Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) previously touted its immersion programs as rigorous academic programs developing global perspectives and marketable language proficiency, with students performing “as well or better than their peers” on standardized tests (in English). However, amid struggles to balance the budget, the county now plans to cut its middle and high school language immersion programs and two immersion programs at boundary elementary schools. Students who planned to move on to middle or high school immersion programs next year learned just last month that won’t be possible.
Cuts
PGCPS administration cites declining enrollment, a shrinking fund balance and increasing costs of doing business as factors leading to a $150 million deficit in the “tough budget year ahead” for 2027. The school administration is looking to cut $100 million from its budget and request an additional $50 million in funding from the county to make up the difference. Programs on the chopping block are two elementary language immersion programs, a middle school immersion program at Greenbelt Middle School and the county’s only high school language immersion. PGCPS will also cut International Baccalaureate programs at the elementary and middle school levels, though continue the high school program; and middle school Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) elective courses, which were optional classes designed to improve college and career readiness and academic success.
Elementary School Cuts
The proposed cuts to language immersion include closing the elementary boundary school immersion programs at Paint Branch Elementary, which has a 50/50 Chinese immersion program currently serving 547 students, and the boundary school 50/50 Spanish immersion program at Capitol Heights Elementary, which currently serves 139 students. Chinese and Spanish, respectively, will be offered as a world language class at those schools instead. Boundary schools are the local neighborhood schools for which students are zoned based on where they live.
Middle School Cut
The district is also proposing to cut its “immersion continuation pathway,” accepting no new students to its program and transitioning it out of Greenbelt Middle School, which currently has 58 students enrolled in Chinese immersion. Rising grades 7 and 8 students currently at Greenbelt Middle will be able to continue as the final cohorts of the program.
High School Cut
In addition, the county’s high school immersion program, which currently has 120 students enrolled, will also be discontinued. That program had offered the continuation of Chinese, Spanish and French at the high school level at Largo High School. Currently enrolled students will be able to continue in the program but no new students will be accepted. World language classes will be offered at boundary high schools, according to a presentation by the Interim Superintendent Shawn Joseph on January 22.
A Tentative Budget
Senior Public Information Specialist Lynn McCawley told the News Review that the interim superintendent’s proposed budget “will move on to become the board’s budget before it is presented to the county ‒ so changes could be made to his proposal for immersion programs during the budget development process.” However, parents who had applied to the impacted immersion programs for the fall had already received notice that their students would not be admitted. One Greenbelt family with a child attending Dora Kennedy French Immersion (DKFI), who had applied to the immersion high school when applications were due in the fall, received a notice from PGCPS’ Chief Academic Officer Judith White on January 23 stating that “after a careful review of enrollment trends over multiple years, we propose transitioning from the Immersion High School Program due to its low enrollment.”
High School Options Reopened
On February 2, PGCPS re-opened the high school specialty program applications exclusively to current grade 8 immersion students so that they have the opportunity to apply to other specialty schools. “Due to recent district-level budget decisions, the Immersion High School Program will not enroll new students beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. Because this update occurred after the initial specialty program application window closed, PGCPS has reopened the application window exclusively for current grade 8 immersion students,” said DKFI Principal James Spence in a message to the school’s grade 8 families on February 2.
PGCPS said the decision to discontinue the programs was due to low enrollment and budget concerns. It “in no way reflects the quality, impact or value of the program,” said White of the high school immersion program. The district hopes to reduce the budget by $2.5 million through cuts in language immersion programs, according to their website’s FAQ on the FY27 budget.
The author has two children who currently attend a PGCPS immersion school that is not directly impacted by these cuts.
