Four Montgomery County school board candidates sparred over budget cuts, achievement gaps and Chromebook use at an Oct. 14 League of Women Voters forum. The event, first reported by Bethesda Magazine, featured the candidates running in the two contested races: at-large candidates Brenda M. Diaz and Omar Lazo, and District 3 candidates Sally McCarthy and Cassandra Sung.
Budget dominated the conversation
McCarthy, who has chaired the Montgomery County Council of PTAs' Capital Budget Committee, called the fiscal 2028 budget process "highly problematic." She said the elimination of hundreds of staff positions and changes to Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) program models were approved without a set budget in place, according to Bethesda Magazine.
Budget pressure has been building for more than a year. MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor announced plans to cut more than 400 positions after the county council allocated $36 million less than the district requested for the fiscal year 2027 budget, Montgomery Community Media reported in May. Of those, 295 were school-based roles.
Sung proposed zero-based budgeting at the forum, building the spending plan from scratch with stakeholder input. She also called for a public budget tracker so residents could follow spending in real time.
Diaz said the board "rubber stamps" MCPS policy without scrutiny and proposed eliminating the consent agenda, a portion of meetings where non-controversial items are approved as a group to save time. Lazo said the district needs more outreach to underserved communities that are often left out of MCPS processes.
Achievement gaps and the Chromebook debate
All four candidates agreed that Black and brown students face the largest achievement gaps in the district. Their proposed fixes diverged.
Diaz called for removing Chromebooks from classrooms, reintroducing physical textbooks and full novels, and providing more teacher training in reading and math. Sung also backed pulling Chromebooks and prioritizing early childhood education.
McCarthy said the district should target early learning by reducing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, introducing tutoring and placing a paraeducator in every classroom. Lazo said socioeconomic barriers block students from the full potential of their education, framing the gap as an access problem rather than a quality-of-instruction problem.
Mental health and immigration
Lazo tied student mental health to immigration enforcement during the forum, saying families he knows personally have been affected.
"So for me, it's making sure that we have the wellness centers, making sure that we expand on our community school program so that the kids have all the resources that they need to make sure that they can … strive," Lazo said, noting that families, including his daughters' friends, have been impacted by immigration enforcement and deportation.
McCarthy said MCPS should meet national standards for student-to-psychologist and student-to-counselor ratios and called for the school system to share resources with the county. Sung pushed for better communication between families and administrators, along with more mental health education. Diaz recommended expanding after-school activities such as sports and academic competitions.
Early voting runs Thursday, Oct. 22, through Thursday, Oct. 29, at 14 locations across Montgomery County, with polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the county voter guide. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
