Tobytown: No RideOn Bus or Access to Computers Yet, But Service Fair with Refreshments

http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2015/11/apple-ballot-keeps-historically-black.html

Legislature Gives $100,000 to Private School for Playground

Source:  School construction bill as passed by legislature.

For background on this private school giveaway, click here. 

Remember to thank the Montgomery County Delegates and Senator who are giving away State School Construction money to a private school rather than funding repairs for Montgomery County Public Schools.

Is your child in a classroom trailer?  You might want to consider a private school that is the recipient of consistent, significant State funding, including an entire free high school building!

Delegates Kramer, Cullison, and Morales

Senator Manno

Kramer, Cullison, Morales and Manno would rather see your child in this container than in a bricks and mortar school building.  

MCPS classroom trailer

Franchot, Hogan protest after Maryland legislature overrules school AC rule

Gov. Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot were fuming Wednesday that the General Assembly undid their decision to allow school systems to spend state tax money on portable air conditioners.

Speaking at a meeting of the Board of Public Works, Franchot also criticized the General Assembly over language in a budget bill that puts an end to the annual "beg-a-thon," in which local school superintendents appear before the board to ask for more construction money.

Hogan said the provisions were major reasons he decided not to sign the capital budget bill, where lawmakers made both changes. The bill will become law without his signature.

"It's one of the most absurd and ridiculous things I've ever seen the legislature do," Hogan said.

The provisions were adopted by a House-Senate conference committee that met last week to resolve differences between the two chambers' versions of the state's annual budget for construction projects.

Franchot complained that neither measure was aired in hearings during the legislature's 90-day session and weren't in earlier versions of the bill. He suggested the move was made in the dark and was a shot at him and Hogan.

"I think it's a bizarre use of the conference committee," Franchot said. "I don't know who put that language in. Nobody's raised their hand and said, 'I did it.'"...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-schools-construction-20160406-story.html

Mont. Co. Delegate Aruna Miller Ripped Air Conditioning Funding from Balt. Public School Students Last Week

City of Baltimore and Baltimore County public school students are still going to school in buildings without air conditioning.  The school buildings are old, and in some cases have been renovated to have lower ceilings and new windows that only partially open.  Here is a Baltimore Sun article about the public schools in Maryland without air conditioning.

The Maryland public school construction funding process regulations did not allow State funds to be used for window air conditioners.  So, the Board of Public Works (Hogan/Franchot/Kopp) changed the rule so that State funds could be used to purchase window unit air conditioners.  

Last week, in a behind closed doors legislative Conference Committee, 10 legislators met to finalize the Capital Budget.  In the process of finalizing the Capital Budget, these 10 legislators slipped in a little surprise.  Without notice to the public, they inserted an amendment in the Capital Budget (page 9 shown in italics) that will prevent State funds from being used to purchase window air conditioning units for public schools this year. 

Below is the list of 10 legislators and the video response from Baltimore County parents.  

We previously posted Comptroller Peter Franchot's response to this amendment.

At the bottom of this post is the response from the Montgomery County Delegate who was on this committee and signed off on the amendment to block the window air conditioner funding, Delegate Aruna Miller.  Delegate Miller responds that schools are only hot 2 months of the year and that the schools will get AC by 2021 anyway.     

Peter Franchot: ‏@peterfranchot Yesterday was a bad day for parents, teachers, students, & advocates for transparency in education.

Peter Franchot

19 hrs ·

Over the past couple of days, Marylanders from across our state have been calling me to express their shock and outrage over the actions that have been taken by the General Assembly in passing next year's capital budget.

For those who may have missed all of this, two amendments were added to the capital budget that will have a significant effect on the quality of public education, and public school governance, in the State of Maryland.

The first would remove the Board of Public Works from the state's public school construction appeals process altogether, and leave state funding and oversight completely in the hands of an obscure, unelected body that meets in virtual privacy. And in so doing, take away from concerned teachers, families and taxpayers the opportunity to express their concerns before the Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer in a transparent, public forum.

The second amendment would prohibit the use of state school construction dollars for portable air conditioning units in Baltimore County and Baltimore City - where tens of thousands of children suffer in temperatures that approach triple digits on warm school days. Many of you may recall that Governor Hogan and I worked together earlier this year to approve regulations that would allow the State to make timely investments in short-term temperature relief, just as local school systems around the state have done, with great success, for years.

All of this in a budget bill that was never intended to serve as a platform for legislative policymaking. None of this done with public hearings, advance notice, input or consent from Marylanders who foot the bill for the General Assembly.

To everyone who feels this is an inexplicable betrayal of the public trust, rest assured that I understand your frustration. And I've been in Annapolis long enough to know what is occurring. It is simply another cynical effort to limit the authority of the Board of Public Works, simply because Governor Hogan had the audacity to win the 2014 gubernatorial election and because I've had the audacity to set partisanship aside to work with the Governor on behalf of fiscal responsibility.
While these amendments were intended as shots at Governor Hogan and me, the children of our state - along with their families and teachers - are the ones who are really hurt by these Annapolis power plays. These actions represent the worst of public policy, because they put the health and safety of innocent people at risk, and because they have been done with an utter lack of transparency.
Fortunately for all of us, their efforts will ultimately prove ineffective. I will continue, with vigor, to use the Board of Public Works as a platform for asking hard questions and demanding accountability from education bureaucrats who receive hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. While I cannot speak for Governor Hogan, I suspect he feels the same way.

I know that so many of you have waited so long, and worked so hard, to protect your children from the health and safety effects of sweltering classrooms. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for standing up and being a part of this good fight. And please take my word that our fight will not only continue, but will escalate - both this year and beyond - until every classroom in Baltimore County and Baltimore City has the same temperature controls that are taken for granted in those backrooms in Annapolis. As I said last fall, we will get this done. We will protect the health and safety of our children, whether we do it the easy way or the hard way.

 https://www.facebook.com/peterfranchot/posts/838645356239518

General Assembly accepts budget amendment that gets rid of Board of Public Works Appeal Process in School Construction

...Foxwell wrote that the request to change the school construction funding process was an affront to transparency. The letter accuses the superintendents of wanting decisions on hundreds of millions of dollars in school construction funding left solely to a little-known committee.

Franchot called Alban’s letter the “most offensive” he’s received in office.

On Wednesday evening, Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the comptroller, said the amendment would go against a process going back many years for approving school construction projects in the state.

“If the school superintendents think that these huge contracts should be signed off ... behind the public’s back, that’s a very frustrating lesson they’re teaching the young people in our schools,” Hamm said.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/annapolis_2016/update-general-assembly-accepts-budget-amendment-that-gets-rid-of/article_383d7bc4-6c9e-597a-97a4-53c808fa27e5.html

MC Delegates Ana Sol Gutierrez, Aruna Miller, Marc Korman, and Kirill Reznik want to Eliminate Manadatory Audit of MCPS

Currently, Maryland law calls for a state audit of MCPS every 6 years.  MCPS has only had one of these audits, as the second audit from 2015 has not been released yet.

Yes, the MCPS audit is over a year overdue.  But, no matter, Delegates Gutierrez, Miller, Korman and Reznik want to eliminate the legislative requirement for these audits.  These four Montgomery County Delegates all sit on the Maryland House Appropriations Committee where yesterday they all voted to approve this legislation that will eliminate the mandatory 6 year audit of MCPS. 

Why audit MCPS' $2.4 billion dollar budget? Isn't it more fun to just let MCPS do what-ever with your tax dollars?  Knowing how your tax dollars are being spent can be so annoying. This link goes to the 2009 MCPS Audit.  

Zero oversight.  That's what we love here in Montgomery County. 

Here is the vote of the House Appropriations Committee showing how our Montgomery County Delegates voted on this bill. Spoiler alert: They voted to support the elimination of state audits! 

   hb0352_app by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Apple Ballot Keeps Historically Black, Low-Income Community Isolated By Cutting Bus Service

The citizens of Montgomery County continually vote into office the teachers' union Apple Ballot endorsed candidates.  Montgomery County citizens support teachers and think that teachers will do right by our citizens and chose candidates that value and respect all citizens.

But, the reality is very, very different.  

Here is an example of how the Apple Ballot candidates behave once they are in office.  

Tobytown is a historically Black, low-income community off of River Road on the western edge of Montgomery County.  Tobytown has never had access to public transportation.  A proposal to finally add RideOn bus service to this community in the FY16 Montgomery County budget has just been cut.

The cost of the RideOn bus service to this isolated community?  Just $200,000.

The Board of Education spent $2.4 MILLION yesterday alone on NO BID purchases, including $250,000 for no bid Promethean boards.  

Let's add up the cost of all of the MCPS take home cars for administrators and see how that cost equates to the needs of this community.  Alternatively, lets look at the $100,000+ expense account of the Board of Education.  

MCPS wastes $200,000 without a thought, while this community remains cut off and isolated.

Are the Apple Ballot social justice warriors interested in closing the achievement gap?  Only if it involves a cocktail party with campaign donations, photo opportunities they can post on Facebook, or trendy topics that will get media attention. 

Next election day, remember that this is the real face of the Apple Ballot endorsed candidates. 

Tobytown:  A Community Ignored

Without equal access to public transportation, Tobytown residents will never receive adequate access to gainful employment, healthcare, and education.  The 140-year poverty cycle continues...unless you help us stop it!

https://www.scribd.com/doc/289254879/MCEA-Recommended-Candidates-September-2014

Patch: Delegate Miller Asks Why Parents Were Not Informed About Investigation of Bus Driver

State Delegate Aruna Miller has begun an investigation into why it took more than a year for parents to learn that MCPS bus driver Charles Acker was suspected of downloading child pornography.

By Jillian Badanes | Email the author | April 4, 2011

...But, she said, MCPS should not have kept him in a position where he was the only adult responsible for children.
She said she is looking into when Montgomery County Police informed MCPS of the investigation and when MCPS informed schools.
"When any adult school employee has any child pornography charges, especially when they are the only adult with the children, I think they need to let parents know," Miller said.
She said she plans to propose legislation in Annapolis to ensure students are protected in the future.