Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo's whole-of-county BOE election paradigm diminishes the liklihood of any minority-viewpoint representation. FFS, this same problem necessitated rules to redraw districts across the country to better ensure representation of minority interests/viewpoints in public office. We shouldn't be creating or perpetuating a system that effectively tamps down these views -- a proper representative system would still tend to result in a majority on the board voting with the interests of a majority of the population, just not one that is so lacking in diverse viewpoints and reaonable debate.

What did you smoke?

BOE Today:
1. An Afro-American superintendent (Dr. McKnight)
2. 3 Afro-American members (Wolff, Evans and Docca)
3. 3 white members
4. 1 Latino member (Silvestre)
5. Plus 1 student

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/

Excepting Asians, I do see all minorities being nicely represented in the current BOE.

According to the U.S. Census, Asians are more of a minority than Whites, Blacks, Hispanic or Latino's, so it's kinda a glaring omission

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/montgomerycountymaryland
White alone, percent 60.0%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent 42.9%
Black or African American alone, percent(a) 20.1%
Hispanic or Latino, percent(b) 20.1%
Asian alone, percent(a) 15.6%
Two or More Races, percent 3.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent(a) 0.7%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, percent(a) 0.1%

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo's whole-of-county BOE election paradigm diminishes the liklihood of any minority-viewpoint representation. FFS, this same problem necessitated rules to redraw districts across the country to better ensure representation of minority interests/viewpoints in public office. We shouldn't be creating or perpetuating a system that effectively tamps down these views -- a proper representative system would still tend to result in a majority on the board voting with the interests of a majority of the population, just not one that is so lacking in diverse viewpoints and reaonable debate.

What did you smoke?

BOE Today:
1. An Afro-American superintendent (Dr. McKnight)
2. 3 Afro-American members (Wolff, Evans and Docca)
3. 3 white members
4. 1 Latino member (Silvestre)
5. Plus 1 student

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/

Excepting Asians, I do see all minorities being nicely represented in the current BOE.

You're equating "minority" with "racial minority," and this is not the case for the purposes of the discussion. Not smoking anything, but, presuming you are too smart to have mistaken my thought, you keep on with your misdirection -- maybe you'll get a few who don't think to hard to side with you 😉

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo's whole-of-county BOE election paradigm diminishes the liklihood of any minority-viewpoint representation. FFS, this same problem necessitated rules to redraw districts across the country to better ensure representation of minority interests/viewpoints in public office. We shouldn't be creating or perpetuating a system that effectively tamps down these views -- a proper representative system would still tend to result in a majority on the board voting with the interests of a majority of the population, just not one that is so lacking in diverse viewpoints and reaonable debate.

What did you smoke?

BOE Today:
1. An Afro-American superintendent (Dr. McKnight)
2. 3 Afro-American members (Wolff, Evans and Docca)
3. 3 white members
4. 1 Latino member (Silvestre)
5. Plus 1 student

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/

Excepting Asians, I do see all minorities being nicely represented in the current BOE.

You're messing up a perfectly good rant!

Anonymous wrote:
MoCo's whole-of-county BOE election paradigm diminishes the liklihood of any minority-viewpoint representation. FFS, this same problem necessitated rules to redraw districts across the country to better ensure representation of minority interests/viewpoints in public office. We shouldn't be creating or perpetuating a system that effectively tamps down these views -- a proper representative system would still tend to result in a majority on the board voting with the interests of a majority of the population, just not one that is so lacking in diverse viewpoints and reaonable debate.

What did you smoke?

BOE Today:
1. An Afro-American superintendent (Dr. McKnight)
2. 3 Afro-American members (Wolff, Evans and Docca)
3. 3 white members
4. 1 Latino member (Silvestre)
5. Plus 1 student

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/

Excepting Asians, I do see all minorities being nicely represented in the current BOE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?

The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.

...and allows lack of representation for regional viewpoints. Far from a small-d democratic ideal. To function, representative democracy must be representative, not some form of majority-tyrrany group-think.

Not exactly. From a small-d democratic perspective, the current system is representative in that it represents the will of the majority of voters. Yes the majority of voters live in the east county, but that's only because generations of land use policy have created dense communities in the east county while west county residents have leveraged political power to ensure less density. That raises their home values, but it means there are fewer voters in those communities.

But even if we had a different system, it would not actually solve the problem that you abhor, which is that densely populated parts of the county have more voters than sparsely populated parts.

Even if each "district" had an equal number of voters and each elected their own representative, there would still be more representatives from the desnsely populated parts of the county because the districts would need to be roughly equivalent in terms of number of registered voters. So maybe Bethesda + Chevy Chase equals one district, but so does DTSS because they have the same number of registered voters.

What folks want and are never going to get is a system in which essentially "land votes" in the way it does in the US Senate. That's bad little-d democracy.

So basically some rich folks want their vote to count more than other peoples, nothing new there. I'm glad we live in a place where everyone's vote counts.

Folks, rich or not, want adequate representation. Diminishing the equal-weight representation of rich folks is no more just than diminishing the equal-weight representation of poor folks, or racial groups, or religious groups, or the elderly, or the LGBTQIA+, or the differently-abled, or...

MoCo's whole-of-county BOE election paradigm diminishes the liklihood of any minority-viewpoint representation. FFS, this same problem necessitated rules to redraw districts across the country to better ensure representation of minority interests/viewpoints in public office. We shouldn't be creating or perpetuating a system that effectively tamps down these views -- a proper representative system would still tend to result in a majority on the board voting with the interests of a majority of the population, just not one that is so lacking in diverse viewpoints and reaonable debate.

Imagine if Montgomery and PG were allowed to vote for state delegates for Garrett County. Or if Californians could vote for congressional representatives for Montana. Taken to the extreme, we might as well be voting for a single dictator.

Small-d democracy favors majority opinion, but to function it must allow for effective minority voice in debate. Pure democracy, in which every issue receives a vote from every member of society, is infeasible for a multitude of reasons, so we approximate with representative democracy. Small-d democracy in this case by no means means that there should only be the representative voice of the majority.

To the prior poster, who mischaracterized my sentiment -- I have no interest in over-representation of a wealthy few (even beyond the idea of land representation; the narrowly-based Citizens United makes my skin crawl) -- it makes me particularly sad to hear such nonsense from those who claim to be liberal, as most of my sentiments fall that way, and the liberal cause has long championed minority representation. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. We shouldn't be justifying such means with our ends.

Anonymous wrote:Please help with a dummy question: who decided to take police out of schools?
I don't know much about BOE candidates but I want to make sure I don't vote for the guys that took that decision. Thanks.

As PP noted, this is a function that belongs with county council, not the Board of Education.

The context in which this decision was taken is important - in the middle of a nationwide uproar about police officers carrying out executions on film, followed by the release of footage from an MCPS elementary school in which police officers handcuffed and verbally assaulted a kindergartner.

The political environment was ugly, and the Council felt that they needed to respond to public outrage over the treatment of the child, particularly once it became clear that the police officers were not going to be disciplined for the abusive actions.

Anonymous wrote:Please help with a dummy question: who decided to take police out of schools?
I don't know much about BOE candidates but I want to make sure I don't vote for the guys that took that decision. Thanks.

Here is the answer:
"Elrich removed funding for the SRO program when he proposed his Fiscal Year 2022 budget, effectively ending the program.
The County Council at the time was considering two competing bills regarding SROs, but neither made it to a vote.
One bill, sponsored by Hans Riemer and Will Jawando, would have banned police from being stationed in schools. The other, sponsored by Craig Rice and Sidney Katz, would have allowed SROs to be stationed in schools at the request of the MCPS superintendent."

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/what-you-need-to-know-about-police-officers-in-montgomery-county-schools/#:~:text=How%20long%20were%20SROs%20in,the%202021%2D22%20school%20year.

Elrich and the county council (Riemer and Jawando) are to blame for that decision. Not sure BOE had a contribution.

Please help with a dummy question: who decided to take police out of schools?
I don't know much about BOE candidates but I want to make sure I don't vote for the guys that took that decision. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?

The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.

...and allows lack of representation for regional viewpoints. Far from a small-d democratic ideal. To function, representative democracy must be representative, not some form of majority-tyrrany group-think.

Not exactly. From a small-d democratic perspective, the current system is representative in that it represents the will of the majority of voters. Yes the majority of voters live in the east county, but that's only because generations of land use policy have created dense communities in the east county while west county residents have leveraged political power to ensure less density. That raises their home values, but it means there are fewer voters in those communities.

But even if we had a different system, it would not actually solve the problem that you abhor, which is that densely populated parts of the county have more voters than sparsely populated parts.

Even if each "district" had an equal number of voters and each elected their own representative, there would still be more representatives from the desnsely populated parts of the county because the districts would need to be roughly equivalent in terms of number of registered voters. So maybe Bethesda + Chevy Chase equals one district, but so does DTSS because they have the same number of registered voters.

What folks want and are never going to get is a system in which essentially "land votes" in the way it does in the US Senate. That's bad little-d democracy.

So basically some rich folks want their vote to count more than other peoples, nothing new there. I'm glad we live in a place where everyone's vote counts.

DP. Also, early voting centers are only of of the options for how to vote. Every precinct still has a neighborhood voting location that will be open on the day of the election, and anyone is able to vote by mail in advance.

Anonymous wrote:Silver Spring is (a) unincorporated and (b) geographically ginormous. And that's before we get into any demographic analyses. Heck, one of the SS voting centers is at Leisure World - not exactly a hotbed of school parent agitators!

A proper comparison would balance - just to get started - population density (per sq mile, not just people in jurisdictions), job flexibility, and auto ownership. Well, unless your goal is to make it hard for certain types of people to vote. Maybe make it illegal to give a bottle of water to someone waiting in line on a hot day.

This is a great point, as is the PP who points out that "Silver Spring" as defined by the election board is different than "Silver Spring" as defined by the population statistics that a PP posted.

When the election board says there are 3 early voting stations in Silver Spring, they are counting everything up to Olney. When the population breakdown was posted that was counting only the part from the DC line to Blair HS.

SO.....if we want to do an apples to apples comparision, we would see that there is actually only ONE early voting station assigned to the 70K people who are identified as being in Silver Spring according to the population count.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?

The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.

...and allows lack of representation for regional viewpoints. Far from a small-d democratic ideal. To function, representative democracy must be representative, not some form of majority-tyrrany group-think.

Not exactly. From a small-d democratic perspective, the current system is representative in that it represents the will of the majority of voters. Yes the majority of voters live in the east county, but that's only because generations of land use policy have created dense communities in the east county while west county residents have leveraged political power to ensure less density. That raises their home values, but it means there are fewer voters in those communities.

But even if we had a different system, it would not actually solve the problem that you abhor, which is that densely populated parts of the county have more voters than sparsely populated parts.

Even if each "district" had an equal number of voters and each elected their own representative, there would still be more representatives from the desnsely populated parts of the county because the districts would need to be roughly equivalent in terms of number of registered voters. So maybe Bethesda + Chevy Chase equals one district, but so does DTSS because they have the same number of registered voters.

What folks want and are never going to get is a system in which essentially "land votes" in the way it does in the US Senate. That's bad little-d democracy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.

Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.

If you're talking about this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWASNqwNxw

Fryar is an attorney who spent time teaching at MCPS. He's defended IEP's against MCPS, so I'm very sure that the current MCPS administration would not be happy with an attorney on the BOE who knows where the dirty laundry sits.

I believe he was a teacher in Connecticut, not with MCPS.

Isn't there a new P with only one year as a teacher? And that was outside of MCPS as well. Being a MCPS teacher doesn't seem to be a requirement for a P either.

Who are you talking about?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.

Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.

If you're talking about this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWASNqwNxw

Fryar is an attorney who spent time teaching at MCPS. He's defended IEP's against MCPS, so I'm very sure that the current MCPS administration would not be happy with an attorney on the BOE who knows where the dirty laundry sits.

I believe he was a teacher in Connecticut, not with MCPS.

Isn't there a new P with only one year as a teacher? And that was outside of MCPS as well. Being a MCPS teacher doesn't seem to be a requirement for a P either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.

Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.

If you're talking about this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWASNqwNxw

Fryar is an attorney who spent time teaching at MCPS. He's defended IEP's against MCPS, so I'm very sure that the current MCPS administration would not be happy with an attorney on the BOE who knows where the dirty laundry sits.

I believe he was a teacher in Connecticut, not with MCPS.

Yeah, he didn’t even live here until 2019, I think. And he ran for public office in Connecticut as a Republican.

Oh no!!! Not Republican...say it ain't so!!!

Republican'ts see women as second class citizens, Love access to assault rifles and hate public education so ya that is pretty bad.

Well I am a republican and you are wrong on the first two. Yes, not happy with public education, which is why my kids are now in private.

How so Republican line is women shouldn't have control over their own bodies and it's harrasy to restrict assault rifles. These are facts.

Plenty of Republicans who are pro-choice and pro gun control. I vote republican whenever possible. Dems are ruining our country as you can see. Their days will be over soon!

If you are pro-choice and pro gun control and vote R, you're voting against your own interest. Sure there are one or two "moderates" in the senate who will wrinbg their hands and hem and haw but in the end always tow the party line and will never vote to make schools safer or opposite a pro-life Justice.