How Come BOE Candidate Stephen Austin Won’t Say What His Employment Is??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
He is polarizing because one side is extremely invested in keeping the Teacher's Union strong by owning the MCPS Board. Austin's side is more concerned with providing a high quality education to all students in MCPS than goose-stepping in line. If you do anything that may take away their power, they fight back as hard as they possibly can. I'm assuming that 80% of the Austin bashers are teachers union reps - the other 20% are just your run of the mill social justice warriors.

Can I call Godwin's Law on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This isn't bullying, and I find it very odd that people are characterizing it as bullying. I'm with the top PP; this is normal stuff for a candidate running for public office. In fact, far worse things have been said about candidates running for public office.

The difference to me is that this is a lowly BOE race, not running for higher office. We've never seen anything like this for a BOE race in the past, at least as far back as I can remember.

It's not like a seat on the BOE is worth it for $$, power, or prestige. You get paid $25k/year, and everyone complains at you all day. My guess is this is why the current at-large member decided not to run again -- she know it would be like this and she didn't need the stress for a $25k/year thankless job (and I dont' blame her).

Looking on DCUM, there have been so many threads about Austin -- one of 15 candidates -- that Jeff even had to lock a few. That just seems way out of hand. I don't see even 1 thread on most of the candidates. What gives? The thread topics tend to be negative towards Austin, so I doubt it's his supporters starting them.

I don't remember anyone in the past running a campaign like Stephen Austin. So that seems like a plausible explanation for it, to me.

+1 His positions and rhetoric have been polarizing. That's fine. He has a right and should express his position, but if those positions are polarizing, then you'd better be ready for dissension and visceral reactions.

Here's his website:
https://stephenaustin4boe.com/

I hardly see anything polarizing on there. I suspect most voters will check out his website, as well as voter guiders like from League of Women Voters. I don't see anything really polarizing there also.

He is polarizing because one side is extremely invested in keeping the Teacher's Union strong by owning the MCPS Board. Austin's side is more concerned with providing a high quality education to all students in MCPS than goose-stepping in line. If you do anything that may take away their power, they fight back as hard as they possibly can. I'm assuming that 80% of the Austin bashers are teachers union reps - the other 20% are just your run of the mill social justice warriors.

"Social justice warrior" being anyone who doesn't support Austin's segregationist inspired bullying campaign, presumably.

+1 Austin and his supporters are polarizing -- "let's lump in every person who doesn't agree with Austin as either union supporters or SJW."

Newsflash: I am neither. I don't agree with some of Austin's positions on the boundary analysis and the way he's handled himself. That's why I won't vote for him. Believe it or not, not everyone who supports a boundary analysis is a sjw. Many of us think the boundary analysis is loooong overdue as we have had our kids (now in mcps for going on 8 years for us) in a constant state of overcrowded schools. We also see through the false narrative that "the #1 factor for boundary is diversity", both in the upcounty boundary changes and a somewhat recent boundary change we experienced. Some of us can parse the data for ourselves and reach our own conclusions and not base our opinions on fear mongering of "excessive busing", whatever that means. But if you want to talk about excessive busing, let's look at the "excessive busing" of the Potomac Glen neighborhood all the way to Churchill when there are at least two HS that are closer to it. Let's talk about how there are currently 30 to 40% of students who are not assigned to their closest schools. Are these students part of the "excessive busing" crowd?

[Anonymous]

The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

Don't understand what that means. Most adults who have been educated in the US understands what that word means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

If he didn't originally know that "neighborhood schools" was a segregationist slogan, then he didn't know much about the history of public schools. Which is not necessarily a qualification for serving on the BoE, but it's true that not everybody knows everything, and people learn (we hope).

But then people told him that it was a segregationist slogan. Did he stop using it? No. Did he defend his continued use of it? Yes. Is it a smear to point this out? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

If he didn't originally know that "neighborhood schools" was a segregationist slogan, then he didn't know much about the history of public schools. Which is not necessarily a qualification for serving on the BoE, but it's true that not everybody knows everything, and people learn (we hope).

But then people told him that it was a segregationist slogan. Did he stop using it? No. Did he defend his continued use of it? Yes. Is it a smear to point this out? No.

I never heard of that being segregationist.

Here's a KIPP school using exactly that term -- in fact their company name is "Neighborhood Schools, Inc'! https://neighborschools.org/
Are they segregationist?

Also, the WXY report commissioned by MCPS for the boundary analysis uses the term as well:

"MCPS strives to create neighborhood schools where students live as close as
possible to school. "

Page 32 of the WXY report on the MCPS website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/MCPS_InterimReport_Full.pdf

Are MCPS and WXY segregationist for using the terms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

If he didn't originally know that "neighborhood schools" was a segregationist slogan, then he didn't know much about the history of public schools. Which is not necessarily a qualification for serving on the BoE, but it's true that not everybody knows everything, and people learn (we hope).

But then people told him that it was a segregationist slogan. Did he stop using it? No. Did he defend his continued use of it? Yes. Is it a smear to point this out? No.

I never heard of that being segregationist.

Here's a KIPP school using exactly that term -- in fact their company name is "Neighborhood Schools, Inc'! https://neighborschools.org/
Are they segregationist?

Also, the WXY report commissioned by MCPS for the boundary analysis uses the term as well:

"MCPS strives to create neighborhood schools where students live as close as
possible to school. "

Page 32 of the WXY report on the MCPS website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/MCPS_InterimReport_Full.pdf

Are MCPS and WXY segregationist for using the terms?

Coincidentally, that's exactly what Steve Austin said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

If he didn't originally know that "neighborhood schools" was a segregationist slogan, then he didn't know much about the history of public schools. Which is not necessarily a qualification for serving on the BoE, but it's true that not everybody knows everything, and people learn (we hope).

But then people told him that it was a segregationist slogan. Did he stop using it? No. Did he defend his continued use of it? Yes. Is it a smear to point this out? No.

I never heard of that being segregationist.

Here's a KIPP school using exactly that term -- in fact their company name is "Neighborhood Schools, Inc'! https://neighborschools.org/
Are they segregationist?

Also, the WXY report commissioned by MCPS for the boundary analysis uses the term as well:

"MCPS strives to create neighborhood schools where students live as close as
possible to school. "

Page 32 of the WXY report on the MCPS website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/MCPS_InterimReport_Full.pdf

Are MCPS and WXY segregationist for using the terms?

Charter Schools are segregationist by design yes. Often along economic, rather than racial lines, but the point is a special school so your special little Larla doesn't have to go to normal school with the full range of your community. There's also a certain of irony in both KIPP (who explicitly draw don't draw from specific neighborhoods) and Austin (whose campaign is about fixing in stone specific boundaries that very often do NOT involve going to the school closest to you) claiming the mantle of neighborhood schools. Neither actually support the idea in principle. That's consistent with the history of the term although; where segregationists found segregated neighborhoods they championed "neighborhood schools" where they didn't they talking about "school choice" and charter schools. There's no principle beyond making sure that their kids get the lion share of the benefits of the public education system and other kids don't. MCPS (and consequently WXY) has also been a historically very segregated system that has to appease a faction of parents who demand that that system stay in place; it's utterly unsurprising that they're use the language of segregation to describe that system.

I was bused as a kid for economic diversity reasons, from my all white, middle class neighborhood to a poorer, less white neighborhood that was further away that any MCPS student is going to be travelling no matter what the BOE does. As an adult, I look back and realize what a positive experience that was for me and I can look at the data that shows that it improved achievement for poorer kids in that county. When I cast my vote, it'll be to, as much as possible, dismantle segregation in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sign issue is stupid. Illegal signs for candidates happens every election cycle, I imagine more so if you are new to it. I find it comical that this particular election cycle, this particular race, people are complaining about it. If this is your biggest complaint in life, get over it, because things are pretty good foe you.

I don't think Austin intends to be what others label segregationist, he just hasn't been around long enough to understand the history of the language. And yes, some of his followers are over the edge of appropriate, but from what I have seen, that is not him. Penalizing him for being new and having low class followers doesn't feel right.

And the smear from the far left (which I usually count myself a member of), including a former BOE member, a current state senator, a current state delegate, and many, many others, is well beyond acceptable. I may vote for him in protest of their behavior.

If he didn't originally know that "neighborhood schools" was a segregationist slogan, then he didn't know much about the history of public schools. Which is not necessarily a qualification for serving on the BoE, but it's true that not everybody knows everything, and people learn (we hope).

But then people told him that it was a segregationist slogan. Did he stop using it? No. Did he defend his continued use of it? Yes. Is it a smear to point this out? No.

I never heard of that being segregationist.

Here's a KIPP school using exactly that term -- in fact their company name is "Neighborhood Schools, Inc'! https://neighborschools.org/
Are they segregationist?

Also, the WXY report commissioned by MCPS for the boundary analysis uses the term as well:

"MCPS strives to create neighborhood schools where students live as close as
possible to school. "

Page 32 of the WXY report on the MCPS website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/publicinfo/Boundary_Analysis/interim-report/MCPS_InterimReport_Full.pdf

Are MCPS and WXY segregationist for using the terms?

Coincidentally, that's exactly what Steve Austin said.

So, Austin, BOE and WXY are saying the same thing as far as "neighborhood schools" is concerned. So, what's his beef about "neighborhood schools"?

[Anonymous]

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT STEVE AUSTIN SAID TO DEFEND HIS CONTINUED USE OF THE SLOGAN 'NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS'.

Capital letters for emphasis, not shouting.

[Anonymous]

Stephen Austin can talk all he wants about neighborhood schools. But, by his own admission, he has never done anything for MCPS, in his neighborhood or in any other. He wants to keep the value up on his $685,700 house in an area where the median home value is more the $800,000. Fine. Be up front about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT STEVE AUSTIN SAID TO DEFEND HIS CONTINUED USE OF THE SLOGAN 'NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS'.

Capital letters for emphasis, not shouting.

It's not segregationist to use the term "neighborhood schools" any more than it is to say neighborhood playground, or neighborhood church. It's just another attempt for he Teacher's Union folks and Social Justice Warriors to try and label the candidate they disagree with (and are scared to death of) a racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stephen Austin can talk all he wants about neighborhood schools. But, by his own admission, he has never done anything for MCPS, in his neighborhood or in any other. He wants to keep the value up on his $685,700 house in an area where the median home value is more the $800,000. Fine. Be up front about it.

You guys are rabid if you are looking up his address and house values. I don't see this being done for any of the other 14 candidates, nor should it be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stephen Austin can talk all he wants about neighborhood schools. But, by his own admission, he has never done anything for MCPS, in his neighborhood or in any other. He wants to keep the value up on his $685,700 house in an area where the median home value is more the $800,000. Fine. Be up front about it.

You guys are rabid if you are looking up his address and house values. I don't see this being done for any of the other 14 candidates, nor should it be.

It's public record. Go ahead and look it up for the other 14 candidates, if you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stephen Austin can talk all he wants about neighborhood schools. But, by his own admission, he has never done anything for MCPS, in his neighborhood or in any other. He wants to keep the value up on his $685,700 house in an area where the median home value is more the $800,000. Fine. Be up front about it.

You guys are rabid if you are looking up his address and house values. I don't see this being done for any of the other 14 candidates, nor should it be.

It's public record. Go ahead and look it up for the other 14 candidates, if you want.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone posted his address and other personal info here. Some of his opponents are brutal and I wouldn't put it past them.