Hogan Issues Order for School Accountability

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely election year gimmick (like widening the beltway and I270). If any of this was important to him (and MC isnt important to Hogan at all), he would have done it months or years earlier.

I think Smith is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction. People are mad when predators have been 'hidden' and are still mad now that MCPS is transparent when they are found. He has gotten rid of/reorganozed some people out of central office, and gotten rid of others (Capital Planning).

It's a big machine and it takes time to make course corrections. They did a quick/hard stop when they found improprieties with the new curriculum search. And I think turned it around pretty quickly.

Am I happy with mcps and our overcrowded schools? No. Do I think they're moving in the right direction, maybe. But a big part of the problem is funding. Some schools need smaller class sizes and more support. Others need more facilities because of overcrowding or improved facilities because they haven't been touched since the 1950s. To make all these changes, the schools need money. They raise the property taxes for the first time in 9 years, and people went ballistic. So how do we expect all these changes we want, without increasing the funds? There just isn't millions/billions of bloat left to cut.

+1 Hogan can take his toothless "order" and shove it. He's the one who cut the extra funding in 2015 for MoCo and HoCo that accounted for the higher staffing costs due to higher costs of living in those areas. He's just trying to make nice now that it's election season and then will go back to doing his Ocean City welfare programs.

This is funny! You really think that Hogan needs to make "toothless orders" to get re-elected? The dude has something like a 70% approval rating and he is up against a total clown. He is already starting on his 2nd term initiatives.

[Anonymous]

Why do some MCPS people think that the state has no teeth in fighting fraud, stealing funds, protecting sex offenders (obstruction, endangering the welfare of a child) or bullying? I think the AG's office already takes investigates complaints about bullying in school systems. Who is pro- corruption? Yes - I want to see more theft of school funds! Yes more scandals of sex offenders in schools. Really people?

In MD, the state delegates educational administration to the counties but that doesn't absolve the counties of oversight. The state has power that it needs to exercise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do some MCPS people think that the state has no teeth in fighting fraud, stealing funds, protecting sex offenders (obstruction, endangering the welfare of a child) or bullying? I think the AG's office already takes investigates complaints about bullying in school systems. Who is pro- corruption? Yes - I want to see more theft of school funds! Yes more scandals of sex offenders in schools. Really people?

In MD, the state delegates educational administration to the counties but that doesn't absolve the counties of oversight. The state has power that it needs to exercise.

Then why do they suddenly need a whole new separate office for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do some MCPS people think that the state has no teeth in fighting fraud, stealing funds, protecting sex offenders (obstruction, endangering the welfare of a child) or bullying? I think the AG's office already takes investigates complaints about bullying in school systems. Who is pro- corruption? Yes - I want to see more theft of school funds! Yes more scandals of sex offenders in schools. Really people?

In MD, the state delegates educational administration to the counties but that doesn't absolve the counties of oversight. The state has power that it needs to exercise.

The point is that the counties are dropping the ball at best or at worst, actively covering up misconduct and criminal behavior. The AG's office is also limited in what they can investigate and has limited resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum office that was expanded to provide 2.0 should go. The technology office is spending too much and on antiquated technologies. They need to modernize and slim down considerably but they don't have the internal talent or leadership to do it.

HR benefits are interesting 4M a year on tuition reimbursement? Is that common on top of MCPS benefits?

If you drill into any of the budgets you see lots of little divisions. This is where waste comes from in a government system. In a 2B budget, the internal thinking is the a few million spread across many units will not stand out and will be safe. Its a self protective mechanism. It also bloats the overhead costs because each unit has a higher level manager even if its small. System wide consolidation and reduction would make more sense.

Well, if teachers were paid what we're worth, we could afford to fork over $ for tuition. But when you add demand on top of demand - with a master's degree now being the bottom - should we go into debt over this?

As it stands now, no one wants to enter teaching, and yet, who's raising a stink over this? Instead, we bash teachers for low test scores due to factors beyond our control.

Is this what you want for you kids?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/06/teacher-shortages-guardian-survey-schools
Teacher shortages worsening in majority of US states, study reveals
Exclusive: Guardian survey shows schools turning to underqualified graduates to put more teachers in the classroom

Some states are turning to emergency or short-term licensure to put more teachers in the classroom.

. . .

The Guardian study found some states do not track unfilled positions on a statewide level at all. Alaska, Colorado and Maryland have just begun to keep recordsof unfilled positions – something they have never done before. All are states that have teacher shortage issues.

On a personal note, we had a first-year teacher quit before school started - the last day of preservice. Let's see how many last through December.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum office that was expanded to provide 2.0 should go. The technology office is spending too much and on antiquated technologies. They need to modernize and slim down considerably but they don't have the internal talent or leadership to do it.

HR benefits are interesting 4M a year on tuition reimbursement? Is that common on top of MCPS benefits?

If you drill into any of the budgets you see lots of little divisions. This is where waste comes from in a government system. In a 2B budget, the internal thinking is the a few million spread across many units will not stand out and will be safe. Its a self protective mechanism. It also bloats the overhead costs because each unit has a higher level manager even if its small. System wide consolidation and reduction would make more sense.

NP, so you don’t want teachers to seek professional development or get additional degrees to become highly effective and educated on best practices, got it. $4 million dollars dispersed through the entire county for teachers, admin and central office staff is not bad. If you don’t want the people who are in front of your children and/or running your schools to be well-educated, hop over the line to D.C. They like to start the year with 1,000 unlicensed teachers, teachers from conveyor belt lines a la TeachForAmerica, etc.

[Anonymous]

I don't think school accountability will have tuition reimbursement or any budgeted line item in their sights. They are more likely to investigate misuse of funds such as credit cards being used for personal expenses (i.e. like members of BOE did).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think school accountability will have tuition reimbursement or any budgeted line item in their sights. They are more likely to investigate misuse of funds such as credit cards being used for personal expenses (i.e. like members of BOE did).

Why does there need to be a new, state-level office for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see somebody held responsible for the curriculum mess.

What was it? Something like $5 million spent on a curriculum that Johns Hopkins discovered was error-ridden and poorly organized.

So just money thrown down the drain and nobody has been held responsible. In fact, Lang has slyly moved on to a new job. While kids are left with no organized curriculum for this school year.

I’ll take help from anywhere we can.

Correction: spent on a curriculum that parents and teachers identified as problematic in the first year of its toll-out. After ignoring teachers and parents, system waits years and pays more $$ for JHU evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Completely election year gimmick (like widening the beltway and I270). If any of this was important to him (and MC isnt important to Hogan at all), he would have done it months or years earlier.

I think Smith is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction. People are mad when predators have been 'hidden' and are still mad now that MCPS is transparent when they are found. He has gotten rid of/reorganozed some people out of central office, and gotten rid of others (Capital Planning).

It's a big machine and it takes time to make course corrections. They did a quick/hard stop when they found improprieties with the new curriculum search. And I think turned it around pretty quickly.

Am I happy with mcps and our overcrowded schools? No. Do I think they're moving in the right direction, maybe. But a big part of the problem is funding. Some schools need smaller class sizes and more support. Others need more facilities because of overcrowding or improved facilities because they haven't been touched since the 1950s. To make all these changes, the schools need money. They raise the property taxes for the first time in 9 years, and people went ballistic. So how do we expect all these changes we want, without increasing the funds? There just isn't millions/billions of bloat left to cut.

Geez, we were told that development impact fees and property taxes would fund the schools. More people, more Monet — what no? And read Bethesda Beat - Hans Reiner is “so excited” there will be thousands more people in Bethesda at the Farm Market site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely election year gimmick (like widening the beltway and I270). If any of this was important to him (and MC isnt important to Hogan at all), he would have done it months or years earlier.

I think Smith is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction. People are mad when predators have been 'hidden' and are still mad now that MCPS is transparent when they are found. He has gotten rid of/reorganozed some people out of central office, and gotten rid of others (Capital Planning).

It's a big machine and it takes time to make course corrections. They did a quick/hard stop when they found improprieties with the new curriculum search. And I think turned it around pretty quickly.

Am I happy with mcps and our overcrowded schools? No. Do I think they're moving in the right direction, maybe. But a big part of the problem is funding. Some schools need smaller class sizes and more support. Others need more facilities because of overcrowding or improved facilities because they haven't been touched since the 1950s. To make all these changes, the schools need money. They raise the property taxes for the first time in 9 years, and people went ballistic. So how do we expect all these changes we want, without increasing the funds? There just isn't millions/billions of bloat left to cut.

Are you kidding?

I'd be willing to pay more in property taxes if it meant ACTUAL improvement in the schools. No, that's not what happens.

MCPS chooses to spend money on a huge, bloated, inefficient central office and ridiculous administrative positions. It CHOSE to waste money on ridiculous, unproven initiatives, and a useless curriculum instead of choosing a proven, tested curriculum. MCPS chose to spend money to increase tech, such as Chromebooks and Promethean boards, instead of pushing for smaller class sizes and increasing the number of teachers.

I think most parents would be willing to pay more to a school system that is well-run. MCPS is so dysfunctional. Giving more money to an already dysfunctional system is not going to help. That's why people go ballistic.

I was willing to pay more money too - I now write checks to a Catholic H.S. and find myself among many who have fled MCPS, including teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Geez, we were told that development impact fees and property taxes would fund the schools. More people, more Monet — what no? And read Bethesda Beat - Hans Reiner is “so excited” there will be thousands more people in Bethesda at the Farm Market site.

Development impact fees and property taxes do fund the schools. 67% of MCPS operating funds come from local sources, 27% from the state (which, in turn, gets a big chunk of its revenue from Montgomery County), 3% from the federal government, and 3% from enterprise and special revenue funds.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/budget/fy2019/0569-18%20FY%202019%20Budget%20In%20Brief%20Final.pdf

[Anonymous]

There are great curriculums available online. What is so special about MCPS that they need to handle it this way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are great curriculums available online. What is so special about MCPS that they need to handle it this way?

Could you name two great curricula that are available on line, please?

By "available on line", I'm assuming that you mean that a person can go to the Web and download them, either for free or for payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum office that was expanded to provide 2.0 should go. The technology office is spending too much and on antiquated technologies. They need to modernize and slim down considerably but they don't have the internal talent or leadership to do it.

HR benefits are interesting 4M a year on tuition reimbursement? Is that common on top of MCPS benefits?

If you drill into any of the budgets you see lots of little divisions. This is where waste comes from in a government system. In a 2B budget, the internal thinking is the a few million spread across many units will not stand out and will be safe. Its a self protective mechanism. It also bloats the overhead costs because each unit has a higher level manager even if its small. System wide consolidation and reduction would make more sense.

Well, if teachers were paid what we're worth, we could afford to fork over $ for tuition. But when you add demand on top of demand - with a master's degree now being the bottom - should we go into debt over this?

As it stands now, no one wants to enter teaching, and yet, who's raising a stink over this? Instead, we bash teachers for low test scores due to factors beyond our control.

Is this what you want for you kids?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/06/teacher-shortages-guardian-survey-schools
Teacher shortages worsening in majority of US states, study reveals
Exclusive: Guardian survey shows schools turning to underqualified graduates to put more teachers in the classroom

Some states are turning to emergency or short-term licensure to put more teachers in the classroom.

. . .

The Guardian study found some states do not track unfilled positions on a statewide level at all. Alaska, Colorado and Maryland have just begun to keep recordsof unfilled positions – something they have never done before. All are states that have teacher shortage issues.

On a personal note, we had a first-year teacher quit before school started - the last day of preservice. Let's see how many last through December.

I wouldn't classify MCPS teachers as being underpaid. Teachers can easily make 6 figures for working 180 days per year not to mention a generous pension the likes of which nobody in the private sector gets.