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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My Democratic cousins in Kansas also talk about the need for diversity of opinion. Republicans are the majority in Kansas but they try to completely shut out Democrats out of any decision making.

I agree it was crazy to elect an inexperienced rabble rouser like Donald Trump as President of the United States. But that hardly compares to being one of eight members on the BOE.

To go back to the PP's question: why on earth would "no experience/more chaos" be a plus?

First of all, I don't know anyone who wants more chaos. But I can argue to vote for a MCPS parent like Stephen Austin, even if he has no previous experience on the BOE.

Right now there is a large minority of parents who don't trust the BOE, who think that they try to make changes to policy outside of public monitoring, and that they are not transparent as to how they make their decisions. Stephen Austin has spent a lot of time monitoring the policy and financial decisions of the BOE. As a Board member he can help make the BOE more transparent, if needed.

Sunil Dasgupta is also advocating for more transparency and open access. No one running for the at large seat is an incumbent, so being upset about what the current BoE is doing is irrelevant - all candidates are outsiders and don't have responsibility for current Board decisions.

Nothing says "outsider" like an endorsement from the teacher's union!

ROFL - The moderator should have locked this thread after this drop the mike post - well done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My Democratic cousins in Kansas also talk about the need for diversity of opinion. Republicans are the majority in Kansas but they try to completely shut out Democrats out of any decision making.

I agree it was crazy to elect an inexperienced rabble rouser like Donald Trump as President of the United States. But that hardly compares to being one of eight members on the BOE.

To go back to the PP's question: why on earth would "no experience/more chaos" be a plus?

First of all, I don't know anyone who wants more chaos. But I can argue to vote for a MCPS parent like Stephen Austin, even if he has no previous experience on the BOE.

Right now there is a large minority of parents who don't trust the BOE, who think that they try to make changes to policy outside of public monitoring, and that they are not transparent as to how they make their decisions. Stephen Austin has spent a lot of time monitoring the policy and financial decisions of the BOE. As a Board member he can help make the BOE more transparent, if needed.

Sunil Dasgupta is also advocating for more transparency and open access. No one running for the at large seat is an incumbent, so being upset about what the current BoE is doing is irrelevant - all candidates are outsiders and don't have responsibility for current Board decisions.

Nothing says "outsider" like an endorsement from the teacher's union!

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

In the words of Sarah Hagi, "Lord, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

In the words of Sarah Hagi, "Lord, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man."

The current board has no mediocre White man. I guess they are all excellent. Under their leadership MCPS is at its best.
Is skin color the only thing that matters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

In the words of Sarah Hagi, "Lord, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man."

The current board has no mediocre White man. I guess they are all excellent. Under their leadership MCPS is at its best.
Is skin color the only thing that matters?

Logic fail, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My Democratic cousins in Kansas also talk about the need for diversity of opinion. Republicans are the majority in Kansas but they try to completely shut out Democrats out of any decision making.

I agree it was crazy to elect an inexperienced rabble rouser like Donald Trump as President of the United States. But that hardly compares to being one of eight members on the BOE.

To go back to the PP's question: why on earth would "no experience/more chaos" be a plus?

First of all, I don't know anyone who wants more chaos. But I can argue to vote for a MCPS parent like Stephen Austin, even if he has no previous experience on the BOE.

Right now there is a large minority of parents who don't trust the BOE, who think that they try to make changes to policy outside of public monitoring, and that they are not transparent as to how they make their decisions. Stephen Austin has spent a lot of time monitoring the policy and financial decisions of the BOE. As a Board member he can help make the BOE more transparent, if needed.

Sunil Dasgupta is also advocating for more transparency and open access. No one running for the at large seat is an incumbent, so being upset about what the current BoE is doing is irrelevant - all candidates are outsiders and don't have responsibility for current Board decisions.

Nothing says "outsider" like an endorsement from the teacher's union!

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

That. is. a. really. dumb. way. to. write. an. English. sentence.

[Anonymous]

Is Steve Austin for maintaining the segregated schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That. is. a. really. dumb. way. to. write. an. English. sentence.

Actually it's a common way of providing emphasis, for short statements, in informal language, on social media etc. If you were speaking, you would say it with pauses between the words. The periods represent those pauses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Steve Austin for maintaining the segregated schools?

No. He's for bussing kids across the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Steve Austin for maintaining the segregated schools?

No. He's for bussing kids across the county.

Or at least a 45min bus ride and crazy boundaries as long as they get to stay in the W cluster.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/CabinJohnMS.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My Democratic cousins in Kansas also talk about the need for diversity of opinion. Republicans are the majority in Kansas but they try to completely shut out Democrats out of any decision making.

I agree it was crazy to elect an inexperienced rabble rouser like Donald Trump as President of the United States. But that hardly compares to being one of eight members on the BOE.

To go back to the PP's question: why on earth would "no experience/more chaos" be a plus?

First of all, I don't know anyone who wants more chaos. But I can argue to vote for a MCPS parent like Stephen Austin, even if he has no previous experience on the BOE.

Right now there is a large minority of parents who don't trust the BOE, who think that they try to make changes to policy outside of public monitoring, and that they are not transparent as to how they make their decisions. Stephen Austin has spent a lot of time monitoring the policy and financial decisions of the BOE. As a Board member he can help make the BOE more transparent, if needed.

Sunil Dasgupta is also advocating for more transparency and open access. No one running for the at large seat is an incumbent, so being upset about what the current BoE is doing is irrelevant - all candidates are outsiders and don't have responsibility for current Board decisions.

Nothing says "outsider" like an endorsement from the teacher's union!

Nothing says “outsider” like a guy like Steve Austin who, by his own admission, has NEVER done ANYTHING to improve MCPS schools. Never. Done. Anything.

Right now, I’d rather vote for a candidate who has put in the time and made an effort, instead of taking a leap with an uninformed, thin-skinned neophyte. Plus...Austin STILL hasn’t provided any evidence to back up his often repeated claim that he is “a finance guy.” A few years at Merrill during their implosion, a couple of years at a couple of hedge funds, a long, unexplained gap in his resume, and now a Lockeed Martin subsidiary. Just not enough info to go on to hand over taxpayer money.

That. is. a. really. dumb. way. to. write. an. English. sentence.

Actually, that use of punctuation in that way is a very common literary device. But, that’s really beside the point. You quibble with sentence structure, but do not address the fact that Mr. Austin has never pitched in to help improve public schools in this county and has never provided any real evidence that he knows anything about how budgets work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's shocking that you think people are opposed to Steve Austin on the say-so of this one former member of the Board of Education whom Steve Austin supporters on the Internet are obsessed with.

The elected officials "accuse" [your word] him of not contributing to thoughtful, civil dialogue, and from what I've seen, that's true. He, personally, has not contributed to thoughtful, civil dialogue; he's done the opposite. And it's reasonable to assume that he would continue to do the opposite on the school board, if elected.

I just saw Stephen Austin's complete meltdown last night on Twitter. Yeah, that guy is a trainwreck.

This comment must have really gotten to Stephen. He's now been using the word "meltdown" frequently the past few days to describe those who are critical of his divisive campaign style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's shocking that you think people are opposed to Steve Austin on the say-so of this one former member of the Board of Education whom Steve Austin supporters on the Internet are obsessed with.

The elected officials "accuse" [your word] him of not contributing to thoughtful, civil dialogue, and from what I've seen, that's true. He, personally, has not contributed to thoughtful, civil dialogue; he's done the opposite. And it's reasonable to assume that he would continue to do the opposite on the school board, if elected.

I just saw Stephen Austin's complete meltdown last night on Twitter. Yeah, that guy is a trainwreck.

This comment must have really gotten to Stephen. He's now been using the word "meltdown" frequently the past few days to describe those who are critical of his divisive campaign style.

If anybody knows about meltdowns, it’s Steve Austin. At least that’s one area in which he had real-life experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Steve Austin for maintaining the segregated schools?

No. He's for bussing kids across the county.

Or at least a 45min bus ride and crazy boundaries as long as they get to stay in the W cluster.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/CabinJohnMS.pdf

My kid took the bus from school to daycare which is about a mile from our neighborhood school. School let out at 3:50 but busses don't get to the daycare for 30-35 minutes. That's to go less than one mile from a nearby school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Steve Austin for maintaining the segregated schools?

No. He's for bussing kids across the county.

Or at least a 45min bus ride and crazy boundaries as long as they get to stay in the W cluster.

http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/CabinJohnMS.pdf

My kid took the bus from school to daycare which is about a mile from our neighborhood school. School let out at 3:50 but busses don't get to the daycare for 30-35 minutes. That's to go less than one mile from a nearby school.

Yes, but that's because the buses don't leave the school until well after 3:50. You have posted about this before.