How do we end Montgomery County socialism?

[Anonymous]

Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

The main reason the county has a AAA rating is because it has an economic resource base that is fully independent of the county government. The workforce is highly educated, the regional economy is strong and generally considered recession proof. All of these factors provide comfort that the default risk is low, even during an economic shock. The fiscal performance of the county government on the other hand was admonished due to debt service being a high percentage of spending and an expectation that spending will increase faster than revenues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

The main reason the county has a AAA rating is because it has an economic resource base that is fully independent of the county government. The workforce is highly educated, the regional economy is strong and generally considered recession proof. All of these factors provide comfort that the default risk is low, even during an economic shock. The fiscal performance of the county government on the other hand was admonished due to debt service being a high percentage of spending and an expectation that spending will increase faster than revenues.

Well there's that. But also they were warned about continually diverting pension funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a strange thread ... It reminds me of watching cable news ... just a bunch of shouting heads and aphorisms and little spoon-size bits of actual news.

I've lived all over MoCo ... Damascus, Silver Spring, Potomac and Chevy Chase ... and been happy living here, and I'm a moderate/liberal Dem who works for a Fortune 500 company.

I'll admit I'm not steeped in local politics, and appreciate the bits of argument about actual issues, whether its public transportation, tax rates, affordable housing or other topics ... but the hyperbolic "it's all going to hell" rhetoric just sounds like bar stool philosophy.

I used to be right there with you but when the MCPS BOE started talking changing policies and ordering studies that hinted at busing, I started paying attention to the BOE, the CC, and the CE and am mortified by some of their priorities. Our proximity to DC and NoVA means that no matter how bad our politicians are, MoCo will probably always be a decent place to live. But quality of life and our ranking among other DC metro counties continues to fall.

MCPS has been busing for decades. Maybe you didn't notice?

They've done a little around the edges. But in 2018/19 there was a big push for countywide busing. Thankfully the 2021 BOE doesn't seem as interested. But we'll keep an eye on them.

"especially" means pushing for county wide busing? That's not how I read it, but ok.

Thankfully that's not how the 2021 BOE read it either. But to deny than the 2018/19 BOE was gunning for busing is disingenuous. Pro-busers would actually say "We don't want busing. We just want schools to be better balanced demographically and if kids have to attend schools farther from home, that's OK." This is a BOE member Dixon paraphrase BTW.

"further away" <> "countywide busing". It may, however, mean adjacent clusters.

We have that now, pre-the word "especially". Look at the Churchill and Wootton cluster maps.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04602map.pdf

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234map.pdf

Do you know what countywide means?

And so you agree that "countywide" busing is happening now? Some of those kids in Churchill cluster are being "bused" to Churchill rather than the closest school.

OK so you don't know what it means. You seem to have it confused with cross-county busing. No worries. I'll educate you. Countywide means throughout the country. Busing kids to adjacent clusters will, more often than not, mean busing kids to schools farther from home. Back in 2018 the BOE altered the boundary policy to promote the demographics/diversity factor above the other three factors and also allowed MCPS to rezone kids to schools in adjacent clusters. The pro-busers who pushed for these changes wanted to see them done COUNTYWIDE, not just in a few corners of the county.

And you pro-busers can keep trying to sell existing busing but no one is buying. Busing is a specific thing, the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools. Actually, I take that back. There are a few cases of busing where MCPS is sending neighborhoods to schools in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools like the Rio island in the Wootton map you linked. As for the Churchill map, it's a circle. Seems like a very good, rational boundary.

All of that aside, the boundary analysis clearly shows that people don't want their kids bused anywhere. They are very happy in their current schools. And if they do have to be moved because of overcrowding, they want to be moved to schools closer to home, not farther. They also said that diversity isn't very important to them. And that makes sense. Most people aren't obsessed with race-balancing as much as white progressives and white progressives make up a tiny minority of MCPS parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

The main reason the county has a AAA rating is because it has an economic resource base that is fully independent of the county government. The workforce is highly educated, the regional economy is strong and generally considered recession proof. All of these factors provide comfort that the default risk is low, even during an economic shock. The fiscal performance of the county government on the other hand was admonished due to debt service being a high percentage of spending and an expectation that spending will increase faster than revenues.

Well there's that. But also they were warned about continually diverting pension funds.

Not pension funds. OPEB. Other post employment benefits for retirees. There was a GASB rule put in place about 15 years ago requiring governments to prefund health benefits the way they prefund pensions. Right now most local governments are pay-as-you-go. But it's not sustainable. And it's not fair to taxpayers. MoCo isn't keeping up with its prefunding obligations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

The main reason the county has a AAA rating is because it has an economic resource base that is fully independent of the county government. The workforce is highly educated, the regional economy is strong and generally considered recession proof. All of these factors provide comfort that the default risk is low, even during an economic shock. The fiscal performance of the county government on the other hand was admonished due to debt service being a high percentage of spending and an expectation that spending will increase faster than revenues.

Well there's that. But also they were warned about continually diverting pension funds.

Not pension funds. OPEB. Other post employment benefits for retirees. There was a GASB rule put in place about 15 years ago requiring governments to prefund health benefits the way they prefund pensions. Right now most local governments are pay-as-you-go. But it's not sustainable. And it's not fair to taxpayers. MoCo isn't keeping up with its prefunding obligations.

The Council in particular has been told what it can do to restructure spending, but it doesn't want to do it. At least not this Council. They all care about their pet projects too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OK so you don't know what it means. You seem to have it confused with cross-county busing. No worries. I'll educate you. Countywide means throughout the country. Busing kids to adjacent clusters will, more often than not, mean busing kids to schools farther from home. Back in 2018 the BOE altered the boundary policy to promote the demographics/diversity factor above the other three factors and also allowed MCPS to rezone kids to schools in adjacent clusters. The pro-busers who pushed for these changes wanted to see them done COUNTYWIDE, not just in a few corners of the county.

And you pro-busers can keep trying to sell existing busing but no one is buying. Busing is a specific thing, the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools. Actually, I take that back. There are a few cases of busing where MCPS is sending neighborhoods to schools in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools like the Rio island in the Wootton map you linked. As for the Churchill map, it's a circle. Seems like a very good, rational boundary.

All of that aside, the boundary analysis clearly shows that people don't want their kids bused anywhere. They are very happy in their current schools. And if they do have to be moved because of overcrowding, they want to be moved to schools closer to home, not farther. They also said that diversity isn't very important to them. And that makes sense. Most people aren't obsessed with race-balancing as much as white progressives and white progressives make up a tiny minority of MCPS parents.

This person has a lot of time on their hands, including at odd hours of the day and night, to post on multiple fora on an anonymous internet message board.^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is such a strange thread ... It reminds me of watching cable news ... just a bunch of shouting heads and aphorisms and little spoon-size bits of actual news.

I've lived all over MoCo ... Damascus, Silver Spring, Potomac and Chevy Chase ... and been happy living here, and I'm a moderate/liberal Dem who works for a Fortune 500 company.

I'll admit I'm not steeped in local politics, and appreciate the bits of argument about actual issues, whether its public transportation, tax rates, affordable housing or other topics ... but the hyperbolic "it's all going to hell" rhetoric just sounds like bar stool philosophy.

I used to be right there with you but when the MCPS BOE started talking changing policies and ordering studies that hinted at busing, I started paying attention to the BOE, the CC, and the CE and am mortified by some of their priorities. Our proximity to DC and NoVA means that no matter how bad our politicians are, MoCo will probably always be a decent place to live. But quality of life and our ranking among other DC metro counties continues to fall.

MCPS has been busing for decades. Maybe you didn't notice?

They've done a little around the edges. But in 2018/19 there was a big push for countywide busing. Thankfully the 2021 BOE doesn't seem as interested. But we'll keep an eye on them.

"especially" means pushing for county wide busing? That's not how I read it, but ok.

Thankfully that's not how the 2021 BOE read it either. But to deny than the 2018/19 BOE was gunning for busing is disingenuous. Pro-busers would actually say "We don't want busing. We just want schools to be better balanced demographically and if kids have to attend schools farther from home, that's OK." This is a BOE member Dixon paraphrase BTW.

"further away" <> "countywide busing". It may, however, mean adjacent clusters.

We have that now, pre-the word "especially". Look at the Churchill and Wootton cluster maps.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04602map.pdf

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/04234map.pdf

Do you know what countywide means?

And so you agree that "countywide" busing is happening now? Some of those kids in Churchill cluster are being "bused" to Churchill rather than the closest school.

OK so you don't know what it means. You seem to have it confused with cross-county busing. No worries. I'll educate you. Countywide means throughout the country. Busing kids to adjacent clusters will, more often than not, mean busing kids to schools farther from home. Back in 2018 the BOE altered the boundary policy to promote the demographics/diversity factor above the other three factors and also allowed MCPS to rezone kids to schools in adjacent clusters. The pro-busers who pushed for these changes wanted to see them done COUNTYWIDE, not just in a few corners of the county.

And you pro-busers can keep trying to sell existing busing but no one is buying. Busing is a specific thing, the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools. Actually, I take that back. There are a few cases of busing where MCPS is sending neighborhoods to schools in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools like the Rio island in the Wootton map you linked. As for the Churchill map, it's a circle. Seems like a very good, rational boundary.

All of that aside, the boundary analysis clearly shows that people don't want their kids bused anywhere. They are very happy in their current schools. And if they do have to be moved because of overcrowding, they want to be moved to schools closer to home, not farther. They also said that diversity isn't very important to them. And that makes sense. Most people aren't obsessed with race-balancing as much as white progressives and white progressives make up a tiny minority of MCPS parents.

You are correct, from what a strict definition of what busing means. MCPS does not do that.

But take a look at the Gaithersburg HS cluster map and tell me that's not designed in the "spirit of busing"

The intentionally want those kids up near Damascus to be bussed down to Gaithersburg in order to increase the diversity of the school. That cluster map makes no sense. Those kdis spend 45-60 minutes on a bus each way, when there are much closer high schools.

It may not technically be "bussing" because the school system uses a cluster system to assign high schools. But its certainly gerrymandering of the cluster boundaries which results in kids being bussed to farther away high schools to meeting certain program goals.

Call it what it is: bussing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao.

The county was given a stern warning recently that its AAA rating was threatened.

The main reason the county has a AAA rating is because it has an economic resource base that is fully independent of the county government. The workforce is highly educated, the regional economy is strong and generally considered recession proof. All of these factors provide comfort that the default risk is low, even during an economic shock. The fiscal performance of the county government on the other hand was admonished due to debt service being a high percentage of spending and an expectation that spending will increase faster than revenues.

Well there's that. But also they were warned about continually diverting pension funds.

Not pension funds. OPEB. Other post employment benefits for retirees. There was a GASB rule put in place about 15 years ago requiring governments to prefund health benefits the way they prefund pensions. Right now most local governments are pay-as-you-go. But it's not sustainable. And it's not fair to taxpayers. MoCo isn't keeping up with its prefunding obligations.

The Council in particular has been told what it can do to restructure spending, but it doesn't want to do it. At least not this Council. They all care about their pet projects too much.

It’s the height of irresponsibility and it’s absurd to me that out of this one of them is going to run for executive on a “change” platform. Takes a lot of chutzpah to spend 12 years behaving fiscally irresponsibly and now claim that everyone else needs to change. Except for the recent additions, the current executive and nearly every member of the council opposed Leggett’s drastic budget cuts which ironically now provide credit agencies comfort that our government has the capability to do again in the future. Not this group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OK so you don't know what it means. You seem to have it confused with cross-county busing. No worries. I'll educate you. Countywide means throughout the country. Busing kids to adjacent clusters will, more often than not, mean busing kids to schools farther from home. Back in 2018 the BOE altered the boundary policy to promote the demographics/diversity factor above the other three factors and also allowed MCPS to rezone kids to schools in adjacent clusters. The pro-busers who pushed for these changes wanted to see them done COUNTYWIDE, not just in a few corners of the county.

And you pro-busers can keep trying to sell existing busing but no one is buying. Busing is a specific thing, the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools. Actually, I take that back. There are a few cases of busing where MCPS is sending neighborhoods to schools in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools like the Rio island in the Wootton map you linked. As for the Churchill map, it's a circle. Seems like a very good, rational boundary.

All of that aside, the boundary analysis clearly shows that people don't want their kids bused anywhere. They are very happy in their current schools. And if they do have to be moved because of overcrowding, they want to be moved to schools closer to home, not farther. They also said that diversity isn't very important to them. And that makes sense. Most people aren't obsessed with race-balancing as much as white progressives and white progressives make up a tiny minority of MCPS parents.

This person has a lot of time on their hands, including at odd hours of the day and night, to post on multiple fora on an anonymous internet message board.^^^

They're right though, so I appreciate their efforts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OK so you don't know what it means. You seem to have it confused with cross-county busing. No worries. I'll educate you. Countywide means throughout the country. Busing kids to adjacent clusters will, more often than not, mean busing kids to schools farther from home. Back in 2018 the BOE altered the boundary policy to promote the demographics/diversity factor above the other three factors and also allowed MCPS to rezone kids to schools in adjacent clusters. The pro-busers who pushed for these changes wanted to see them done COUNTYWIDE, not just in a few corners of the county.

And you pro-busers can keep trying to sell existing busing but no one is buying. Busing is a specific thing, the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools. Actually, I take that back. There are a few cases of busing where MCPS is sending neighborhoods to schools in an effort to diversify the racial make-up of schools like the Rio island in the Wootton map you linked. As for the Churchill map, it's a circle. Seems like a very good, rational boundary.

All of that aside, the boundary analysis clearly shows that people don't want their kids bused anywhere. They are very happy in their current schools. And if they do have to be moved because of overcrowding, they want to be moved to schools closer to home, not farther. They also said that diversity isn't very important to them. And that makes sense. Most people aren't obsessed with race-balancing as much as white progressives and white progressives make up a tiny minority of MCPS parents.

This person has a lot of time on their hands, including at odd hours of the day and night, to post on multiple fora on an anonymous internet message board.^^^

They're right though, so I appreciate their efforts.

It's not that they are right in their opinion, they are just reporting basic, publicly available, and factual information.

[Anonymous]

To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

If we changed our electoral system from a closed party primary to a top 2 primary, it would make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

You can't end something that hasn't started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To end Montgomery County socialism, you need to get people in Montgomery County to stop voting for socialists, which would require having people in Montgomery County be not supportive of socialism.

You can't end something that hasn't started.

Ugh you all are missing the big picture. Stop arguing over whether it's socialism or not; whatever it's called, it sucks. It's not "socialism" that's the problem, it's the whole Moco Democratic echo chamber machine that's stagnating the county's growth prospects.

If you want to end what we have right now, vote for new politicians at the next election, not the incumbents.

“It’s like, what policies could we put in place so we have negative [business growth]?” Blair said. “There’s no way to squash the entrepreneurial spirit in Montgomery County, but somehow we did.”