Prince George’s keeps Chinese immersion programs funded for another year

Prince George’s County Public Schools reversed course and kept Chinese immersion alive at Paint Branch Elementary School, Greenbelt Middle School and Largo High School after months of parent pressure, public meetings and lobbying from College Park officials. The district said it found enough money to fully sustain the program for the 2026-2027 school year by shifting funds away from planned AI, professional development and innovation work.

The decision ended, for now, a budget fight that had put the county’s only elementary Chinese immersion program in jeopardy. In January, PGCPS had proposed replacing Paint Branch’s immersion track with a Chinese world-language class taught mainly in English, while also planning to phase out the middle- and high-school pathways by stopping admission of new sixth- and ninth-graders.

That earlier proposal threatened a pipeline that has run for years through the county. Paint Branch began Chinese language instruction in 2011 and full immersion in 2014, serving students in a 50-50 Mandarin-English model where math and science are taught in Mandarin. Greenbelt Middle had 58 students enrolled in Chinese immersion when cuts were first proposed, and Largo High had 120 students in the continuation pathway. At Paint Branch, the program had also become a defining part of a Title I school of about 500 students.

The budget stakes were real. PGCPS has said its FY27 structural budget gap is about $150 million, and earlier budget documents showed Chinese immersion cost about $1.9 million in 2024-25, including $1.2 million at Paint Branch, $525,000 at Greenbelt Middle, $169,000 at Largo High and $10,000 in administration. The district said budget decisions are still being finalized for June, with the new fiscal year starting July 1.

The backlash was immediate and organized. More than 100 community members attended a Feb. 3 virtual PTA meeting to push back against the cuts, and College Park City Council voted to send a letter urging the county to keep funding the program. Families described the immersion track as a rare opportunity and a close-knit community that linked College Park, Greenbelt and Largo through one language pathway.

PGCPS said the reversal was possible because it reallocated money while the Board of Education-led Strategic Realignment Workgroup continues a longer-range review of the budget. The district also said immersion programs help students become bilingual, biliterate and bicultural, and can lead to the Maryland State Seal of Biliteracy.

For now, the decision protects a program that many families saw as a test case for how Prince George’s will handle specialty offerings under pressure. It also raises the larger question of whether other county programs facing cuts or restructuring will draw the same level of scrutiny, and whether that scrutiny will force more reversals.