Is Corey Stewart is still harping on the stimulus money the BOCS turned down? He hasn’t yet acknowledged the stupidity of not accepting stimulus money last August to hire around 180 new teachers that the school system indicated was needed. Instead, the BOCS tabled the decision. What ended up happening? PWC kids were in over-crowded classes and someone else took the stimulus money, would be my guess.
The following quotes were found and reported by a little bird from an unknown blog in an unread land:
“Stewart said the bill was a sign of just how out of touch with fiscal realities and good government Congress is: “It is not just irresponsible, it is crazy. Congress suffers from deficit-spending induced dementia.”
“To hire new employees, which creates an ongoing expense, with one time funds is fundamentally irresponsible,” Stewart said. “We cannot accept funds that are intended to grow government under the pretense of job creation. The federal funding disappears, and you will have to cut elsewhere. This costs taxpayers in the long run.” Stewart noted that Prince William County School system did not layoff a single employee in this year’s budget.
He cited the bills complex maintenance-of-effort requirements that may force jurisdictions that accept the money to keep spending at higher levels. “Even if some clever budgeting can get around the maintenance of effort requirements, hiring new staff when there is no need is the surest way to bankrupt your government.”
Stewart continued: “I will fight to ensure that Prince William County rejects the appropriation of the one-time funds to hire new employees and create ongoing liabilities. I urge other mayors and county chairmen to do the same. When you blindly take stimulus money without incorporating the ongoing expenses into your future plan, you are driving off a funding cliff.”
“Congress might be crazy enough to do that. But we’re not.”
Stewart doesn’t understand how it works. In the first place, any new hires would have probably been given a 1 year contract like all new employees. New teachers not rehired is not considered a lay off. You just aren’t rehired. Was Stewart expecting fewer children this year? That rarely happens. Did he get those statistics from the pupil planning office? It doesn’t sound like it.
Secondly, is Stewart aware of attrition? Teachers retire. New ones are hired. Is he aware of the work force in PWC Schools and average ages? Apparently not. He is again just yapping. Open mike time again in Prince William County.
I expect that John Gray, Baber Lateef and Ann Wheeler would have all taken the stimulus money when it was offered. It is never a bad thing to create jobs, especially when our students profit from the jobs. No one wants their kids in classes with 35 students, yet those numbers were not all that uncommon in Prince William County last year.
Corey is willing to put our kids in overcrowded conditions so he can play Mr. Conservative. Don’t be fooled. That just isn’t how it works. Perhaps he is playing to an older crowd who don’t have kids in the school system. That would describe me. However, I do have grandkids in public school and I know that even if I didn’t I would feel that an educated populace is the best way to go. Good school systems bring in businesses and quality neighbors. Bad schools systems bring in people who don’t give a crap about their kids or the betterment of their kids. Do you really want those folks as neighbors? I sure don’t.
The bottom line is, the BOCS needs to stop playing politics with our kids.
Refresher course? Click here. (from August 25, 2010)
School board passes resolution asking for federal funds (October 2010)
School Board Dissatisfied with the 4 Horsement of the BOCS
Well, it’s an interesting argument. Now it’s immoral to not whip out the credit card and spend money we don’t have. Schools should be a top priority, no question about it, but I’ll bet that “stimulus” money comes with a million strings attached. Here’s the thing: If the fed is borrowing this money from China to give to PWC, that’s wrong on every level……If it’s our tax money the Feds are giving back to us for schools, they shouldn’t have taken it from us in the first place.
My gripe with what happened is that Mr. Johns asked a partial group of supervisors to wait until they made their presentation. They voted that day.
It was political. Additionally, someone got the money. It isn’t like it didn’t get spent some where. And meanwhile, we needed 180 more teachers.
Corey and other Board members have no problem accepting Federal money to build roads for the developers who finance their campaigns. Just check out this year’s CIP. I’d like Corey to explain why it’s just fine to use local, state and Federal money to build roads to open new areas for developers, but immorally contributing to the deficit to take money from the same sources to fund schools for the kids who will live in those developments. Could it be that the kids and their families aren’t reliable campaign contributors?
Since when is borrowing money “immoral”? Which commandment is that?
How ironic is it that both sides are spouting “we didn’t take the stimlulus”, one side braying that we said NO stimulus and the other side crying that we said NO stimulus when the truth is that the county actually took the stimulus? O the Gods of Spin.
The stimulus money was accepted and they are spending it right now as we speak (or should I say, as we post). The PWCS initially wanted the BOCS to request the money immediately when the program was announced last summer and put that money into the current year’s budget (2010-2011) which was already done. The BOCS vote was not ‘no to the money’ it was ‘no, let’s wait’.
That vote became moot when the BOCS found out that the governmental body that has to officially request the money (or not request it) is PWCS. The BOCS then has the authority to release that money to the schools once the school system requested it. If the schools requested the money and the BOCS never distributed it, it would have just gone back, but the BOCS did authorize release of the monies. They just never publicized it which is why saying the county did not accept the money is incorrect, especially because the schools are currently spending it.
PWCS requested the stimulus money for this year’s budget (2011-2012). By that time the fed guidelines on how schools could spend that money were significantly different and ended up being more beneficial for PW schools in general. They were able to do more with the money without those initial constraints. Waiting did pay off in this case.
So despite all the rhetoric, PWCS did receive the stimulus money and it is benefitting the schools, teachers and children. Both sides should stop spinning this issue to their base when they are both putting out misinformation with that spin.
Good. I am glad that you came along with the correct information. I believe I asked that question.
As for both ‘sides’ spinning, I can only go on the information I have. If they publically say they are rejecting the money, then I tend to take the BOCS and Peacor at her word. I do not have ESP or other mind-reading capability. Where is this documented? You obviously have an inside track the rest of us are not privy to.
Please don’t consider me a ‘side’ or if you do, tell me what ‘side’ I am on.
thank you “stimulating conversation” for sharing that information. It would be wonderful if you could point out where that information if written in some form of summation. Is that possible or do you have to piece it together through various documents?
The BOCS did “deny” the money being used and made a big deal of their rejection of the funds. If citizens are under the impression it was rejected, it is because there has been so little light shed on the funds.
As I recall, in fact, I was disgusted that the BOCS was being so partisan in their rejection of the money. My issue was that they were even rejecting the possibility of discussing the issue of accepting the money.
What a shame that there is such poor leadership on the BOCS that this issue was never publicly clarified for the benefit of PWC residents.
Typical Stewart: All the hard blow and rhetoric is for public consumption and public image and perception enhancement. Nothing to do with the actual facts. If “What Stimulating Conversation” posts is factually correct, shame on Stewart, the BOCS, and Peacor for not press releasing the facts v. the rhetoric.
Blue Moon,
You are absolutely correct in your assessment. Moonhowler picked up Corey’s statement on the stimulus money directly from his webpage.
And an even dirtier little secret is that Camp Candland is distributing the quotes from Corey. Perhaps they might want to update their information and not use more false information to slam Candland’s opponent, regardless of who it is. Let’s see…first they went after Martha, now they go after Ann. It is women? It obviously isn’t D or R. Perhaps it is just anyone who stands in Candland’s way.
Both Martha and Ann know far more about the county than he obviously does.
I sure don’t mind being wrong about that stimulus money if the county eventually did the right thing and used the money to hire additional teachers. Overcrowded classrooms are not condusive to learning.
Why didn’t Corey make the correction that PWC did accept the stimulus money? What kind of leadership is that to just let the public think we never took the money?
The BOCS should have listened to Milt Johns. All the school board chair asked for was for the BOCS to wait until the school board made its presentation to make up their minds. Our BOCS could not even afford him the courtesy of doing that.
Instead, all we got was bs and blather out of our BOCS who obviously knew nothing about it and more bs and blather out of Corey’s tools.
By sides, I was referring to both political candidates not to people posting here.
As far as why, maybe the real truth of accepting the stimulus money didn’t benefit either side so they let it disappear in the information overload of the budget process. The Republicans BOCS would not want to talk about how they eventually did take the money and any Democratic candidates would not have an argument against BOCS members if it was known that they took the money. They essentially agree to put forth the spin because it suits them both. Therein lies the irony! And both candidates are equally guilty.
All the information was public but no local reporting ever pointed out the end result. The Superintendent’s Proposed Budget 2011-2012 includes a section called “Revenue Highlights” which says “The beginning balance includes $17 million in funds generated from the Federal Education Job Funds Act.” That 2011-2012 budget was approved in late April 2011 by the BOCS.
@WSC
That sounds like a lot of digging to ferret that out. Actually, as big of a stink as was caused August of last year, there should have been much more transparency. I assumed they said NO and that was that, since I am not clairvoyant. I don’t see everything but that was a fairly major deal.
I haven’t heard the Democratic side of all this. What is the candidate saying?
Perhaps she doesn’t know either. I am just glad I am not a ‘side.’
Why doesn’t Corey correct the message on his website? I am getting ready to post the Fox News video of him addressing this subject.
I guess you could say that technically neither Stewart nor Lateef (or Candland or Wheeler) were lying. The county did vote not to use EJF Act stimulus funds in the 2010 budget. They are all just omitting what happened afterwards.
You are right that it should not take that kind of digging, but when the truth doesn’t help either candidate, who is going to ferret it out? If only we had decent local reporting, then the newspaper could have pointed it out. We need a Paul Harvey type to give people the “rest of the story”.
“Moonhowings” IS the Paul Harvey type for pwc. Sure can’t get straight facts in the public domain much anywhere else without a lot of digging. Then again, no one said making a melting pot democracy work would be easy.
Has anyone determined what Ann Wheeler said about the stimulus money for the schools? Why is this being used to attack her when it isn’t even accurate?
*I*, Moonhowler, think that the BOCS should have not voted until after Mr. JOhns made the school board presentation. At least 3 of the supervisors were absent, including the chair. The vote appeared, at least to me, to be pandering to the tea party mentality rather than waiting and discussing the needs of the kids. (and no, not blaming the tea party personally, just the supervisors)
I remember raising hell over it last year. The people who didn’t agree with me generally showed me the first minute of discussion that they didn’t understand what was being requested.
Of course, that is when I realized PWC schools hadn’t paid their VRS contribution. I hope THAT ommission has been corrected.
@Blue Moon, thanks.
You know, we don’t get it right every time. However, we are more than willing to set the record right when we have gotten it wrong.
The News & Messenger seems to be informing us of less and less. I feel badly that our source of news will not have checks and balances. We need to be able to hold news sources accountable.
@Moon-howler “Is it women?”
Are you serious?
People of goodwill can disagree in politics, but when that disagreement flares up it does not have to be reduced to some juvenile accusation of sexism. You demean yourself.
Maybe I am complaining about this absurd claim because I am fat (I am), or because I have in IQ of less than 140 (which I do).
Ann Wheeler said in her kick-off announcement that she would have voted to accept the stimulus.
She said that so she could show voters that there was a difference between Peter Candland and her because she knows (or perhaps just assumes) Candland would have voted to not accept the stimulus money.
Did she say that because she is a ditzy blonde?
Does Candland oppose stimulus money because he is an up-tight neo-Tea Parth whacko?
No.
Two candidates having different positions on the issue.
That is all.
Give up the nonsense and the emotional spikes.
Oh goodness, was that a sexist statement?
@Gainesville first-
No, I don’t demean myself. I asked a question. I didn’t provide an answer. Are you one of those people who just blindly accepts without question? I am not.
I have lived on this planet a lot of decades and sexism comes in many forms. Many people who display sexist behavior aren’t even aware of it because it is so built in to their belief system. Hasn’t Candland replaced his campaign manager with a man? Has Camp Candland or one of its adjuncts attacked Elena? Practically all of the ammo being used at Elena is incorrect and contrived.
Pardon me. I see a pattern. To not ask the question, to me, would simply be foolish, given the circumstances.
Bull’s eye hit, MH!