Philip Kauffman

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Philip Kauffman

Prior offices

Montgomery County Board of Education At-large

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Education

Bachelor's

University of Pennsylvania

Graduate

University of Maryland

Personal

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Personal website

Philip Kauffman is a former at-large representative on the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland. Kauffman was first elected to the board in November 2008. Kauffman sought another term in the primary election on April 26, 2016. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2016.

Biography

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Kauffman earned his B.A. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. He later received his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1977. Kauffman retired from the legal field in 2013 after a stint as deputy assistant general counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Elections

Phil Kauffman, Candidate for Board of Education

2016

See also: Montgomery County Public Schools elections (2016)

Three of the seven seats on the Montgomery County Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. A primary election was held on April 26, 2016, for the at-large seat. Incumbent Philip Kauffman lost to challenger Jeanette Dixon in the general election. Both candidates defeated Mike Ibanez, Sebastian Johnson, and Gwendolyn Kimbrough in the primary. The District 2 general election featured incumbent Rebecca Smondrowski and challenger Brandon Orman Rippeon, while Shebra Evans and Anjali Reed Phukan were running for the open District 4 seat. Smondrowski and Evans won their respective races.

Results

Montgomery County Public Schools, At-large General Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jeanette Dixon	56.29%	208,320
Philip Kauffman Incumbent	43.07%	159,395
Write-in votes	0.65%	2,390
Total Votes		370,105
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections, "2016 Presidential General Election Results," accessed December 14, 2016

Montgomery County Public Schools, At-large Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jeanette Dixon	31.48%	51,316
Philip Kauffman Incumbent	27.95%	45,570
Sebastian Johnson	17.75%	28,937
Gwendolyn Kimbrough	11.84%	19,302
Mike Ibanez	10.98%	17,902
Total Votes		163,027
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections, "Unofficial 2016 Presidential Primary Election results for Montgomery County," accessed April 26, 2016

Funding

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2016

Candidates for public office in Maryland had until March 22, 2016, to submit their first contributions and expenditure report of the primary campaign. The final campaign finance deadline of the 2016 campaign was November 22, 2016. State law allows candidates to file Affidavits of Limited Contributions and Expenditures (ALCE) if their campaigns did not accept $1,000 in contributions or spend $1,000 in a particular reporting period.

October 28 filing

Candidates received a total of $6,735.00 and spent a total of $10,861.49 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System.

At-large

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Philip Kauffman (incumbent)	$1,020.00	$2,585.87	$10,059.85
Jeanette Dixon	$2,950.00	$3,995.98	$3,560.69

District 2

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Rebecca Smondrowski (incumbent)	$940.00	$3,816.55	$10,352.20
Brandon Orman Rippeon	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

District 4

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Shebra Evans	$1,825.00	$463.09	$3,761.22
Anjali Reed Phukan	0.00	0.00	0.00

March 22 filing

Candidates received a total of $23,606.64 and spent a total of $8,241.11 as of April 1, 2016, according to the Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System.

At-large

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Philip Kauffman (incumbent)	$1,450.00	$413.80	$6,916.80
Jeanette Dixon	$1,177.00	$2,131.38	$3,099.39
Mike Ibanez	ALCE	ALCE	ALCE
Sebastian Johnson	$18,461.64	$2,014.58	$16,447.06
Gwendolyn Kimbrough	ALCE	ALCE	ALCE

District 2

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Rebecca Smondrowski (incumbent)	$500.00	$133.20	$3,341.62
Brandon Orman Rippeon	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

District 4

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Shebra Evans	$2,025.00	$3,548.15	$4,342.55
Anjali Reed Phukan	ALCE	ALCE	ALCE

Endorsements

Kauffman received the following endorsements:

• Montgomery County Public Schools Retirees Association
• Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett
• State Sen. Nancy King (D)
• State Sen. Susan Lee (D)
• State Sen. Craig Zucker (D)
• State Sen. Kirill Reznik (D)
• County Board of Education member Patricia O'Neill
• The Washington Post
• Montgomery County Education Association

Campaign themes

2016

Kauffman's campaign website listed the following themes for 2016:

“	It has been an honor to serve on the Board of Education for the last seven years. I am running for re-election because there is still much we have to do. While our school system has had many successes, it faces enormous challenges. Our student enrollment continues to skyrocket and we need to find the resources, working with our state and local officials, to provide seats for those children. We must carefully consider how best to equitably allocate limited resources to meet the needs of our diverse student community. It will take intelligent leadership to navigate through tough budget times to keep all our schools among the best despite these constraints. I will combine my experience and leadership and ensure that our efforts move us closer to the goal of having every student ready to meet the demands of the 21st century. As Board members, we must: Budget Strategically We must be vigilant in spending the money provided by the taxpayers of Montgomery County. Transparent and understandable accounting for over $2.3 billion taxpayer dollars is essential to maintaining the public’s trust. I will continue to advocate for increased fiscal transparency so the community knows what programs are funded and why. We must make sure that scarce funds are allocated where they are needed the most. I will continue to ask the hard questions about the costs of MCPS programs and whether we are getting the necessary return on investment. Before we ask for more resources, we must ensure that our current funds are being used wisely, even if that means we rethink how we do our business. There can be no sacred cows in our budget. Address our facility challenges MCPS faces enormous facility challenges. Since 2007 over 17,000 new students have enrolled and MCPS will grow by at least 10,000 additional students by 2021. Those students need new classrooms. At the same time, MCPS needs to keep our revitalization list on schedule as well as address the maintenance needs of our schools. We have not received our fair share of the funds allocated by the state for school construction and the share we receive from the county has declined over the last several years. We must do better. We need to advocate forcefully with our state and county legislators to secure the necessary funding to keep up with our growth as well as to maintain or replace our old and outdated buildings. We must work with the County Council and Park and Planning for responsible growth and development policies so that our infrastructure keeps pace with our schools’ enrollment. Finally, we need a thorough review of the funding sources for school construction. These would include the fees we charge our developers to build in overcrowded areas and whether we should permit developers to directly fund school additions where our capacity challenges are severe. Close our achievement gaps As the demographics of our school system continue to change, the urgency to close our various achievement gaps continues to grow. The students in our system today are the future workforce of Montgomery County. It is both a moral and economic imperative to ensure that all our students graduate with the skills they need to be successful, whether it is to college or the workforce. MCPS employs a range of strategies to address our achievement gaps, including high standards for all children, culturally proficient instruction, equitable funding for our schools, human capital management, and community engagement. We must continue to evaluate our approaches that address the gaps and use research-based strategies to meet the needs of every school’s unique population. We need to collaborate with the County to evaluate the many programs they fund outside of school that support student achievement and ensure that those programs are achieving results that justify those investments. But the Federal, State and County governments must comprehensively address the impacts on our children of poverty, access to health and social services, housing, language deficits, safety and other factors outside the control of the school system if we are to actually eliminate all achievement gaps. Smarter testing to improve achievement One of the most controversial issues affecting our schools involves testing. How much are we testing students and how do we use test results to evaluate staff, inform instructional practice, and hold schools and educators accountable? How much time should be taken away from instruction for testing? Are the results received in a timely manner to guide instruction? Are the tests we are using properly aligned with the curriculum we are teaching? I support the rigor of the common core and the need to encourage critical thinking but I am concerned that we don’t have the assessments right yet. This year, the Board eliminated semester exams and replaced them with quarter assessments, as it is working diligently to look for new ways to support learning and ensure that testing is timely and relevant to instruction. I believe the issue with testing is not the time that is spent on tests but whether the tests and assessments we give are achieving the right purpose, to improve student achievement. We must make sure that all tests are well designed and are aligned with college and career-readiness standards. They must provide timely data on whether our students are on track or where they need improvement. And we must make sure that the data we receive from testing, including all other measures of student achievement are used to hold our educators accountable. More career opportunities Not every child will go on to college. MCPS needs to do better with job preparation programs for students who are interested in career opportunities upon graduation. According to the Center on Education and the Workforce, 27 percent of students earning a vocational license or certificate earn more than a worker with a bachelor’s degree. As more students graduate from high school, the number of positions requiring a high school diploma or less continues to decrease while the number of employment opportunities requiring at least postsecondary training or industrial certification has more than doubled. MCPS needs to work with the employer community to define the skills most essential in today’s economy. The Edison program and our various career pathways should be adapted to create more programs across the county to address this need.	”
—Philip Kauffman (2016)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Philip Kauffman' 'Montgomery County Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Philip Kauffman - Google News

See also

• Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland
• Montgomery County Public Schools elections (2016)

External links

Suggest a link

• Montgomery County Public Schools
• Office website
• Campaign website