Education

The Core Problems:

A lack of transparently has resulted in yearly cost overruns. Consequently, classroom sizes have grown, the number of highly paid middle managers have grown, maintenance is delayed, and our children and their teachers suffer. This could be easily turned around if the County Council and School Board required the MCPS to make its accounts payable data public. Despite more than a 2 billion dollar budget, neither the Council, School Board or public is permitted to see who the MCPS writes its checks to, in what amounts, and for what specific goods and services.

The following information is an excerpt of the information Steve provided to the Teacher's Union - the Montgomery County Education Association.

On the Council, I will work vigorously to resolve:

1) The facilities management and planning process.

It is wholly unacceptable to have parents make annual treks to the School Board and County Council in a seemingly futile attempt to secure the most rudimentary of services and necessities, ranging from a method of cleaning a gymnasium floor in Bethesda, to HVAC and plumbing parts in many parts of the County as was described at this year’s School Board meeting.

The MCPS’ position that the County is at zero growth, as their planners have expressed to me, is integral to the largest of our County’s problems. Clearly the County is growing and it is the MCPS’ responsibility to vigorously oppose any development for which it does not have adequate facilities or funding to provide them before they are needed. Portable classrooms are something I would expect to see in the event of a disaster, such as a fire or flood. To attempt to convince the public that there are no other options but to put our children and teachers in trailers, as has been the case for many years, highlights a failure on the part of the system that is managing and overseeing the process.

2. No Child Left Behind Impacts.

Many parents and teachers feel that such a significant focus upon the test, results in many children being stressed such that learning is no longer fun. Consequently, many children describe their learning experience as boring. Simultaneously, teachers have shared their views that they feel they are unable to help students excel in areas of interest to them, saying there is no way to do so under the current system. This process seems likely to strip the students’ creativity, causing some to want to stay home, and if used for a rationale to cut other elements of the curriculum, such as art, music and PE, is not healthy. Many studies show the significant benefits of staying physically active, yet our decision makers seem to not see a way to get these vital courses back in school.

3. Lack of Accountability.

The MCPS system lacks accountability to the taxpayers, the teachers and the County Council. That is unacceptable and must change. Rather than fighting to keep a shroud of secrecy around its payables data, for example, MCPS should be willing to show exactly how it is spending its funds. This is especially important in light of the fact that the MCPS believes it is unable to operate as we need it to based upon its current budget. This is like having your child spend their allowance, say they need more, but then they refuse to let you see the receipts for their prior purchases. Responsible parents would not run their households this way. Likewise we should not allow our government to run this way.

For more information on accountability, please go to http://www.agacgfm.org/harrispoll2008.aspx

4. Lack of Diversity.

Our children are more than calculators setup to produce routine test answers. They need to be exposed to a wide array of learning experiences as were most of their parents. By eliminating the arts, music, and physical education, for example, they are being robbed of precious opportunities to develop the interests that may shape their entire lives. Consequently, the creativity that they bring to kindergarten is diminished or worse, largely eliminated by a construct that appears singularly focused to achieve test results.

So long as there are no consequences for poor performance on the part of the decision makers, we cannot expect to see any positive change. I believes as a start, we should implement a system-wide accountability test, setup by PTAs, whereby all parents rank the performance of the MCPS, and those results are made public on the County Council website. The data could be input on-line, using existing technology, with parent notifications by email or backpacks.

If elected, and the MCPS believes they cannot afford such data collection and reporting measures, I will provide the internet capability to gather such data, in a secure environment, and publish it real-time, at no charge.

5. Test Score Unanswered Questions.

In recent years an effort has been made to raise the age of children entering school, yet as I understand it, the testing criteria has not changed. If this is true, we are conceivably testing children that are six months older than in previous years, with the same test. Hence, their test score should rise for no other reason that they are older.

6. Concerns Over the Math Curriculum.

I understand from some interviews of MCPS staff that a strong feeling exists with regard to a need for a substantive change whereby facts are taught. I understand that the term “facts” is synonymous with memorizing of tables, for example. The interviewees expressed a strong feeling that facts should be memorized, rather than learned on one’s own. I agree. I see no benefit for a child to spend their time trying to stumble upon known mathematical facts.

7. Resistance to Teacher Input.

Montgomery County is blessed with a large number of first rate, dedicated teaching professionals. I have spoken with a number of them who have much to offer, in the way of creative solutions, yet they feel they don’t have a practical way to make their suggestions known such that they can be acted upon and replicated. I believe that an on-line data collection of MCPS staff’ unique talents and capabilities would be a good start for putting together a list of resources to help us turn our school system around to where parents and teachers would like it to be.

If the MCPS feels they do not have the capability to gather such data within the confines of their existing systems capability or budget, I will provide the capability at no charge, using minimal funds from my Council budget to do so and shall make the data publicly available.

I would like to know your thoughts on these issues. Click here to share them with me.

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