Some perspective on those blaming Hogan for lack of education funding

[Anonymous]

MCPS mismanages its budget all the time. Doesn’t 70% of the budget go towards salaries, pensions and retiree healthcare/benefits.

Let’s do some more experimental stuff. Maybe w more chromebooks and Prometheus boardsx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're wrong on many things:
1) Yes, Hogan has decreased the MCPS budget. He has withheld funds to MoCo and HoCo from the state’s Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) formula, which provides additional state school funding to the school systems where the cost of education is higher.
2) You say that Maryland provides "only" 20% of MCPS's budget. Well, that budget is 2.68 billion, so 20% of that is a huge amount, unless you have a friend who can donate 536 million to Maryland schools.
3) I'm happy if Hogan raises tolls so my kid won't be one of 28 kids in a 1st grade classroom with a teacher and no aide. Education is our future. People should be encouraged to use mass transit.
4) I would be ok with taxes being raised, if my kid's education were to improve. Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Third, Hogan has not increased tolls or taxes.

Correct. Hogan cut tolls. But the tolls were paying for bond service, and the bonds still need to be serviced, so the money has to come from somewhere else. Where has it been coming from? From revenue that would otherwise go towards education?

Are you serious? In every party of budgeting when it isn't going somewhere, it is going somewhere else. If it is going, something else is getting cut. You just need to do your research and look at that specific budget.

I mean in the article it says they need to give county employees raises and don't have anything to give. Looking grim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A good liberal never met a problem that more government spending couldn't fix.

So true. I am a liberal, but all they do is spend more and more and then say whoops. And tax more. Complain more.

Rather, rinse, repeat.

There is so much bloat and so much corruption.

[Anonymous]

Socialist bloody county that is as bogged down in their own bureaucracy as Soviet Union was. Can't believe I immigrated from Eastern Europe to end up in another socialist society! County council is useless for anything but giving themselves a raise...kind of like Congress?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're wrong on many things:
1) Yes, Hogan has decreased the MCPS budget. He has withheld funds to MoCo and HoCo from the state’s Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) formula, which provides additional state school funding to the school systems where the cost of education is higher.
2) You say that Maryland provides "only" 20% of MCPS's budget. Well, that budget is 2.68 billion, so 20% of that is a huge amount, unless you have a friend who can donate 536 million to Maryland schools.
3) I'm happy if Hogan raises tolls so my kid won't be one of 28 kids in a 1st grade classroom with a teacher and no aide. Education is our future. People should be encouraged to use mass transit.
4) I would be ok with taxes being raised, if my kid's education were to improve. Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.

+1

+1 million

[Anonymous]

Hogan won by a landslide and is doing a great job. I am a Dem and I like the tone he is taking with our idiotic elected county officials and board who have no clue how to run a company

Small businesses are failing, town centers are a disaster, condos turned into low rent apartments, so many big businessss won’t touch our land. The Rockville Town Center disaster. The White Flint Disaster. The Pike n Rose disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're wrong on many things:
1) Yes, Hogan has decreased the MCPS budget. He has withheld funds to MoCo and HoCo from the state’s Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) formula, which provides additional state school funding to the school systems where the cost of education is higher.
2) You say that Maryland provides "only" 20% of MCPS's budget. Well, that budget is 2.68 billion, so 20% of that is a huge amount, unless you have a friend who can donate 536 million to Maryland schools.
3) I'm happy if Hogan raises tolls so my kid won't be one of 28 kids in a 1st grade classroom with a teacher and no aide. Education is our future. People should be encouraged to use mass transit.
4) I would be ok with taxes being raised, if my kid's education were to improve. Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.

Oh sweetie, taxes were increased and so were teacher student ratios. Specials were cut and para educators were cut.

And if you think increased toll prices would go back to overpriced Moco budget, I have a bridge to sell ya.

The budget needs an overhaul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Socialist bloody county that is as bogged down in their own bureaucracy as Soviet Union was. Can't believe I immigrated from Eastern Europe to end up in another socialist society! County council is useless for anything but giving themselves a raise...kind of like Congress?!

lol... you could always go back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're wrong on many things:
1) Yes, Hogan has decreased the MCPS budget. He has withheld funds to MoCo and HoCo from the state’s Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) formula, which provides additional state school funding to the school systems where the cost of education is higher.
2) You say that Maryland provides "only" 20% of MCPS's budget. Well, that budget is 2.68 billion, so 20% of that is a huge amount, unless you have a friend who can donate 536 million to Maryland schools.
3) I'm happy if Hogan raises tolls so my kid won't be one of 28 kids in a 1st grade classroom with a teacher and no aide. Education is our future. People should be encouraged to use mass transit.
4) I would be ok with taxes being raised, if my kid's education were to improve. Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.

Taxes are always being raised and I have kids 10 years apart and can assure you education has gotten much worse in MCPS

Poverty has increased 50% in those 10 years so I am guessing a ton of the budget is going towards FARMS, ESOL, and focus schools.

[Anonymous]

Agree that MCPS education has been in a downward slide for at least 10 years;
Part of it is lots of Superintendent turnover (from Weist to Starr to Bowers to Smith in a very short time). Have mixed feelings on Smith to date, but he hasnt been around long enough to know one way or another for sure - MCPS is so big (too big?), and I have to hope he's getting his finger in it now...
Funding has been cut by Hogan, some was put back by our delegates;
Don't think there is so much bloat - in 2008, when things got tough, cuts started at MCPS and every other public agency - it never came back, and yet thousands more kids are in MCPS
Dr Smith has made many cuts - even this year, the 15 OSSI heads became 9, and 6 from central office returned to the schools. There were also cuts in Central Office in ESOL and Spec Ed and Long Range Planning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hogan won by a landslide and is doing a great job. I am a Dem and I like the tone he is taking with our idiotic elected county officials and board who have no clue how to run a company

Small businesses are failing, town centers are a disaster, condos turned into low rent apartments, so many big businessss won’t touch our land. The Rockville Town Center disaster. The White Flint Disaster. The Pike n Rose disaster.

I guess I missed those...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I agree with you. The problem is that MoCo and MCPS will not prioritize funding to increase the number of teachers, provide aides or reduce class size.

Any additional money ALWAYS goes to other priorities such as giving raises not just to teachers but to every other administrator and type of employee throughout the system. The union pays itself first and foremost. The union owns the BOE. One of the many bad things that Starr did back around 2010 was to agree to increase the student:teacher ratio so MCPS could give itself a raise while every other county employee was not getting one. MCPS could have put forward a more modest plan that only provided raises to teachers making below a certain amount but it gave raises to everyone. The 140K administrator got a nice raise. A tech guy or admin staffer doing the exact same job in MCPS as they would be doing for the police, fire or any other county service got a raise when the others didn't. It created anger within the rest of the County Council and areas. It diminished the quality of education. Many teachers didn't even agree with it.

I guarantee you that any money MCPS gets will not go toward ensuring that all schools get improvements. It will go toward year long school in low income areas. It will go toward more raises and increasing central office staff. It will go toward more busses to send kids farther away from their neighbor hoods to achieve diversity. It will do to Discovery to rebuy the horrible curriculum that MCPS already wasted millions on harming 7 years worth of students. It will go toward lawyers to protect MCPS staff from all the lawsuits involving sex abuse and failure to provide special needs services. It will never go back to the tax payers students.

Did the Union pay for all of those ‘Judy Docca’ for school board ads? To keep her on as their (simple) pawn? We voters are such idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Did the Union pay for all of those ‘Judy Docca’ for school board ads? To keep her on as their (simple) pawn? We voters are such idiots.

You can look this up. When you do, get back to us.

Meanwhile, did you contribute to or volunteer for Maria Blauer's campaign?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hogan won by a landslide and is doing a great job. I am a Dem and I like the tone he is taking with our idiotic elected county officials and board who have no clue how to run a company

Small businesses are failing, town centers are a disaster, condos turned into low rent apartments, so many big businessss won’t touch our land. The Rockville Town Center disaster. The White Flint Disaster. The Pike n Rose disaster.

I guess I missed those...?

Give it 5 years.

There will be such an oversupply of these high density housing units. Rents will be too high for businesses to succeed. That’s what has been happening at Rockville Town Center. Crappy parking and high rents for the businesses.

People still want some space and easy parking in the suburbs. Once the newness of Pike and Rose wears off, it’ll end up just like Rockville Town Center. No way people will continue to pay $20 for parking to eat and watch a movie. Cheaper to park in DC and better options.