How do we get MCPS to stop cutting teachers and start cutting the central office?

[Anonymous]

I agree. I don't know why the union doesn't push harder on this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the above poster. If MOCO would stop chasing out businesses due to its business unfriendly climate, you would get a bigger commercial tax base and you wouldn't be facing this problem. Fairfax County was able to afford its world class education system because of the additional commercial tax base and not just relying on residential. Hope they don't turn into MOCO!

Have you looked at the FCPS budget numbers lately?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the salaries or even the overall staffing levels within the central offices of MCPS. But speaking as a university professor with 2 decades of experience inside academia and also in government and private sector positions, salaries of $160k + would be considered generous by both university standards and US federal government standards.

If indeed MCPS has a large staff of administrators making that kind of money, I for one believe they are wildly overpaid by the standards of the marketplace. Remember of course that all these people receive very generous pensions, unlike most of the rest of the US workforce.

Define "very generous", please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the salaries or even the overall staffing levels within the central offices of MCPS. But speaking as a university professor with 2 decades of experience inside academia and also in government and private sector positions, salaries of $160k + would be considered generous by both university standards and US federal government standards.

If indeed MCPS has a large staff of administrators making that kind of money, I for one believe they are wildly overpaid by the standards of the marketplace. Remember of course that all these people receive very generous pensions, unlike most of the rest of the US workforce.

Define "very generous", please?

More generous than the rest of us who work in just about every other sector of the economy, including higher education, and aren't eligible for pensions.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the above poster. If MOCO would stop chasing out businesses due to its business unfriendly climate, you would get a bigger commercial tax base and you wouldn't be facing this problem. Fairfax County was able to afford its world class education system because of the additional commercial tax base and not just relying on residential. Hope they don't turn into MOCO!

10-15 years ago there was no reason why Silver Spring/Wheaton couldn't have become the success story that Arlington is now enjoying. If our County Council hadn't been so idiotic there would be far more balance between the east and west and a much healthier tax base. Montgomery County was too far beyond Tysons to compete with their tech sector growth there but losing the rest to Howard county??? Geez, businesses only went further out to Howard because Montgomery County was so impossible.

The biggest irony is that Leggett's position has always been to hold back commercial development while he scows around on his transportation pet projects. Well, now that Ike has lost all the businesses everyone is commuting out of Montgomery County to go to work and the traffic is getting far worse than if the business had been here with the existing transportation!! I know so many people who are leaving Montgomery County because their jobs are in Howard, DC or VA and the traffic is unbearable. These are people that make a healthy salary and a big loss to the tax base.

MCPS is just as stupid. There is no one in MCPS that is remotely qualified to even understand a 2.3 billion dollar budget yet alone manage it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the salaries or even the overall staffing levels within the central offices of MCPS. But speaking as a university professor with 2 decades of experience inside academia and also in government and private sector positions, salaries of $160k + would be considered generous by both university standards and US federal government standards.

If indeed MCPS has a large staff of administrators making that kind of money, I for one believe they are wildly overpaid by the standards of the marketplace. Remember of course that all these people receive very generous pensions, unlike most of the rest of the US workforce.

Define "very generous", please?

More generous than the rest of us who work in just about every other sector of the economy, including higher education, and aren't eligible for pensions.

Oh it's you again. Hi, disgruntled professor! Let's just say it's a bit different working with students who are paying to be in your class and have a vested interest in the outcome of their education vs. kids who couldn't care less about being in your classroom but will need to pass various standardized tests or the teacher's job could be in jeopardy. Please stop your whining. Or choose to do something different than higher education. You did make that choice of your own free will, right?

[Anonymous]

In Montgomery County can citizens force ballot vote issues like they can in California? Could citizens go around the BOE and put in place a resolution that limiting how far MCPS can grow class sizes? Can they put in place a resolution that increases the % of the budget that is spent on direct instruction to the students? Can the state create a law tied to access to state funds that only schools that hold to a limit on class sizes will receive funding?

I feel like crooks have run off with 2.3 billion dollars and we have to convince the crooks to give it back to the teachers and the students. Crooks tend to not want to give the money back to the victims that they stole from in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I don't know why the union doesn't push harder on this issue.

What are you agreeing with?

[Anonymous]

12:11 I'm not the professor but central office staff are paid significantly more than comparable state and federal agencies. Its one of the back channel problems that MCPS has with the county council. The other county and state agencies are starving while Carver sits high on the hog. Its hurts our ability to get much needed funds for the increasing student population when they turn around to protect themselves while cutting already strained local school teachers and aides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the above poster. If MOCO would stop chasing out businesses due to its business unfriendly climate, you would get a bigger commercial tax base and you wouldn't be facing this problem. Fairfax County was able to afford its world class education system because of the additional commercial tax base and not just relying on residential. Hope they don't turn into MOCO!

Have you looked at the FCPS budget numbers lately?

Yes, I am aware of the looming budget cuts. They built a world-class education system because of their combined residential/commercial tax base. That is definitely threatened by skyrocketing population growth that may not be contributing as much to that tax base as it demands from that tax base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I agree. I don't know why the union doesn't push harder on this issue.


What are you agreeing with?

11:34 Why isn't the union pushing harder to protect the employees at the bottom that have the greatest effect on student outcomes? Why isn't the union fighting this more?

MCPS pulls this nonsense to sway that union that the cuts are OK because they will just not re fill vacancies and will only fire a small number of teachers and aides. For a part-time aide having hours cut is a big deal to the aide and the students that she was serving.

[Anonymous]

central office staff are paid significantly more than comparable state and federal agencies. Its one of the back channel problems that MCPS has with the county council. The other county and state agencies are starving while Carver sits high on the hog. Its hurts our ability to get much needed funds for the increasing student population when they turn around to protect themselves while cutting already strained local school teachers and aides.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know the salaries or even the overall staffing levels within the central offices of MCPS. But speaking as a university professor with 2 decades of experience inside academia and also in government and private sector positions, salaries of $160k + would be considered generous by both university standards and US federal government standards.

If indeed MCPS has a large staff of administrators making that kind of money, I for one believe they are wildly overpaid by the standards of the marketplace. Remember of course that all these people receive very generous pensions, unlike most of the rest of the US workforce.

Define "very generous", please?

More generous than the rest of us who work in just about every other sector of the economy, including higher education, and aren't eligible for pensions.

Oh it's you again. Hi, disgruntled professor! Let's just say it's a bit different working with students who are paying to be in your class and have a vested interest in the outcome of their education vs. kids who couldn't care less about being in your classroom but will need to pass various standardized tests or the teacher's job could be in jeopardy. Please stop your whining. Or choose to do something different than higher education. You did make that choice of your own free will, right?

Please, save the disgruntled teacher thing for some other thread. None of the MCPS central staff are working with children, those who care or otherwise. The point is that the compensation packages for MCPS central staff are wildly inflated, as is the size of the central staff itself. It's a huge bucket of money that should be spent on teaching those children "who couldn't care less about being in your classroom but will need to pass various standardized tests or the teacher's job could be in jeopardy."

BTW I'm thrilled with my career choice. Doesn't quite sound like you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Montgomery County can citizens force ballot vote issues like they can in California? Could citizens go around the BOE and put in place a resolution that limiting how far MCPS can grow class sizes? Can they put in place a resolution that increases the % of the budget that is spent on direct instruction to the students? Can the state create a law tied to access to state funds that only schools that hold to a limit on class sizes will receive funding?

I feel like crooks have run off with 2.3 billion dollars and we have to convince the crooks to give it back to the teachers and the students. Crooks tend to not want to give the money back to the victims that they stole from in the first place.

I've seen state level ballot initiatives before. I'd work on this one. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Central office is OBSCENELY bloated. Practically everyone has a secretary, even low level managers. There's so much bureaucracy that people often literally do nothing all day while they wait for a check mark from someone 3 levels above them. Stereotypical govt employees at their worst.

- within the system