Fire and rescue services in Montgomery, until about 20 years ago, were largely run by local volunteer fire departments.  (MoCo has 19 volunteer fire and rescue departments around the county, administered and staffed as neighborhood organizations).   Some professionals were hired by the county to supplement the staffing.  In the late 1980s, the county began maneuvering to take the departments out of the hands of the volunteers, and place them in the hands of county government.  County employees are easier for the government to control.   Now, the situation has been reversed, and fire departments are staffed largely with county employees, with volunteers filling in remaining spots.   I haven’t seen any suggestions that the services provided by the volunteers are any different than those provided by the unionized firefighters.  It’s simply the standard Montgomery County assumption that things are better left for the government to do.

This transformation has a large fiscal impact, to be sure.  Salaries make up a large portion of fire and rescue expenditures.  But it also has an effect on the connection between the firefighters and the population, and the sense of local community that existed when departments were local volunteer associations.  In MoCo, though, voluntarism and community often take a back seat to the desirability of government control.  It’s a classic example of the subtitle motto of this blog:  government opposes and crowds out civil society.

There must have been some arm-twisting going on, because the Board still was clearly opposed to the idea of a school that would compete with Montgomery County Public Schools.  Of eight members, two voted against the application, and the Board president showed his distaste, too. 

I can only conclude that they had run out of roadblocks to throw in front of the school organizers.   Another applicant, Seneca Creek Charter School ,  gave up on Montgomery County and will organize in Frederick County, instead.

I  hope that this is the beginning of the loosening of the MCPS monopoly, but I’m not optimistic.  The new superintendent, Joshua Starr, is not a fan of charter schools, finding them “unnecessary”.  Note the attitude there: You can have a free education at any school that he thinks is “necessary” to exist.  He will fit right into Montgomery County, where the government does not want residents to have a choice, but rather accept what the county thinks is best for them.

I don’t know whether the students will get a “better” education at one of these public schools than their local public school.  But I know that we are all better off if the choice exists.   That choice exists at 51 charter schools that will be operating in Maryland next fall.  Only one of those fifty will be in Montgomery County.

To be sure, kids don’t belong on the streets during those hours. But that is an issue for parents, not for the police. There are lots of problems with this proposal.

First, it is ridden with loopholes. Children are exempt if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian, or if they are on an errand for parent or guardian, or going to or from work, or going to or from a school function or a religious function. It seems that it would be all too easy for children to evade the curfew.

Second, it is likely to be ineffective at reducing crime (its stated purpose). A study of a similar curfew in DC found that the curfew did not help reduce crime rates.

Most important, it is too random and broad for comfort. There are constitutional questions, issues of basic civil liberties (freedom of association, freedom of speech). County Executive Leggett says that it won’t be used except “where youth are exhibiting potentially dangerous behaviors.” Well, police can do that now – without needing this clumsy, overreaching, and invasive tool.

The county has a hard enough time doing the jobs it is supposed to be doing; it shouldn’t take on additional tasks that are intrusive and likely to be pointless.

The MoCo school superintendent has finally recommended approval of a charter school in the county.  The application is the third from the Community Montessori Public Charter School.  The Board of Education in the County, historically focused on defending MCPS from competition, must approve the application.

The Board of Education has previously rejected all applications,  with such extreme bias that the state has berated them.   Professionalism and concern for the best education for the county’s children have taken a distant back seat to protecting their fiefdom and privileges.  Has the call for choice in education finally reached even the board of education?   They are scheduled to vote on Thursday.

Just like the Fillmore project – hell, just like every county project, the new seven-story Silver Spring “library” is already over budget – and construction isn’t due to start for another year, at least.  The budget for the project is $63.7 million.

The library space itself – and I love libraries — is questionable.  The space for the library is not twice, not thrice, but five times larger than the current Silver Spring library.  Just how large is the book collection compared to the book collection at the current Silver Spring Library?

But the library space is the minority of the project.  More than half the floors in the building are to be dedicated to non-library uses.  The building will have an art gallery, county offices, public meeting rooms, a coffee shop — a coffee shop! — , subsidized space for some community groups, and – oh, yes – a library.

So why call it a library?  Because, like schools, it’s easier to build public support for a ”library” than for another unneeded county office building, and purchasing support for subsidized space for politically connected community groups.  (How many civic buildings does that make in Silver Spring alone?)

The County Council, not to be outdone, finalized a budget this week that more than doubles the increase that Leggett proposed:  $168 million more than last year’s, representing a 2.2% increase.
The council will increase the property tax rate by 4.6% to help pay for this, along with the odious bag tax.

The County Council and the County Exec are now scuffling over how much tax money to give away to politically favored private companies.  Leggett wants to give away $4 million to the Westfield corporation, which in turn would be used to bring Costco to Wheaton Plaza.  Westfield is in tight with the county, having previously been fed $6 million to build a garage at Wheaton Plaza.

The money comes from the Economic Development Fund Loan and Grant Program, which has given out about $25 million to well-connected businesses in the county such as Marriott and others.   In difficult financial times, Ike is proposing to increase this corporate welfare spending by 447% in FY 2012.  The budget target for the Economic Development Fund is $4.92 million;  in the current year, spending is budgeted at $1.53 million.

The County Council voted this week to go with Leggett’s proposal to give the four million to Westfield.  The floodgates are officially open.

First, the new bag tax.

Then, the (admittedly coerced) agreement to divert resources from crime to tracking immigrants.

And now, distressingly, more bad news from the education front.  Incoming schools superintendent Joshua Starr (who looks like a real loser so far), is adding to that initial impression.

Starr told the Gazette recently that he doesn’t see the need for any charter schools in Montgomery.  Charter schools, I shouldn’t need to note, are those which would be outside of Starr’s control.

MoCo is a particularly dismal place for those trying to establish charter schools.  Montgomery County Public Schools  fights hard to maintain their monopoly, and they are strengthened in the iron triangle with the support of the Montgomery County Board of Education and the Montgomery County Education Association (the teachers’ union).    That’s a power trio that you don’t mess with in this county.

In 2010, two applicants for charter schools found that out the hard way, as the Board of Education summarily dismissed their applications to establish public schools that would not be beholden to the MCPS bureaucracy.  (In a textbook example of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the County Board of Education is given control and decision authority over charter school applications ).

One application came from Global Garden Public Charter School, envisioned as a small K-8 school in the Kensington/Wheaton area.   The school would feature a longer school day and a longer school year, an IB program, and have a substantial focus on foreign language education.

Another application came from Crossway Community Charter School, a K-6 Montessori school, also in Kensington.

Upon appeal, the State has slapped the County Board for their decision to reject the applications.

-           The Board of Education did not provide any rationale, in writing or orally, for turning down the 350-page application.

-           TheBoard of Education used criteria for evaluating the applications that are nearly impossible to meet.

-           The Board of Education did not follow state regulations for evaluating the applications

-           The state’s decision also implied that several members of the Board were biased against allowing any charter school to operate in Montgomery.  They cited explicit statements by Board members  that were hostile to charter schools, because they might take resources away from MCPS.   The State had to remind these Board members that charter schools are public schools.  These Board members were not concerned with public schools, therefore; they were surely  not concerned with the education of Montgomery students.  They were concerned with protecting the MCPS monopoly.

-           The stated also cited statements to the same effect by MCPS superintendent Weast.  <Why, you have to ask, is the MCPS superintendent involved in the decision to allow competing public schools?  Because MoCo can’t even manage the façade of a fair evaluation. >

The ruling from the State concluded that the County Board of Education needs to re-evaluate the applications.  Unfortunately, we don’t have reason to believe that the Board will be any less biased this time around.   It might help for those who are interested to contact the Montgomery County Board of Education and emphasize the need for professional evaluation, instead of defending their turf.

And the expenses are significant.  First, the budgetary costs.  Are these in the budget? How much are they estimated to run?  DHS estimates the costs to average $78 per state — so you can assume it will cost Maryland at least $150 million.

There are also security costs.  Implementation of Real ID will surely lead to a loss of security.  Forming a national database that lists all the private information of license-holders, is like putting all your money in one box.  Sophisticated (and maybe not-so-sophisticated) hackers will have a ready-made avenue for identity theft.  In that respect, Real ID represents a tremendous security threat.  Identity theft is already a widespread problem, and Real ID would make it worse.

Then there are costs to physical safety:  Already, 30-50% of non-native applicants for Maryland drivers’ licenses are being rejected by the MVA, because of insufficient documentation of residence.  The General Assembly is currently considering, independent of Real ID, six separate bills to require proof of federal immigration status for drivers.   What will happen if Real ID is put into effect, and even more drivers are rejected?

It’s not likely that they will just quit their jobs and plop down on the couch at home.  Rather, it’s likely that they will just drive anyway.  This means that they become kind of a black market on the highway.  They will avoid police, maybe decline insurance, and become kind of an underground, below-the-radar fleet.  Unlicensed drivers mean it’s harder for police to track them down in the event of an accident, and it is harder to hold them accountable.  The overall effect is reduced highway safety.

And what are the benefits of implementing Real ID?  Maybe you could say that all the costs are worthwhile, if it reduces the threat of terrorism.  Right.   Somehow, I just can’t imagine Mohammed Atta calling up Osama bin Laden to report, “Uh, sorry chief, we have to scrap the whole operation because I couldn’t get driver’s license from the MVA.”