Got the MD Board of Education absentee ballot today. Who will be least likely to raise taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Steve Solomon and Stephen Austin are moderates who want to make our funds achieve more. BOE not responsible for taxes but many BOE members have a socialist ideology. I'd recommend people who want a nonpartisan and efficient BOE who uses our money wisely to vote for Stephen Austin for At large and Steve Solomon for district 4. Apple Ballot tends to support socialist types.

More than likely, Austin's stance on addressing over crowding by not looking at adjacent clusters will cause tax increases. How else is MCPS going to pay for adding new additions or building new schools because he doesn't over boundaries to be changed in an over crowded cluster? Also, at a time when MCPS can least afford it, he is a part of that lawsuit against MCPS.

Having "investment" experience doesn't mean you understand how budgets work in a school district. Two separate things.

I'm betting he's against tax increases, though. I haven't heard how he plans on addressing over crowded clusters without increasing the budget or not redrawing boundaries with adjacent clusters.

I will NOT vote for Austin or anyone who is firmly against changes to school boundaries. In the decades that I have lived in this county, there have been few changes to school boundaries, even though the county has grown tremendously. I'm sorry if you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more to be in X school boundary, but common sense should have told you that eventually, those boundaries would need to change and things may not always be the same...at least that's how it works in other places. The only people I know who are supporting Austin are those who moved so their child could go to a certain cluster.
And they better get ready to have their taxes raised because MCPS doesn't have the budget to address all the overcrowding without redrawing cluster boundaries. Taxes may go up anyways because part of MCPS's budget is now paying for the lawsuit that Austin and his supporters are part of.

I'm curious what Austin and his supporters think should happen when Crown HS is built. Should no one get assigned to the new school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Steve Solomon and Stephen Austin are moderates who want to make our funds achieve more. BOE not responsible for taxes but many BOE members have a socialist ideology. I'd recommend people who want a nonpartisan and efficient BOE who uses our money wisely to vote for Stephen Austin for At large and Steve Solomon for district 4. Apple Ballot tends to support socialist types.

More than likely, Austin's stance on addressing over crowding by not looking at adjacent clusters will cause tax increases. How else is MCPS going to pay for adding new additions or building new schools because he doesn't over boundaries to be changed in an over crowded cluster? Also, at a time when MCPS can least afford it, he is a part of that lawsuit against MCPS.

Having "investment" experience doesn't mean you understand how budgets work in a school district. Two separate things.

I'm betting he's against tax increases, though. I haven't heard how he plans on addressing over crowded clusters without increasing the budget or not redrawing boundaries with adjacent clusters.

I will NOT vote for Austin or anyone who is firmly against changes to school boundaries. In the decades that I have lived in this county, there have been few changes to school boundaries, even though the county has grown tremendously. I'm sorry if you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more to be in X school boundary, but common sense should have told you that eventually, those boundaries would need to change and things may not always be the same...at least that's how it works in other places. The only people I know who are supporting Austin are those who moved so their child could go to a certain cluster.

And they better get ready to have their taxes raised because MCPS doesn't have the budget to address all the overcrowding without redrawing cluster boundaries. Taxes may go up anyways because part of MCPS's budget is now paying for the lawsuit that Austin and his supporters are part of.

I'm curious what Austin and his supporters think should happen when Crown HS is built. Should no one get assigned to the new school?

[Anonymous]

I think the idea is that it's ok to have a boundary study if there's a new school building, but the factors in the boundary study should be:

1. property values

[Anonymous]

Austin is for fiscal accountability and community voice in decision making. He wants excellent education for all. This is possible still being fiscally responsible by more closely finding how money is spent and data informed outcomes. He will listen to the voices of communities of parents, teachers, and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Austin is for fiscal accountability and community voice in decision making. He wants excellent education for all. This is possible still being fiscally responsible by more closely finding how money is spent and data informed outcomes. He will listen to the voices of communities of parents, teachers, and students.

Everyone says that they're for those things.

Meanwhile he's done a pretty lousy job, so far, of listening to the voices of parents, teachers, and students who disagree with him. He never volunteered for anything MCPS-related before running for a seat on the BoE. And if he were successful in opposing boundary changes, then either kids would unnecessarily remain in overcrowded schools, or MCPS would unnecessarily spend hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily building new schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is that it's ok to have a boundary study if there's a new school building, but the factors in the boundary study should be:

1. property values

Also: 2. Status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is that it's ok to have a boundary study if there's a new school building, but the factors in the boundary study should be:

1. property values

Also: 2. Status quo.

+1 they go hand in hand.

Austin seems to not want to listen anyone who disagrees with him. Look what happened in his FB group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Austin is for fiscal accountability and community voice in decision making. He wants excellent education for all. This is possible still being fiscally responsible by more closely finding how money is spent and data informed outcomes. He will listen to the voices of communities of parents, teachers, and students.

Please explain how he will create " excellent education for all" in terms of overcrowded schools?

He doesn't want to look at adjacent clusters when redrawing boundaries, which means we have to build more. So, how does he think MCPS will afford to address over crowded schools with the limited budget? And of course now they have to also spend time and money on dealing with the lawsuit that *he* in involved in.

Please explain Austin's plan for how he will address over crowding in our schools? And also, please explain why he doesn't want neighborhood schools, but rather the status quo? Let's recall that some 30 to 40% of students do not attend their closest school.

[Anonymous]

The Board of Education cannot raise your taxes. They will of course ask for more money every year because1- everybody wants a pay raise the next year and 2 - thousands of more students come to MCPS every year - thousands.

The County Council is responsible for taxes, and no matter what nut-job Robin Ficker would like you to believe, they have all already committed to no new taxes next year and no raising taxes next year.

Get ready for cuts a lot of pain everywhere. For schools it's going to be worse for every school, because we will get more students than usual because privates will have people leaving who can no longer afford it, that's what happened in 2008, and because we already have horrible overcrowding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Board of Education cannot raise your taxes. They will of course ask for more money every year because1- everybody wants a pay raise the next year and 2 - thousands of more students come to MCPS every year - thousands.

The County Council is responsible for taxes, and no matter what nut-job Robin Ficker would like you to believe, they have all already committed to no new taxes next year and no raising taxes next year.

Get ready for cuts a lot of pain everywhere. For schools it's going to be worse for every school, because we will get more students than usual because privates will have people leaving who can no longer afford it, that's what happened in 2008, and because we already have horrible overcrowding.

Why does MoCo have such horrible overcrowding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Board of Education cannot raise your taxes. They will of course ask for more money every year because1- everybody wants a pay raise the next year and 2 - thousands of more students come to MCPS every year - thousands.

The County Council is responsible for taxes, and no matter what nut-job Robin Ficker would like you to believe, they have all already committed to no new taxes next year and no raising taxes next year.

Get ready for cuts a lot of pain everywhere. For schools it's going to be worse for every school, because we will get more students than usual because privates will have people leaving who can no longer afford it, that's what happened in 2008, and because we already have horrible overcrowding.

Why does MoCo have such horrible overcrowding?

Because in many places, enrollment exceeds capacity, and MCPS hasn't undertaken any boundary adjustments to reassign kids to nearby schools that are under capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Board of Education cannot raise your taxes. They will of course ask for more money every year because1- everybody wants a pay raise the next year and 2 - thousands of more students come to MCPS every year - thousands.

The County Council is responsible for taxes, and no matter what nut-job Robin Ficker would like you to believe, they have all already committed to no new taxes next year and no raising taxes next year.

Get ready for cuts a lot of pain everywhere. For schools it's going to be worse for every school, because we will get more students than usual because privates will have people leaving who can no longer afford it, that's what happened in 2008, and because we already have horrible overcrowding.

Why does MoCo have such horrible overcrowding?

Because in many places, enrollment exceeds capacity, and MCPS hasn't undertaken any boundary adjustments to reassign kids to nearby schools that are under capacity.

In what areas are enrollments exceeding capacity and why are they seeing increased enrollment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Board of Education cannot raise your taxes. They will of course ask for more money every year because1- everybody wants a pay raise the next year and 2 - thousands of more students come to MCPS every year - thousands.

The County Council is responsible for taxes, and no matter what nut-job Robin Ficker would like you to believe, they have all already committed to no new taxes next year and no raising taxes next year.

Get ready for cuts a lot of pain everywhere. For schools it's going to be worse for every school, because we will get more students than usual because privates will have people leaving who can no longer afford it, that's what happened in 2008, and because we already have horrible overcrowding.

Why does MoCo have such horrible overcrowding?

Because in many places, enrollment exceeds capacity, and MCPS hasn't undertaken any boundary adjustments to reassign kids to nearby schools that are under capacity.

In what areas are enrollments exceeding capacity and why are they seeing increased enrollment?

Maps here, slightly out of date: https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-notes-take-a-look-at-the-mcps-school-crowding-heat-maps/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Austin is for fiscal accountability and community voice in decision making. He wants excellent education for all. This is possible still being fiscally responsible by more closely finding how money is spent and data informed outcomes. He will listen to the voices of communities of parents, teachers, and students.

Please explain how he will create " excellent education for all" in terms of overcrowded schools?

He doesn't want to look at adjacent clusters when redrawing boundaries, which means we have to build more. So, how does he think MCPS will afford to address over crowded schools with the limited budget? And of course now they have to also spend time and money on dealing with the lawsuit that *he* in involved in.

Please explain Austin's plan for how he will address over crowding in our schools? And also, please explain why he doesn't want neighborhood schools, but rather the status quo? Let's recall that some 30 to 40% of students do not attend their closest school.

Austin posted this on Twitter today:

"Not many students are actually eligible to be moved for capacity if we stick to adjacencies. I’ve been saying this all along, but here’s the data summary on my numbers:"

https://twitter.com/Stephen_Austin_/status/1262020682516508672

Based on his computations, derived from the WXY report, moving students to adjacent schools won't solve the overcrowding issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Austin is for fiscal accountability and community voice in decision making. He wants excellent education for all. This is possible still being fiscally responsible by more closely finding how money is spent and data informed outcomes. He will listen to the voices of communities of parents, teachers, and students.

Please explain how he will create " excellent education for all" in terms of overcrowded schools?

He doesn't want to look at adjacent clusters when redrawing boundaries, which means we have to build more. So, how does he think MCPS will afford to address over crowded schools with the limited budget? And of course now they have to also spend time and money on dealing with the lawsuit that *he* in involved in.

Please explain Austin's plan for how he will address over crowding in our schools? And also, please explain why he doesn't want neighborhood schools, but rather the status quo? Let's recall that some 30 to 40% of students do not attend their closest school.

Austin posted this on Twitter today:

"Not many students are actually eligible to be moved for capacity if we stick to adjacencies. I’ve been saying this all along, but here’s the data summary on my numbers:"

https://twitter.com/Stephen_Austin_/status/1262020682516508672

Based on his computations, derived from the WXY report, moving students to adjacent schools won't solve the overcrowding issue.

Isn't that sweet? Steve Austin is using data from the WXY report he opposed. I guess it's turned out to be useful after all! How about that?

It's a weak argument, anyway. Just because boundary changes wouldn't ameliorate all overcrowding problems, doesn't mean we shouldn't do it where it would.