Police? Fire? Libraries? Teachers? Media Specialists?
It's your choice. And on February 14, 2012 at 1:30 PM the Montgomery County Council will hold a public hearing to discuss how these available funds should be spent. The Council will then immediately VOTE on how to spend these funds.
Call 240-777-7803 to sign up to speak or send your suggestions to county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov
The money up for grabs is $1,339,200 that Montgomery County earned by buying internet access for schools and libraries. The money is a rebate from the federal government. The rebate money can be spent any way the County decides.
So how do you think the money should be spent?
County Executive Ike Leggett wants to spend the money to lease more classroom trailers for public schools.
Superintendent Joshua Starr wants to use the money to buy Promethean Boards, or so he says. The Superintendent's proposal for how to use the money is a little murky. More on that in a followup post.
What's your opinion on how these funds should be spent?
Council staff report by Sr. Legislative Analyst Essie McGuire is up at http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=&event_id=419&meta_id=29932
ReplyDeletefrom report: "EDUCATION COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: The Education Committee unanimously recommends approval of the supplemental appropriation of Federal funds and the transfer of current revenue."
and: "MCPS is requesting appropriation of the FY12 E-rate funds to make the fourth and final payment for this initiative. Council staff supports using the Federal dollars for this purpose, as previously discussed, and recommends approval of the supplemental appropriation request."
and: "Council staff recommends approval of the Executive's recommended transfer of current revenue from Technology Modernization to Relocatable Classrooms."
@ Paula - which means that the County Exec wants to use the money for classroom trailers.
ReplyDeleteMCPS wants the money for...well...we don't know because the "fourth and final payment" on the Promethean Boards was already made. Anybody want to guess what MCPS wants the money for?
Well, this is confusing. It looks like the council has two sets of money and staff (Essie McGuire) is recommending to do both: 1. spend the money on the false '4th payment' to Dell, which has already been paid; AND 2. transfer the money to use for portables. If I am misinterpreting this please clarify.
ReplyDeleteHere's what the County Executive wants to have happen:
ReplyDeleteSpend the E-Rate Rebate on portable classrooms
and
make MCPS use some of their existing Tech Mod funding to make the "4th" Promethean Board lease payment. This memo is showing how the money will be moved around to accomplish the County Executive's goal. The County Exec wants the Council to approve his proposal tomorrow.
Since the Promethean Boards are actually already paid for, it would appear that MCPS is trying to hold on to this year's E-Rate Rebate rather than have the County do anything with it. What would MCPS really do with this money? Anybody want to guess?
Remember that for over a decade the E-Rate Rebates were a MCPS slush fund; unreported, unappropriated, and unknown.
Well, not exactly 'unknown.' E-Rate money comes from the federal government. If it is being misused by local governments, I would think the federal government would want to know about that.
ReplyDeleteUnknown to Montgomery County taxpayers as a source of funding. The funds were unreported in the budget, unappropriated by the Council, and unknown as a revenue source.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems Congress is not interested in following this money to make sure it is being spent appropriately and in the way it was intended. The E-rate money, as I understand it, comes from our federal taxes and the program is administered by the FCC. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing for Congress to follow. E-Rate funds are a rebate that come back to the funding body with no strings attached. The responsibility for tracking these funds lies with the Montgomery County Council, and they weren't interested in these dollars for over 10 years. It was only when they were brought out by the public that the Council took an interest.
ReplyDelete