Michael Bell
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Tax Credits for Your Child’s Private School Education
Read more: Tax Credits for Your Child’s Private School EducationTLDR: Send a message to Wes Moore expressing support for the ECCA. The recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act has a few provisions that are transformative (some less so), and one of them is the associated Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). This act provides a tax credit for private school tuition. Nothing in the…
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A Message to an AP US History Student
Read more: A Message to an AP US History StudentA parent wrote in expressing concern about the tone of a lesson in Sandy Young’s AP US History class at Churchill High School. The student did not feel comfortable during the lesson which included an apparent negative juxtaposition between President Trump/MAGA and Governor Moore. (The lead image above is from the lesson presentation.) You can…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 3—The Fallacy of Classroom Size
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 3—The Fallacy of Classroom SizeIn his 2023 piece Reforming our school budgets, county executive candidate Evan Glass emphasizes the importance of funding and reducing classroom size as a primary pathway to improved school performance. As I talk with parents, educators and residents, there is common agreement on the need to ensure that the money we allocate to Montgomery County…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 2—The Voting Record
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 2—The Voting RecordIn Part 1 of this series we suggested that County Executive candidate Evan Glass bolster his demands for transparency by disclosing those MCPS union members and administrators involved in the Beidelman cover-up. In this post we look at Mr. Glass’s voting record on the MCPS budget. Mr. Glass made an emphatic case for transparency in…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 1—Open MoCo’s Epstein Files
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 1—Open MoCo’s Epstein FilesCounty Executive candidate Evan Glass recently posted a call for MCPS transparency and a link to his piece in Bethesda Magazine Reforming our school budgets. That piece also focused on a demand for transparency in MCPS. In this series we’ll investigate just how sincere his demands are. The “Epstein Files” are all the rage, nowadays…
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‘Administrative Burden’ in the Pre-K Schools
Read more: ‘Administrative Burden’ in the Pre-K SchoolsWith the 2025–2026 academic year opening, I recently overheard two fathers talking about their children’s pre-K school. The matter at hand was before-care and after-care. “We got a MailChimp survey asking the parents if they need before-care starting at 7:30 and after-care until 6:00.” “What was the result?” “Only a few parents out of the…
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ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable Housing
Read more: ZTA 25-02: A Small Step Toward a New Age in Affordable HousingThe last attempt at zoning reform was ZTA 19-01, introduced by former council member Hans Riemer. The highlight of that reform was a blanket approval allowing homeowners to build accessory dwelling units (ADU) on their properties (subject to constraints). That reform did almost nothing to alleviate the cost of housing, so council members Andrew Friedson…
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Julie Yang?? For County Council??
Read more: Julie Yang?? For County Council??Board of Education Member Julie Yang recently announced her candidacy for County Council District 1. What is her motivation? I’m running for the County Council to put Montgomery County back on track. Ms. Yang was elected to the Board of Education since 2022. Since that time— The Washington Post broke the Beidleman scandal (2023). Beidleman’s…
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OIG Proves It: MoCo Government Can be Courageous
Read more: OIG Proves It: MoCo Government Can be CourageousThe first time we critiqued the Office of Inspector General (OIG) was in June 2023 over its report about the county’s bag tax. In May 2024 we again critiqued the OIG over what appeared to be a lot of talented people spending a year doing (or forced to do) a mediocre job. Here we are,…
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MoCo’s SNAP decisions: Part 2—Can MoCo feed its poor?
Read more: MoCo’s SNAP decisions: Part 2—Can MoCo feed its poor?In Part 1 of this series, we explored the ethical nature of asking the entire American public—present and future—to subvent our county’s poor. In this installment we’ll show that MoCo doesn’t need to beg the federal or state governments to fund local poverty relief; we can do it ourselves. The Department of Agriculture publishes biannual…