5/12 County Council Meeting -- Gutting MCPS Budget Request to the Tune of $180M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am old enough to remember April of 2026 when we all spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out out to change our August travel plans because TT had supposedly decided to move up the school year start date with 4 months notice.

His email to staff is more of the same theatrics. Yes, not getting the full funding will be hard for MCPS. Hopefully they can fund most of it. But with enrollment dropping, they really should cut positions. That TT is describing cutting staff while enrollment is declining as some kind of educational apocalypse is really telling that he sees our tax dollars as supporting staff rather than students

The cuts due to declining enrollment have all already happened. These additional cuts are on top of them and get rid of whole categories of staff doing important work in schools.

The MCPS budget is not being cut. It's true that it probably won't get a $180 million increase.

$40 million of the increase is to pad the employee health benefits fund. We have heard for years that they are going to address the structural issues that are causing the fund to bleed money. When is this going to happen?

The state keeps shifting more costs to the counties. The county budget this year has to include $27 million for MCPS pension costs. This doesn't factor into the MCPS budget at all, but the money is coming from the same pot that funds the MCPS budget. On top of the regular pension costs, MCPS is the only district in the state that funds a pension supplement, which is going to cost $82 million next year. All of this is contributing to the need to cut positions.

TT is doing a great job mobilizing teachers and parents on social media. I applaud his success in this area. However, I wish he would focus his energies on addressing the structural issues in the budget that cause this fight every single year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

Most MCPS teachers don't live in MoCo to begin with. Gas is ridiculous and doesn’t look like it will go back down anytime soon. Every schooo system is facing budget issues thanks to Moore pushing out Blueprint funding to localities.

How is this any different from county, nonprofit, lower income earners. My spouse has never gotten a raise or cola. If they want one they have to change jobs. Yes, they should get a cola but the rest of us cannot afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about the gutting of our special ed programs, putting children with behavioral challenges in learning centers, and paying for Ivymount and the like for so many? Get rid of the Homeschool Model (which doesn't help those in need and makes the classroom environment challenging for teachers and neurotypical students), bring back the amazing special ed programs we had 15 years ago, and you'll dramatically improve things for all and free up money at the same time

Thise programs are expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This all smells like politics. The budget is being cut by $180M, but Taylor is allowing those cuts to fall on teachers to prevent the budget from being cut at all (and to make the case to raise taxes for even more money to go to MCPS).

This. Enrollment is declining but every year they get huge increases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

Actually it is really easy to argue if you look at median incomes in Montgomery County. If you look at median incomes for people with masters degrees teacher salaries are in line with the median. It is all in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Then factor in the pension and health care benefits compared with the high deductible plans most people have. Being a teacher looks pretty good.

Those high salaries you see in other fields are people who performed well (typically based on the subjective judgement of their supervisors) and got promoted. Teachers don't get promoted without leaving the classroom. That is because the union wants every teacher to get the same raises. That is not how it works in other fields.

[Anonymous]

Looking at the salaries of MCPS top staff and ran across this:
Superintendent Jack Smith, received an annual salary of $295,000 at the time of his retirement in June 2021. He declined a scheduled $25,000 raise the previous year, citing the district’s fiscal crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2023/02/07/top-20-highest-paid-mcps-employees-of-2022/

Wouldn't it be nice if Taylor did something similar in the middle of this financial crisis? It would be symbolic, but meaningful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

Actually it is really easy to argue if you look at median incomes in Montgomery County. If you look at median incomes for people with masters degrees teacher salaries are in line with the median. It is all in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Then factor in the pension and health care benefits compared with the high deductible plans most people have. Being a teacher looks pretty good.

Those high salaries you see in other fields are people who performed well (typically based on the subjective judgement of their supervisors) and got promoted. Teachers don't get promoted without leaving the classroom. That is because the union wants every teacher to get the same raises. That is not how it works in other fields.

Disingenuous. The average Fed in DC area makes 127K. Average MoCo teacher makes 101K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

Actually it is really easy to argue if you look at median incomes in Montgomery County. If you look at median incomes for people with masters degrees teacher salaries are in line with the median. It is all in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Then factor in the pension and health care benefits compared with the high deductible plans most people have. Being a teacher looks pretty good.

Those high salaries you see in other fields are people who performed well (typically based on the subjective judgement of their supervisors) and got promoted. Teachers don't get promoted without leaving the classroom. That is because the union wants every teacher to get the same raises. That is not how it works in other fields.

Disingenuous. The average Fed in DC area makes 127K. Average MoCo teacher makes 101K.

No, it's just data.

Most workers in Montgomery County are not feds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

Actually it is really easy to argue if you look at median incomes in Montgomery County. If you look at median incomes for people with masters degrees teacher salaries are in line with the median. It is all in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Then factor in the pension and health care benefits compared with the high deductible plans most people have. Being a teacher looks pretty good.

Those high salaries you see in other fields are people who performed well (typically based on the subjective judgement of their supervisors) and got promoted. Teachers don't get promoted without leaving the classroom. That is because the union wants every teacher to get the same raises. That is not how it works in other fields.

The federal government is a meritocracy? Evidence suggests... otherwise.

Your argument is disingenuous; median is not the same as mean. The average Fed makes 126K, average MCPS teacher makes 101K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

Actually it is really easy to argue if you look at median incomes in Montgomery County. If you look at median incomes for people with masters degrees teacher salaries are in line with the median. It is all in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Then factor in the pension and health care benefits compared with the high deductible plans most people have. Being a teacher looks pretty good.

Those high salaries you see in other fields are people who performed well (typically based on the subjective judgement of their supervisors) and got promoted. Teachers don't get promoted without leaving the classroom. That is because the union wants every teacher to get the same raises. That is not how it works in other fields.

The federal government is a meritocracy? Evidence suggests... otherwise.

Your argument is disingenuous; median is not the same as mean. The average Fed makes 126K, average MCPS teacher makes 101K.

I didn't say the federal government is a meritocracy. I said federal workers with high salaries have to get promoted to get them usually based on the subjective judgment about their performance of their supervisors. That is just a fact.

Median is obviously more meaningful than the mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.

This is why teachers union and the school system gets a bad rap. It's not just federal employees but private sector workers that have felt the pinch these past years of cost of living, taxes, and insurance increases while facing salary stagnation. For the superintendent and teacher's union to act like an increase in budget (but not the amount of increase they want) is catastrophic to education and everyone should write the county council to increase revenue (which reads as increase taxes) is tone deaf. There's other ways to decrease spending that need to be looked at.

But federal employees generally make more money than teachers. I have a friend who is essentially an Admin Assistant at the FDA. She makes more than most Principals.

She is lying.

I don't know about this particular person, but all you have to do is look at the pay grades. Most mid-level Fed jobs pay 10s of thousands more than teacher get. Fact of the matter is, many teachers (especially new ones) can't even afford to live in MoCo. Hard to argue that we're better off than current residents (especially the ones that post on this board).

I don't know who you think posts on this board, but both my wife and I make pretty much exactly what a teacher of our experience makes. We've lived in Montgomery County our whole adult lives and we've always made similar amounts to teachers. Those are normal Montgomery County salaries.

[Anonymous]

Council just voted to adopt the income tax reductions

2.7% up to 50k MD taxable income
3% 50-150k
3.3% 150k+

These are progressive brackets, but just like fed brackets, someone earning $1M will pay the same rate on their first $50k as someone earning just $50k. Staff estimated that everyone earning under $600k will receive an overall income tax break from the flat 3.2% that has been in effect since 2004. This decimates revenue and requires either revenue elsewhere to meet some of the service need (like MCPS), use of borrowing or "rainy day" reserves to do the same (nearly everyone says no to that, probably rightly) or more service reductions (like the MCPS personnel decimation list, discussed in a separate thread).

It clearly was set up by Council as the first vote to lay the groundwork to eliminate the eliminate the resident-owner ITOC ($692 credit against property tax) that was meant to counter the increase to 3.2% all those years ago and keep, effectively, more overall within the county, as non-resident landlords would not benefit. That's now all but certain, along with the remote possibility of overall property tax increases if they want to close gaps. This developer-friendly Council, most specifically Natali Fani-Gonzàlez and Andrew Friedson (who has gone into his shell with this subject now being a third rail for his County Executive campaign), might continue to find ways to keep it focused on residents -- they already insulated many special interests from future property tax with their misuse of Payment In Lieu Of Tax (PILOT) arrangements.

Nobody changed their position from last week's straw vote. They did not even discuss other proposals. Gonzàlez, true to form, repeatedly insisted that this was all data, as if only considering one possibility and analyzing that presented the kind of holistic data which would inform a good decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about the gutting of our special ed programs, putting children with behavioral challenges in learning centers, and paying for Ivymount and the like for so many? Get rid of the Homeschool Model (which doesn't help those in need and makes the classroom environment challenging for teachers and neurotypical students), bring back the amazing special ed programs we had 15 years ago, and you'll dramatically improve things for all and free up money at the same time

Not sure if this poster is saying this in jest, but how will putting more kids in learning centers or paying for non-public placements like Ivymount help the budget? Learning centers have small teacher to students ratios and typically there is an assigned para to the classroom.

[Anonymous]

I hope they send money funds to the teachers that were fired for manipulating the data as well as the teachers who were fired for not manipulating the data.