Hogan to cut MCPS budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You've never seen staff put back in the classroom in the last twenty years??? Happens all the time. Same with resource teachers and other non-classroom teachers who work in schools. They'll do whatever it takes to prevent laying folks off when budgets are cut and numbers (of students) shift.

Getting back to the point: teachers and administrators will not be laid off. Class sizes will likely increase instead.

no, honeybun

MOST will return to another position (in central office or at the school level) in NON-TEACHING positions.

[Anonymous]

If teachers are not laid off then why will class sizes grow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, don't get me started. Wait, it has happened.

We are in the financial hole we are in because O'Malley was too busy mugging for the cameras in an attempt to get the 2016 Democratic nomination for president than to tend to Maryland. The representatives in Annapolis are too busy admiring their self-importance than to realize that the budget has been running at a deficit. Hogan is taking on a tough problem, and it is just too bad none of us like how he trying to solve it.

As for MCPS, it is a bloated bureaucracy in which students are merely widgets. The students do not come first. I don't even think the teachers do anymore. The school system has taken on a life of its own driven by the central office. Hell, the start time problem is all driven by the counties inability to actually meet all of the needs of the children because they so heavily rely on busses rather than neighborhood schools. Starr doesn't care, since this is merely a stepping stone. NY Times in December noted the reason Start didn't get the NYC job is because Arne Duncan scuttled it over Starr's opinion on testing for common core. I actually think Starr was right on this one, but the evidence is he is on to bigger and better things than MCPS. So, just like O'Malley, he is leaving others to mind the store.

Maybe hard budget cuts will cut some of the MCPS bureaucracy.

+1000 - When was the last time jobs (other than secretarial) were cut at the Carver Center? Why are so many layers of bureaucracy needed? The head office is so out of touch with what is happening day to day at schools in MCPS that they are ineffectual in doing the jobs that they are assigned.

[Anonymous]

Class sizes will grow if there's a hiring freeze because many teachers will retire, have a baby and not return to work, get sick, etc. Principals are given a budget and they essentially decide how to spend it, so they have control over class size to an extent.

[Anonymous]

I hope that Larry Hogan cuts out the bloat. He strikes me as a no BS guy.

[Anonymous]

Hope so. The triple layered bureaucracy and administrations in place to juice pensions will kill the budget each year by themselves!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If teachers are not laid off then why will class sizes grow?

b/c we're growing all the time

My school absorbed about 40 border kids. They don't have parents paying into the system. We're caring for them by providing them ESOL instruction and identifying other needs - such as learning obstacles. We were able to hire a teacher for them. However, had we absorbed them after the cuts, they would have been spread among other ESOL teachers, bringing class sizes up.

You do recognize that in the metro area, Hispanic population is increasing, yes?

Freeze the hiring of new teachers and absorb more kids who aren't coming from the most supportive homes . . . a recipe for a disaster

[Anonymous]

You guys complaining about cuts to education are a bunch of fools. Vote with mouth, your wallet and your feet. You don't like it, send your kid to private school or move to VA. Complain to your elected official, demand MoCo be allowed school charters. Don't have the money? Work harder and stop being lazy.

My father immigrated from Ireland with nothing. He worked as a janitor, saved his money, bought a store and made sure we had the best education. Now all of his kids, including me are highly succesful and our kids will be too.

Hogan is right. We can't spend what we don't have. I have yet to hear liberals ideas on what to cut or how to balance the budget.

[Anonymous]

If teachers are not laid off then why will class sizes grow?

The capacity planning has been really off. MCPS compensates by changing the formula to increase class sizes. In overcrowded schools, they also turn room space previously used by para educators and reading specialists into class rooms. MCPS then brags that it's planning is great.

MCPS needs massive lay offs in the central office to bring about any change. The central office will always protect the central office. At the local level, there does need to be a purge of bad teachers but years of hiding performance problems, principals not documenting problems and just transferring them along, and lazy administrators gets in the way. If they could at least start with getting rid of the child molesters and kiddie porn teachers, it would one step.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope that Larry Hogan cuts out the bloat. He strikes me as a no BS guy.

Hogan is the governor of Maryland, not the superintendent of MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class sizes will grow if there's a hiring freeze because many teachers will retire, have a baby and not return to work, get sick, etc. Principals are given a budget and they essentially decide how to spend it, so they have control over class size to an extent.

There already is a hiring freeze in MCPS right now.

[Anonymous]

Will MCPS still be able to build all the new schools they need? I hope the new Chevy Chase middle school in Kensington won't be delayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will MCPS still be able to build all the new schools they need? I hope the new Chevy Chase middle school in Kensington won't be delayed.

No. MCPS was already not able to build all the new schools they need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will MCPS still be able to build all the new schools they need? I hope the new Chevy Chase middle school in Kensington won't be delayed.

No. MCPS was already not able to build all the new schools they need.

I read in the Post that Hogan plans to slash funding from the state for school capital projects in Moco and PG. B-CC HS desperately needs its addition also! No one in a million years would allow B-CC neighborhoods to be redistricted further north and east.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will MCPS still be able to build all the new schools they need? I hope the new Chevy Chase middle school in Kensington won't be delayed.

No. MCPS was already not able to build all the new schools they need.

I read in the Post that Hogan plans to slash funding from the state for school capital projects in Moco and PG. B-CC HS desperately needs its addition also! No one in a million years would allow B-CC neighborhoods to be redistricted further north and east.

They redistrict all the time. It's no secret.

never say never

If that purple line comes through and values drops, you'll see redistricting.