There was little daylight between Montgomery County executive candidates Nancy Floreen and Marc Elrich on Monday night as they discussed issues surrounding education, tolerance and commerce.
Elrich, the Democratic nominee, and Floreen, who is running as an independent, joined Republican Robin Ficker at Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac for their eighth debate before the Nov. 6 election. The forum was hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
Asked by moderator Meredith Weisel if the candidates would support county-funded services such as free and reduced lunch for low-income students at private schools, and additional accommodations for students with special needs, Floreen said she would as long as the resources were distributed evenly among the schools. Elrich agreed.
“No one should struggle to get those needs met just because they’re in a private school,” he said.
On the issue of whether the county should expand school bus service to private schools, Floreen and Elrich said that doing so would be a financial challenge.
“There’s a lot of private schools in Montgomery county, all of whom would like that … . I’d love to get more cars off the road, so we should continue to have that conversation,” Floreen said.
Elrich said the idea of providing private school busing would be “worth exploring” if it were affordable, such as by having the schools and the county share costs.
Similarly, Floreen and Elrich said they also both supported the idea of implementing universal pre-kindergarten in Montgomery County public schools, but weren’t sure how to pay for it. Elrich suggested that restructuring county government would help generate more revenue to help with the cost.
“None of us [candidates] are going to be raising taxes, and I don’t believe state government is going to be showering us with large sums of money,” he said.
[For more information about the candidates, check out Bethesda Beat’s 2018 General Election Voters’ Guide]
Elrich said he would focus on what he considered the more immediate needs of the public schools, such as raising teacher pay, reducing class sizes and adding counselors. Floreen said she wanted to work closely with Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith to improve equity for all students within the system. Both candidates said they were interested in learning of the findings of the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, also known as the Kirwan Commission, which is expected to release recommendations on state funding for public schools in December.
Ficker, who handed his two opponents a taxpayer protection pledge at the beginning of the debate, said he feared the Kirwan Commission would lead to costly recommendations.
“I will not support the Kirwan Commission report if the legislature saddles the county with massive taxes. You cannot fix the state’s problems on the back of Montgomery County,” he said.
Ficker went after Elrich at various points throughout the night, mainly for what he considered his opponent’s high-tax, anti-development stances. At one point, the Boyds attorney responded to a question about hate incidents by noting that he represented civil rights icon Rosa Parks as general counsel on the National Caucus on Black Aging, and then proceeding to attack his Democratic opponent.
“Rosa Parks knew about discrimination. I wanted to get her from the back of the bus [to the front]. Marc Elrich wants to put her back on the bus,” he said.
Elrich diffused the tension by reminding the audience that he supported bus rapid transit in the county, eliciting laughter.
“I would like as many people riding buses regardless of race, religion, creed, national origin or anything else because this will make a better county,” he said.
Elrich added that schools need to focus more on teaching about diversity, and he and Floreen agreed that police should work closely with houses of worship to determine what their main concerns were. The question came in response to recent hateful acts have occurred against Jewish and other religious institutions, including one over the weekend in which the Jewish Community Center in Fairfax, Virginia, was vandalized.
Elrich and Floreen differed slightly on the question of how the county should embrace its relationship with Israel. Floreen said if elected she planned to lead a trade mission there in the spring to explore bringing more Israeli companies to the county. Elrich said he, too, thought it was important for the county to engage in trade with the Middle East nation, but that he opposed using taxpayer dollars to fund such a trip.
“I think that you would probably prefer to see me working in the county,” he told the audience.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
