Reply to Taylor's Operating Budget releases 12/17 at 6:30 pm

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Reply to "Taylor's Operating Budget releases 12/17 at 6:30 pm"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Tonight, Dr. Taylor will release his 2027 operating budget recommendations:

[twitter]https://x.com/MCPS/status/2000940282666209648[/twitter]

This is going to drive the rest of the conversation for the school system between now and the June, so you'll want to tune in, pay attention and take lots of notes.

I predict gimmicky props and cringey dad jokes from Taylor. But given the budget shortfalls at the state and county levels, I also expect some pretty sobering statements and decisions as well as we simply don't have the money to fix all that is broken with MCPS. At least not all at once and in the face of declining enrollments and stagnant growth in the county.[/quote]

Let's be clear: we- the county and state- do have the money if we would prioritize and fund schools appropriately, as has been done in the past. There just isn't public support or political will to do the necessary tax increases or other-spending decreases to do so.
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We have a $1.5 billion shortfall at the state level. What kind of pocket change can be found in the couch cushions to close that kind of gap?

At the county level: We JUST raised taxes in 2023 https://dcist.com/story/23/05/25/md-montgomery-county-council-property-taxes-hike/

You think there's more appetite or willingness to raise property taxes AGAIN in the face of our county being decimated by DOGE and all of the chaos at the White House?

And even if we could muster that political will up, WHY should anyone feel good about pouring more money into MCPS with all of its systemic failures and incompetence?

MCPS has been a problem that seemingly no amount of money can fix.[/quote]

Couldn’t agree more. Let’s get a proper audit of all the programs and central office staff. Program after program yet no true idea of they are actually working except students barely meeting standards. How many central staffers that make $200k contribute something tangible. The debacle of the boundaries is ongoing. This system feels rudderless with everyone just going off on their pet project.

Now they want more money?? [/quote]

So you want a pay freeze and reduction in benefits for teachers?[/quote]

Most people don’t get regular raises.   They make good money for 10 month jobs.  Central office staff salaries should be cut or jobs eliminated.  [/quote]

Some people bounce around between jobs to get bigger, but less frequent, raises. But that doesn't apply to positions like teaching. Instead they get smaller annual raises.  Notice how public sector positions also don't see windfalls during economic booms. [/quote]

Public sector trade stability and they can move around jurisdictions.  Many don’t get raises at all.  My spouse gets no raises, no benefits and no pto.  [/quote]

You're limited in your ability to move around because of how pensions work. And the size of the districts.

Also, part of that stability that overall pay is traded off for is the small annual salary adjustments.[/quote]

The unfortunate truth is that government employees generally don’t get raises when there is a recession or economic downturn.  MoCo is definitely in the midst of an economic downturn. Lots of MoCo citizens are struggling now and government employees aren’t immune from economic woes. [/quote]

Generally they have, with it being just a recent idea that they might not. The problem should be obvious. If you won't give COLAs during recessions, and it is politically intractable to provide more than the annual inflation rate other years, then pay simply goes down.[/quote]

Total compensation costs are skyrocketing. [/quote]

Labor costs go up faster than inflation, yes. That's not unique to schools. Private employers are dealing with the same thing.

The difference is that schools can't increase productivity in the same way. So, someone in construction or manufacturing can take advantage of improved tools to work faster and bring in more revenue. Office workers can use computers and software.

Teachers can't do that. That's part of the reason why the cost of schools always has and always will raise faster than inflation. And that's always been fine when people were willing to pay taxes.[/quote]

The difference is those of us with private employers are getting laid off to reduce labor costs.  You cannot compare the two.  Some companies are constantly hiring and firing to adjust costs.[/quote]

They're able to do layoffs because technology improvements are increasing productivity, leading to lower staff requirements.

This really isn't that complicated. [/quote]

No, technology cannot replace some jobs.  They do it as their stock prices dip, and laying off rebounds it and then in a few months they hire new people for less money or are moving the jobs out of the country.

So, if technology is so great, maybe we can use AI for the boundary and other studies and replace some of the central office and other staff.  If we got back to online teaching, we can reduce the need for buildings.  Or, maybe cut out the BOE since they offer nothing.[/quote]

They do it when they don't have enough work for their staff. If your widget manufacturing line is busy, and you expect to keep selling all your widgets, then laying off staff would make you lose money.

Now, if you want to increase class sizes, then we could end up with extra teachers that could be laid off. I don't think most people want that, but you're free to argue that.

The really shocking thing, though, is that you don't seem to get that this is inherent to education. Assuming you want to be able to hire teachers, and you don't want enter-increasing class sizes, then no level of austerity measures would be able to prevent education costs from rising. And not just rising, but rising *more* than inflation.[/quote]

No, that’s not how these companies do it.  You clearly don’t know these big companies.  Our class sizes are already huge.  We easily have 34-38 in some classes and not enough seats.  Enough is enough.  [/quote]

If you don't want class sizes to rise, you need to keep teachers. Teacher compensation is the bulk of the budget, and in particular, the vast majority of the increase sought in this budget. If you don't want class sizes to rise (more) over time, then the MCPS budget will need to go up according to the rising cost of labor.

Presumably you know this, so I don't understand why you're playing dumb here. This is obvious, long-standing, and not unique to education or the public sector. Generations of people before you managed to understand and accept this.[/quote]

Sadly there is not public support for massive increases in MCPS funding. County Council has been hesitant to give more than they feel they can afford long term due to MOE law. From 1995 to 2005 MCPS funding increased 28% per pupil in inflation adjusted dollars and what did we get for that? Outcomes went downhill shortly after that. Now kids scroll the Internet all day in school, and Central Office lacks transparency its communications with parents are cringe at best and flat out disdainful of parents at worst. These high paid bureaucrats do not manage money effectively, they graduate massive numbers of kids that aren't proficient in math or ELA, they can't meet at basic standard of safety at many schools and don't seem to care much about that... I can go on. Nobody wants to throw good money after bad.[/quote]

Outcomes went downhill when we dramatically changed funding trends. Funny how that works.[/quote]

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