Washington Post story: MCPS data statements untrue

After the Inspector General found that MCPS failed to share cost data on the Kendale project, a top MCPS official said, "We don't withhold information, we just don't necessarily provide it" unless asked.

A leading civic leader says he and others asked, and MCPS failed to provide the figures. Here's what Montgomery County Civic Federation leader Wayne Goldstein says in a Washington Post essay:

"The most serious item in the inspector general's report is that Montgomery County public schools did not share the cost data on building a new Seven Locks school on the current site, even though it researched and updated that option.

"Richard Hawes, MCPS facilities director, responded to questions about this glaring omission with: 'We don't withhold information, we just don't necessarily provide it' unless asked. However, I and others asked him for it, and none of us was provided with the cost data."