs at some schools but not all.
“This is not about choosing between excellence and equity,” Joseph said. “It’s about how we build excellence for every child.”
He called immersion, magnet, IB and AVID programs “strong,” adding, “but they serve a limited number of students relative to our total student enrollment. When excellence is structured in selected paths, we must ask, ‘What about the many?’”
Joseph added: “Equity isn’t subtraction, it’s design. And we are in the process of redesigning.”
Once Bravebody considers the BOE budget, she will submit it to the Prince George’s County Council, which will schedule public hearings on it in April and May. The council will decide on a funding amount and approve the budget before sending it back to BOE to reconcile any differences between the plan it submitted and the one the council approved.