Kevin Maxwell: Smartass

Anne Arundel County School Superintendent Kevin Maxwell decided to respond to John Leopold's budget statement with less comments about how to improve schools, but did plenty to act like a smartass:

And even though he already decided to cut 50 non-teaching positions, he'll have to look at slicing more administrative positions from the school system's central office - all cuts that ultimately will hurt student achievement and his goal of taking county schools "from good to great."

"If you want a Mercedes, you have to pay for a Mercedes," Dr. Maxwell said. "And we didn't even ask for a Mercedes. We asked for a Chrysler, and we got a pogo stick."

Yeah, that's clever. Not as clever, though, as it would be for Maxwell to adequately fund teacher pay and adequately fund classroom development. The fact of the matter is that in the Anne Arundel County School System all of the pork is at the top of the heap. I have talked previously about all of the unnecessary bureaucracy in public schools, all of the unnecessary positions and money tied up in Riva Road as opposed to being in the classroom where it is actually needed. Why does Maxwell insist that he needs to have record-high school funding when, in actuality, we aren't even quite sure what we have exactly with so little money going towards the classroom?

Kevin Maxwell needs to get his fiscal hosue in order....and this is exactly why this was a stupid statement from the School Board Nominating Commission