Failure by Design: MoCo’s Education Swindle”

Welcome back to Montgomery County, where tax hikes are inevitable, accountability is optional, and the only thing more bloated than the budget is the ego of your elected officials.

In Part 1, we explored how the county spends like a tipsy heiress in a Chanel outlet. Today, we’re naming names and following the education dollars down the drain—because if you thought MoCo’s local government was a mess, wait until you get a load of the Montgomery County Board of Education, where “student achievement” is little more than a catchphrase in a PowerPoint presentation.

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Let’s Talk Numbers (No, Not Test Scores—We Don’t Do That Here)

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) will eat $3.4 billion in the FY25 budget. That’s nearly half the county’s total budget, and what do we have to show for it?

• Test scores are falling across all demographics
• Literacy and numeracy rates are in freefall
• Social promotion is the norm—not the exception
• Graduation rates are high, but skills are nonexistent

Let me be crystal clear: For $3.4 billion, we should have a 99% graduation rate, with 99% of those graduates ready to be Rhodes Scholars or rocket scientists. But instead, we get 18-year-olds who can’t read a menu without Google Translate or calculate a tip without an app.

Why? Because Montgomery County’s education model isn’t based on excellence. It’s based on optics.

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Name It and Shame It: The Elected Architects of Academic Decay

Let’s not pretend this is a cosmic accident. There are real people behind this disaster, each one pushing their “More, More, and Even More” budget agenda like junkies in a spending orgy.

🚨 Councilmember Will Jawando – “Mr. Everything is Equity”

Will’s solution to every education shortcoming is a new program with “equity” in the title and a multimillion-dollar price tag. Has he ever met a budget he didn’t love? Or a press conference he didn’t headline? His policies are about social posturing, not student outcomes.

🚨 Councilmember Gabe Albornoz – “King of Compassion Spending”

Gabe’s approach to education is like throwing birthday confetti into a hurricane and expecting order. He calls for more mental health resources, more staff, more wraparound services—without ever questioning why 3.4 BILLION dollars isn’t enough to get a kid to read at grade level.

🚨 Councilmember Evan Glass – “Influencer in Chief”

He’s got a slick media presence and a buzzword for every occasion—“inclusive,” “transformative,” “equitable.” But ask him about test scores and graduation inflation? Crickets. He voted for every school budget increase without a single demand for accountability.

🚨 Council President Andrew Friedson – “Budget Baller”

Friedson is supposed to be the grown-up in the room. Instead, he’s the accountant who signs off on every bloated education budget like it’s a party expense report. His fiscal conservatism vanishes the moment MCPS shows up with a slideshow.

🚨 Board of Education Member Lynne Harris – “Chief Excuse Officer”

A master of edu-speak, Harris can spin any data failure into a systemic crisis that requires more funding. Reading proficiency is down? Must be racism. Math comprehension is tanking? Blame climate change. Accountability? Nope. Just cut another check.

🚨 Board Member Karla Silvestre – “Apologist in Residence”

Instead of raising standards, Karla’s response is to abolish them. She promotes social promotion like it’s a moral imperative. No more failing grades, no more merit-based classes—because “achievement gaps” are uncomfortable, and feelings matter more than fundamentals.

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Social Promotion: Failure with a Ribbon

MCPS now operates on a “Don’t Let Little Johnny Cry” policy. Kids are passed to the next grade regardless of whether they can read, write, or count to ten without help from Siri.

Failing a student? That’s trauma.
Holding a child back to catch up? That’s inequality.
Expecting academic rigor? That’s oppression.

So what happens when we socially promote a kid year after year until they reach 12th grade, reading at a 5th-grade level?

We graduate them anyway.

Then they go to apply for a job or trade school, and suddenly—SURPRISE—they can’t function in a world that doesn’t care about their participation trophy.

And when they can’t find a job? The County Council wrings its hands and demands:

• Higher minimum wage
• More taxpayer-funded housing
• Expanded healthcare subsidies
• New youth employment programs
• Food assistance
• Emotional counseling
• Summer learning camps

In other words, failure at the front end is just used to justify a bigger budget on the back end.

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The Union Puppet Masters

Of course, we can’t forget the MCEA. They’re the cheerleaders of this chaos—marching lockstep behind every failing policy, provided it comes with more dues-paying members and higher salaries.

Ask them about outcomes, and they’ll say, “It’s not our fault.”
Ask them about accountability, and they’ll say, “We need more time.”
Ask them for transparency, and they’ll say, “That’s union busting!”

The MCEA’s vision of education is less about teaching and more about empire-building. Their wishlist is an all-you-can-eat buffet—funded by your property taxes.

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It’s All Connected

The education disaster isn’t a standalone problem. It’s the linchpin for a full-blown social collapse masquerading as progressive governance.

• We fail kids in schools → They fail in life
• They fail in life → The county creates new government programs
• New programs cost money → You pay more in taxes
• You move out → The tax base erodes
• The county collapses → The same officials say they “need more tools.”

Rinse. Repeat. Decline.

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