Kirwan Commission

[Anonymous]

This is the recommendation that state funding for MoCo and Howard be reallocated to Baltimore schools leaving MoCo and Howard to make up the difference or cut their school budgets. Howard county residents are firmly against this but a large group of MoCo residents in TP and the DCC are all for it.

I do not understand why people in Montgomery would be in favor of this happening. Do they just think that taxes would only rise for everyone but them?

[Anonymous]

OP-why don't you start by reading the Commission report and some news articles? Paying teachers more, asking them to have higher standards of certification and expanding early childhood education to get better outcomes are all evidence based recommendations. Yes, they will cost money, but most things worth having do. I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-kirwan-work-groups-20180823-story.html

A commission examining how to overhaul Maryland’s public schools system received far-reaching recommendations Thursday that call for major expansions of early childhood education and a change in how teachers are paid.

The Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education heard recommendations from three of its work groups as the panel moves into its final phase of writing a highly-anticipated report for the General Assembly and Gov. Larry Hogan.

Final decisions on the full commission’s recommendations are expected at its Sept. 5 meeting.

The Kirwan Commission, named for Chairman William E. “Brit” Kirwan, has been conducting a comprehensive analysis for two years of the needs of public school education in Maryland and how possible fixes should be funded.

Judging by the reports of its first two work groups, the panel is not inclined to recommend small, incremental steps. Rather, they appear to be following the urging of Kirwan, a former University System of Maryland chancellor, to think big.

“We could do what everyone else is doing, but we decided to take it a step further,” said Montgomery County Councilman Craig L. Rice, who chairs the commission’s work group on early childhood education.

Sen. Paul Pinsky, who leads the work group on “high quality teachers and leaders,” said his panel is recommending significant increases in educators’ pay in exchange for holding them to more “rigorous” standards.

“We’re talking about raising standards to make it harder to enter the profession,” the Prince George’s County Democrat said. “It’s expensive — let me be very clear.”

The commission is not at the point of putting a price tag on its recommendations, but the early indications are that its recommendations are going to be costly and politically volatile. The panel itself is more the creature of the legislature’s Democratic leadership than of Hogan, but the governor’s budget secretary, David Brinkley, is a commission member.

Brinkley, who also sits on the pre-kindergarten work group, remained silent through Rice’s presentation. He described the spending envisioned in the proposals as “a big ask” and questioned what the fiscal impact would be on local governments.

[Anonymous]

I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

This isn't about allocating money for education away from transportation. Its about taking education funding away from Montgomery County and giving it to Baltimore instead.

Your non-federal taxes are collected by the state and then re-allocated down to the counties based partly on how much they contributed and other factors. In the Kirwan deal, Montgomery County and Howard would have their education funding cut by up to 70% and have to make up the shortfall with additional local taxes or local county-based cuts in MCPS, fire, police, etc.

Do you not understand this part?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

This isn't about allocating money for education away from transportation. Its about taking education funding away from Montgomery County and giving it to Baltimore instead.

Your non-federal taxes are collected by the state and then re-allocated down to the counties based partly on how much they contributed and other factors. In the Kirwan deal, Montgomery County and Howard would have their education funding cut by up to 70% and have to make up the shortfall with additional local taxes or local county-based cuts in MCPS, fire, police, etc.

Do you not understand this part?

Can you show where people are cheering having school funds moved to Baltimore?

[Anonymous]

I found an article about it from last year. This sounds really bad for at least half of MoCo.

“School districts now get extra money for students living in poverty and who have special needs, as well as those who are new immigrants learning English. Under the new formula, districts would get far less extra money for those students than they do now.”

So it sounds like they’re going to let MoCo school with a lot of ESOL students crash and burn. Get ready for a lot of schools to be rated 1-3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

This isn't about allocating money for education away from transportation. Its about taking education funding away from Montgomery County and giving it to Baltimore instead.

Your non-federal taxes are collected by the state and then re-allocated down to the counties based partly on how much they contributed and other factors. In the Kirwan deal, Montgomery County and Howard would have their education funding cut by up to 70% and have to make up the shortfall with additional local taxes or local county-based cuts in MCPS, fire, police, etc.

Do you not understand this part?

That’s not the way policy works. Hogan offered $7 billion in incentives to Amazon. If he wanted he could allocate plenty of funding to both Baltimore and MoCo. But his priorities are other...it makes me sad that OP is trying to pit different parts of the state against each other. We all have an interest in having children in our state having a good education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

This isn't about allocating money for education away from transportation. Its about taking education funding away from Montgomery County and giving it to Baltimore instead.

Your non-federal taxes are collected by the state and then re-allocated down to the counties based partly on how much they contributed and other factors. In the Kirwan deal, Montgomery County and Howard would have their education funding cut by up to 70% and have to make up the shortfall with additional local taxes or local county-based cuts in MCPS, fire, police, etc.

Do you not understand this part?

That’s not the way policy works. Hogan offered $7 billion in incentives to Amazon. If he wanted he could allocate plenty of funding to both Baltimore and MoCo. But his priorities are other...it makes me sad that OP is trying to pit different parts of the state against each other. We all have an interest in having children in our state having a good education.

NP. This has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon. It also doesn't have to do with the overall level of funding for education. It is simply a matter of who gets what percentage of the overall pie. Especially given all the challenges facing MoCo schools, it seems crazy to shift funding away from them in favor of other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a MoCo resident and would rather my tax revenues go to education (even, gasp!, if it goes to supporting Baltimore schools) than expanded highway lanes and corporate welfare to Marriott to move down the street.

This isn't about allocating money for education away from transportation. Its about taking education funding away from Montgomery County and giving it to Baltimore instead.

Your non-federal taxes are collected by the state and then re-allocated down to the counties based partly on how much they contributed and other factors. In the Kirwan deal, Montgomery County and Howard would have their education funding cut by up to 70% and have to make up the shortfall with additional local taxes or local county-based cuts in MCPS, fire, police, etc.

Do you not understand this part?

That’s not the way policy works. Hogan offered $7 billion in incentives to Amazon. If he wanted he could allocate plenty of funding to both Baltimore and MoCo. But his priorities are other...it makes me sad that OP is trying to pit different parts of the state against each other. We all have an interest in having children in our state having a good education.

NP. This has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon. It also doesn't have to do with the overall level of funding for education. It is simply a matter of who gets what percentage of the overall pie. Especially given all the challenges facing MoCo schools, it seems crazy to shift funding away from them in favor of other areas.

No. There is a finite pot of revenues. There is no rule that the overall level of funding must remain constant from year to year. It's about the priorities set in Annapolis. If Hogan wanted to make education a bigger priority he could. Instead he cut cost-of-living adjustments that compensated HoCo and MoCo for the higher cost of his staff and spends his time screwing around with our calendar rather than leaving it to local control.