Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: MCPS spent ~$160,000 of tax dollars to prep BOE President Karla Silvestre. 11 lawyers, 56 days' work

Friday, July 19, 2024

MCPS spent ~$160,000 of tax dollars to prep BOE President Karla Silvestre. 11 lawyers, 56 days' work

In The Daily Mail, reporter James Reinl. Full story here. Yellow highlights my own.

Schools EXPOSED for spending $160K on lawyers to spin antisemitism problem, not textbooks

One of America's biggest school districts spent $157,000 of taxpayer's money to prepare a board member to speak about its antisemitism problem, casting doubt on its commitment to education, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), a sprawling Maryland district of some 210 K-12 schools in the Washington DC suburbs, spent the money on lawyers to ready education board president Karla Silvestre for a congressional grilling.

And:

A public records request by Parents Defending Education (PDE) shows how the district spent $156,987 on 11 lawyers from top firm Venable for 56 days' work from March through May, ahead of the House subcommittee hearing on May 8.

3 comments:

AnonymousJuly 19, 2024 at 9:01 PM
Easy come easy go, the taxpayers are here to help.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousJuly 21, 2024 at 2:38 PM
That's a lot of money. It could have been used for the Virtual Academy.
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Principles

Formed in 2002, the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland seeks to achieve the goals of coherent, content-rich curriculum standards; high expectations combined with timely remediation and acceleration; a wider range of educational options for parents and children; greater transparency and accountability; and meaningful community input.

E-mail: parentscoalitionmc AT outlook.com

What The Washington Post said about the Parents' Coalition

The coalition might be the best-known parent advocacy group in the region. Its members represent several constituencies, including parents of special education and gifted education students and fiscal watchdogs. The group's defining victory came this school year when the school system scaled back the fees charged to families for course materials.

Coalition leaders have drawn attention to the misuse of funds collected from students for activities, the broadcast of a commercial radio service on school buses and, with their "Weast Watch" blog, the travel habits of Weast and his lieutenants.

The Washington Post, June 4, 2009

Jerry Weast on the Parents' Coalition

"Along the way, you’ve had a challenging relationship with the Parents’ Coalition, the network of citizen activists who use the political process and other means to hold MCPS accountable.

The thing people accuse me of is listening, but not hearing. I hear, but I do not always agree. I am sorry that the world is faster than it was 10 years ago. I did not do that. [But] if we do not keep up, then our kids will be behind. We have to stop whining and get real."

Bethesda Magazine, March-April 2011