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Friday, June 3, 2011

Elrich: The whole [MCPS] budget process is bogus

The online Gazette is reporting that "the County Council's plan to have school employees pay more for their health care has failed."

Councilmember Marc Elrich is quoted saying:
"That means they lied about their budgetary needs," said Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park of the Board of Education. "That just goes to show you how nontransparent and fudged the school budget is. They just discovered $18 million lying around? That's b-------t."

[...]

"If someone tells you they just found it, I don't believe a word," Elrich said. "That means the whole budget process is bogus."

8 comments:

  1. Glad you are waking up Councilmember Elrich. This is how $20+ million worth of Promethean Boards showed up one day.

    And what about MYMCPS? MCPS found the funding for that even when the Council said no new technology funds were coming in. A miracle?

    And by the way, seen any accounting of the E-Rate Federal Rebates lately? How many million coming in to MCPS there? What happened to the Council's appropriation of these funds?

    What about the Wireless Generation Royalties?

    MCPS has stashes of money and no oversight of their spending.

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  2. Im the future I would hope that Mr. Elrich would find better language to use than words some would find offensive and inflammatory.

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  3. In this article the Councilmember has a name and he is quoted on his position. So let's try something new for this post. Want to comment? Then step up to the plate like Councilmember Elrich and use your real name.

    Let's see how many people can stand up for their position on this issue. And let's be clear, the issue here is that the school system was able to pull $18 million out of a hat. Not $18 million for Media Specialist positions to be restored, not $18 million for the Einstein Visual Arts Center to be restored, not $18 million for the Secondary Learning Centers or Kingsley Wilderness Center to be restored and not $18 million to reduce class size in schools with over 35 in a classroom. This $18 million has not magically appeared to benefit students.

    So if you want to defend a system that hides money and hides the decision process for deciding when to reveal hidden money, speak up with your name. There's no reason for any anonymous comments on this one. Unless of course you are part of the team that keeps these kinds of secrets from the public and then I guess you do have reason to hide.

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  4. Thank you Councilmember Elrich! Now that the council has established that the Board of Education has lied about government funds, what will be your next step? Please let us know.

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  5. Paula,

    The Apple Ballot supports MCPS hiding funds. Nothing will happen. It's all good with the Apple.

    Students lose services, classes, opportunities and can drop out. That's all good as long as the Apple gets what it wants. Too bad no one at the secret MCPS budget table represents children.

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  6. Janis,
    Thanks. you are right. That is the Apple Ballot which lists the candidate choice of the MoCo Education Association (aka the teachers' union). That is their job, though, to advocate for teachers, and from what I see they have done a pretty good job. It is not their job to manage taxpayer dollars or MCPS dollars. That is the job of the Board of Education, which is elected body, Chris Barclay, President. They are elected with the job of taking the $2.1Billion and making sure it is well spent. Folks, did you vote for this Board of Ed? All the incumbents that ran in the last election were re-elected, which suggest a satisfied constiuency and very satisfied taxpayers. They represent you. And of course overall it is the County Council, also an elected body, that is the final say on the budget.

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  7. @Janis (11:09)

    So you support Elrich's use of foul language b/c it fits your agenda, yet you had posted the following below.


    Janis Sartucci - http://themorechild.com/2009/05/12/pias-need-not-apply/

    “we should not discourage the language”

    Well then you would LOVE our Superintendent! He calls our kids “cream of the crap”!

    http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/536671.html

    Sorry, we don’t talk to each other this way in our house, and I don’t want my children being spoken to this way by the adults in charge of their education. The Board of Education and Superintendent model the behavior that they expect from MCPS school staff. And thanks to their lead, parents get excluded from participation and shut out of their local schools with the blessing of the Board and Superintendent.

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  8. And...anonymous. Nothing of substance to say on this article? One more time, want to comment? Use your name.

    Hiding $18 million is a serious issue. At the recent Board of Education meeting Board members lamented the budget "cuts" that they had to approve because money was so tight. Now we all know that was a total joke. The Board had $18 million sitting around that they didn't reveal to the public, but the unions knew all about.

    Thanks for reminding everyone of how our students were treated under Superintendent Weast's tenure.

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