Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Except it is a false choice, especially since there is no guarantee that people provided pk in any jurisdiction will actually stay in that jurisdiction so that benefits are reaped by the people who expended the money for pk.

An excellent argument for no longer spending money on roads.

?? Whoever lives, works or travels through a jurisdiction will use and benefit from the roads. It doesn’t matter if it is not the same people who were using the roads when they were built.

If MoCo spends money to educate a preschooler and the preschooler moves to Germany, NY, etc MoCo will not derive the benefit of having educated the preschooler.

Roads are entirely different.

If MoCo spends money on a road, and somebody uses the road to drive from Prince George's County to Frederick County or Fairfax County to Howard County, Montgomery County doesn't derive the benefit of building and maintaining the road.

Schools are entirely different. Everyone benefits when a child grows up to be a productive adult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Except it is a false choice, especially since there is no guarantee that people provided pk in any jurisdiction will actually stay in that jurisdiction so that benefits are reaped by the people who expended the money for pk.

An excellent argument for no longer spending money on roads.

?? Whoever lives, works or travels through a jurisdiction will use and benefit from the roads. It doesn’t matter if it is not the same people who were using the roads when they were built.

If MoCo spends money to educate a preschooler and the preschooler moves to Germany, NY, etc MoCo will not derive the benefit of having educated the preschooler.

Roads are entirely different.

Anonymous wrote:

Except it is a false choice, especially since there is no guarantee that people provided pk in any jurisdiction will actually stay in that jurisdiction so that benefits are reaped by the people who expended the money for pk.

An excellent argument for no longer spending money on roads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

It is already falling well behind other areas because of high taxes and lack of jobs because of a terrible business environment. You are already seeing people choose or leave to VA/DC. Major tax increases will only further drive out people who provide the tax base for the already generous social services. If the tax base deteriorates further, we won’t even be able to fund what we already do, never mind new programs.

Flippant statements like “figure it out” pretend there is some unlimited money tree out there that can be tapped indefinitely.

Pay $ now or pay $$$ later. Your choice.

There is no choice. The state is losing millions of dollars or tax revenue due to the pandemic, state shutdown, massive unemployment not seen since the Great Depression. Where do you think the money for universal pre-K is going to come from? The state and county are already depleting their reserves for the current crisis. There will be no extra money and state and county budgets are going to have to have across the boards cuts. Where do you think the money will come to add an expensive new program will come from? We are going to be lucky for the schools to be able to continue the programs they currently have. And I expect that schools will be cutting programs and services in the next year or two because reduced budgets will not be able to support everything they do now.

In addition, as another PP pointed out, schools are going to have to come up with creative ways to reduce the number of children in school at any given time to enforce social distancing as much as possible. There is no way that you can add an entire class of students for universal pre-K unless you expect the pre-K classes to be held in the parking lots.

The idea of adding universal pre-K was already a long shot before the current pandemic. With the current crisis, considering it is just a delusional drug-inspired dream.

There absolutely is a choice, and we've made it. You know that ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure saying? We've decided we'd rather pay for the pound of cure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

It is already falling well behind other areas because of high taxes and lack of jobs because of a terrible business environment. You are already seeing people choose or leave to VA/DC. Major tax increases will only further drive out people who provide the tax base for the already generous social services. If the tax base deteriorates further, we won’t even be able to fund what we already do, never mind new programs.

Flippant statements like “figure it out” pretend there is some unlimited money tree out there that can be tapped indefinitely.

Pay $ now or pay $$$ later. Your choice.

There is no choice. The state is losing millions of dollars or tax revenue due to the pandemic, state shutdown, massive unemployment not seen since the Great Depression. Where do you think the money for universal pre-K is going to come from? The state and county are already depleting their reserves for the current crisis. There will be no extra money and state and county budgets are going to have to have across the boards cuts. Where do you think the money will come to add an expensive new program will come from? We are going to be lucky for the schools to be able to continue the programs they currently have. And I expect that schools will be cutting programs and services in the next year or two because reduced budgets will not be able to support everything they do now.

In addition, as another PP pointed out, schools are going to have to come up with creative ways to reduce the number of children in school at any given time to enforce social distancing as much as possible. There is no way that you can add an entire class of students for universal pre-K unless you expect the pre-K classes to be held in the parking lots.

The idea of adding universal pre-K was already a long shot before the current pandemic. With the current crisis, considering it is just a delusional drug-inspired dream.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

Figure it out. Says someone who clearly has no idea of finances.

The state and county have had budget problems annually. The state has a legal requirement that the school budget goes up a certain amount every year and even that is difficult to include, but must due to the law. Now, we have the state shutdown for a minimum of two months. There are a ton of small businesses that have or will go out of business before being allowed to reopen that will not be paying business taxes. The tourism industry which brings in hundreds of millions of dollars of sales taxes is closed and not generating tax revenue. A record number of residents are unemployed and we are paying out UI and not taking in any income tax from them. The state has invested virtually all of its reserves for pandemic response including setting up the field hospital in the Baltimore Convention Center, another in the government owned hotel next door (which is not taking in any revenue as it is closed), paying for the test kits from S Korea, and so on. Now, thanks to the efforts of the NIMBYs, the purple line contractors are pulling out and the state is going to have to invest more money into either wooing them back (which is probably the cheapest option), getting bids and hiring new contractors (which will cost the government more than negotiating with the current contractors) or stopping the work, in which case we will owe a HUGE amount back to the federal government. The money that came from the federal DOT has to be paid back if the project is not completed.

The state is going to have to make sweeping cuts across the board due to the huge loss of revenue. The Kirwin recommendations are estimated to cost about $4B annually for 8 years for a total of $32B. You think the state has $4B hidden in a secret bank account somewhere that they have been hiding just to be able to afford a luxury such as school budget increases?

You are completely ignorant about the state finances and you have your head stuck in the ground like an ostrich if you think there is a way to figure out adding $4B to the state budget for the next 8 years when we are facing a historic drop in tax revenue.

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Then how come the Damascus principal who failed to report the rapes in a timely manner was just reassigned to a job in the main office that they created just for her, instead of being fired for incompetence?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

It is already falling well behind other areas because of high taxes and lack of jobs because of a terrible business environment. You are already seeing people choose or leave to VA/DC. Major tax increases will only further drive out people who provide the tax base for the already generous social services. If the tax base deteriorates further, we won’t even be able to fund what we already do, never mind new programs.

Flippant statements like “figure it out” pretend there is some unlimited money tree out there that can be tapped indefinitely.

Pay $ now or pay $$$ later. Your choice.

Except it is a false choice, especially since there is no guarantee that people provided pk in any jurisdiction will actually stay in that jurisdiction so that benefits are reaped by the people who expended the money for pk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

It is already falling well behind other areas because of high taxes and lack of jobs because of a terrible business environment. You are already seeing people choose or leave to VA/DC. Major tax increases will only further drive out people who provide the tax base for the already generous social services. If the tax base deteriorates further, we won’t even be able to fund what we already do, never mind new programs.

Flippant statements like “figure it out” pretend there is some unlimited money tree out there that can be tapped indefinitely.

Pay $ now or pay $$$ later. Your choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. We can't afford Kirwin. The state and county taxes are already some of the highest in the nation. Add to that the huge costs that we bear from the pandemic response (from setting up the field hospital in the Baltimore Convention Center, the additional beds in the hotel next door, the Covid-19 tests just acquired from S Korea, etc). And the fact that most of the state residents are not working. The state is paying out unemployment and not collecting tax revenues from a huge portion of the population. The Kirwin commission recommendations are expected to cost $4B annually to implement.
So, the state has burned through their reserves and is going to have severely depleted tax revenue, where do the supporters think that the money for the Kirwin recommendations is going to come from? You want to raise taxes on businesses that have closed their doors, but are still paying employees for months? There are a ton of small businesses that have already gone under and lots more that will go under before we reopen. If you raise taxes, you are going to force some middle sized companies to also shut their doors for good.

You can't bleed a corpse. Some of you need to get your heads out of the clouds and pay attention to the cold hard facts. Maryland is going to have a big problem next year with the budget. There are going to have to be cuts across the board because they won't be able to afford the budget as it was. There is no way that the state will be able to afford $4B in any of the next 2-3 years (at least).

+100000


3/4 of the people in DMV though are socialist liberals. There's an infinite supply of other peoples' money even during a huge pandemic that has shuttered businesses and made millions unemployed. Kirwin supporters are absolutely tone deaf.

You don’t have to be Trump supporter railing against the socialist liberals to be really concerned about where the state’s budget is heading and our ability to undertake a massive new spending program, especially now.

Anonymous wrote:Good. We can't afford Kirwin. The state and county taxes are already some of the highest in the nation. Add to that the huge costs that we bear from the pandemic response (from setting up the field hospital in the Baltimore Convention Center, the additional beds in the hotel next door, the Covid-19 tests just acquired from S Korea, etc). And the fact that most of the state residents are not working. The state is paying out unemployment and not collecting tax revenues from a huge portion of the population. The Kirwin commission recommendations are expected to cost $4B annually to implement.
So, the state has burned through their reserves and is going to have severely depleted tax revenue, where do the supporters think that the money for the Kirwin recommendations is going to come from? You want to raise taxes on businesses that have closed their doors, but are still paying employees for months? There are a ton of small businesses that have already gone under and lots more that will go under before we reopen. If you raise taxes, you are going to force some middle sized companies to also shut their doors for good.

You can't bleed a corpse. Some of you need to get your heads out of the clouds and pay attention to the cold hard facts. Maryland is going to have a big problem next year with the budget. There are going to have to be cuts across the board because they won't be able to afford the budget as it was. There is no way that the state will be able to afford $4B in any of the next 2-3 years (at least).

+100000


3/4 of the people in DMV though are socialist liberals. There's an infinite supply of other peoples' money even during a huge pandemic that has shuttered businesses and made millions unemployed. Kirwin supporters are absolutely tone deaf.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

It is already falling well behind other areas because of high taxes and lack of jobs because of a terrible business environment. You are already seeing people choose or leave to VA/DC. Major tax increases will only further drive out people who provide the tax base for the already generous social services. If the tax base deteriorates further, we won’t even be able to fund what we already do, never mind new programs.

Flippant statements like “figure it out” pretend there is some unlimited money tree out there that can be tapped indefinitely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.

Seriously. MoCo is one of the richest counties in the country. Saying we can’t afford it is ridiculous. Figure it out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

At this point (even without COVID) the state would need to drastically cut or eliminate government employee pensions or drastically raise taxes to afford universal pre-K. It's a boondoggle.

I looked up the definition of boondoggle: a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft

Nope, universal pre-K is not a boondoggle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish people would realize teachers unions have relatively little power in Maryland because it’s a “right to fire” state.

Maryland needs universal pre-K but at this rate it will never happen.

No, it won’t because we simply can’t afford it. We are going to have no choice but to cut a lot of government programs/services. It sure isn’t the time to add a very large expense. And ignoring expense, at a time when we are trying to create greater space in schools, adding one or two more grades would have the exact opposite result of making schools far more crowded.

If you think universal pre-K is expensive, only imagine how expensive it is to NOT have universal pre-K.