Increased class sizes for next year

[Anonymous]

Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

I think they will if they get a lot of constituent pressure to do so. But that’s a big if and requires MCPS to mobilize parents — and trust is so low I don’t know that that could happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

Federal covid money ran out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

Federal covid money ran out.

There was no covid money in 2000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

Adjusted for inflation, MoCo spent about $5k more per student in 2000 than we do today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

So what good is throwing even more money at MCPS if the problem is mismanagement of funds and staff? Wouldn’t the additional money also be mismanaged?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re officially only adding one student per class so doesn’t sound like a lot.
My neighbor teaches 8th grade Spanish though and says she already got 36 kids in one of her classes. That’s easily 10 kids to many imo.

My kids had 33 kids in their kindergarten classes. 3 years apart so not an outlier. 4th grader had 36 kids in math this year.

1 teacher or 2? If 1 that’s crazy for early elem. Mine went to
A focus school and only had 14 kids in her K class.

That’s the point. Those not in Focus or Title I schools have had 19-25 students with one teacher.

19-25, yes. But 33?

1 teacher with a rotating cast of volunteers and student teachers part of the day. One kid had a very strong teacher and the other didn’t. They had very different kindergarten experiences!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

Adjusted for inflation, MoCo spent about $5k more per student in 2000 than we do today.

Is that directly on students or does it include cost centers like pensions?

To answer the PP directly, we are just in a different educational landscape than we were 20 years ago. NCLB introduced time-consuming and expensive testing requirements. Demographics have changed, and there are more kids with significant educational needs. Folks like to lay that solely at the feet of new immigrants but it's not just that - other diagnoses are at an all-time high and parents are requesting increasingly bespoke accomodations. Income inequality is also record-high, and the shift to gig work and needs-based scheduling means that families that might have been lower middle-class 20 years ago are now just low income.

All of this comes out in the classroom, and it means we need more resources to teach the same number of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

Adjusted for inflation, MoCo spent about $5k more per student in 2000 than we do today.

Is that directly on students or does it include cost centers like pensions?

To answer the PP directly, we are just in a different educational landscape than we were 20 years ago. NCLB introduced time-consuming and expensive testing requirements. Demographics have changed, and there are more kids with significant educational needs. Folks like to lay that solely at the feet of new immigrants but it's not just that - other diagnoses are at an all-time high and parents are requesting increasingly bespoke accomodations. Income inequality is also record-high, and the shift to gig work and needs-based scheduling means that families that might have been lower middle-class 20 years ago are now just low income.

All of this comes out in the classroom, and it means we need more resources to teach the same number of kids.

The total budget for MCPS has decreased on a per-student basis. Why are you asking about pensions?

A lot of things are attributed to NCLB that aren't actually in NCLB. Regardless, it's strange to point to that as the problem when we'd be in an enormously better position if we simply funded schools as well as we did before NCLB was passed.

[Anonymous]

I remember at the time NCLB passed, people said it was an unfounded federal mandate that was going to crush the educational system. All those tests that everyone hates aren’t free. I’m not sure how big a part of the budget that is, but it’s one part of the problem.

I keep seeing all these numbers about how many positions being cut from central office. Does anyone know the total numbers at CO? I would love to get a group of principals together with the CO staffing list and just tell them — redline anything you think you and your teachers don’t actually need — and see what they do. If I was a board member, that’s what I’d do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

Adjusted for inflation, MoCo spent about $5k more per student in 2000 than we do today.

Where are you getting these numbers? In 2000 the operating budget was $1.1 billion and enrollment was 131,000. That works out to $8,400 per student or about $15,600 per student in 2024 dollars. Current per pupil funding is about $20,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember at the time NCLB passed, people said it was an unfounded federal mandate that was going to crush the educational system. All those tests that everyone hates aren’t free. I’m not sure how big a part of the budget that is, but it’s one part of the problem.

I keep seeing all these numbers about how many positions being cut from central office. Does anyone know the total numbers at CO? I would love to get a group of principals together with the CO staffing list and just tell them — redline anything you think you and your teachers don’t actually need — and see what they do. If I was a board member, that’s what I’d do.

What makes you think the principals know what functions and tasks are necessary in the central office?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys. The County Council is not going to give MCPS more money. They already increased MCPS's budget by a lot and had to cut other things to do it. If you want more money for schools, we need economic growuth to bring more revenue.

How was MoCo able to fund MCPS so much better in the past?

They weren’t. In the last 18 years, Council only gave MCPS 100% funding 4 times. It’s often just 98% of what they asked for. MCPS received 99.2% of what they asked for this time but mismanagement of funds and staff have led to this mess.

Adjusted for inflation, MoCo spent about $5k more per student in 2000 than we do today.

Where are you getting these numbers? In 2000 the operating budget was $1.1 billion and enrollment was 131,000. That works out to $8,400 per student or about $15,600 per student in 2024 dollars. Current per pupil funding is about $20,000.

pp here. You're right. I was using a source that seemed to say enrollment was 80,000, but you're right that it was 131,000. That corrects the per-student funding to $15k, as you said.