By Adam Pagnucco.
MCPS has a $3.3 billion operating budget, employs more than 24,000 people and serves more than 160,000 students. It is overseen by an eight-person school board, all but one of whom is elected by MoCo voters. (One is elected by students.)
And yet, when they run for office, very few people contribute to their campaigns. It’s totally banana-cakes, but it’s true.
As evidence for the above, consider the fundraising and expenditures in the general election school board candidates’ latest campaign finance reports, which were due on Friday. These are the numbers for the entire four-year cycle, not just for the latest reports.
I could go through these reports, tally the largest sources of funding, look at geography, add up self-funding… but what’s the point? None of these candidates has any money. None of these candidates has had any money for the entire cycle.
In the 2020 general election, 537,935 Montgomery County voters cast their ballots. A similar number, probably more, will vote this year. It’s impossible to reach these voters with any of these budgets. And so these candidates show up at early vote and the lucky ones have a handful of volunteers. Mail and TV are impossible fantasies.
But there is one group – and only one – that can actually reach these voters: the teachers union. The county teachers (MCEA) are handing out Apple Ballots. A separate Super PAC funded by the state teachers has allocated $134,995 to MoCo school board races, with more money headed elsewhere in the state. Some of this cash is funding attacks on non-endorsed candidates. The Washington Post, which used to endorse in school board races, appears to be sitting this year out. And while other groups have endorsed, none of them appears to be spending real money.
When one group spends more than all the candidates in an election combined, and no one else plays, the potential result is easy to predict. We shall see if such a prediction comes true soon after election day.