The Talbot Family Network (TFN), the county’s Local Management Board, presented an update to the Easton Town Council last night on how families in Talbot County are doing. TFN is one of Maryland’s 24 Local Management Boards, created by the state to track community needs, coordinate local services, and direct state and county funds toward programs that support children, youth, and families. The organization is led by a volunteer board of about 15. It produces regular data reports, including a community needs assessment that guides funding for nonprofits, schools, and county agencies.”ent, which helps shape funding decisions for nonprofits, schools, and county agencies.
Executive Director Nancy Andrew delivered this year’s assessment, and her message was blunt: Talbot County is making progress in some areas, but serious challenges are intensifying. The Spy is sharing Andrew’s full presentation along with Ward 3 Councilmember David Montgomery’s response below.
Andrew noted that 10.1% of Talbot households live below the poverty line, and nearly 40% are ALICE — families who are employed but still can’t afford basic expenses. She also pointed to a doubling of student homelessness in Talbot County Public Schools, with more than 280 students identified as homeless by the end of the 2025 school year. Youth mental health remains a major concern, especially for LGBTQ students, with surveys showing persistent sadness and hopelessness. Across income, housing, education, health, and justice, Andrew said the data show clear racial gaps that can’t be ignored.
Montgomery pushed back hard on TFN’s framing. He questioned the organization’s neutrality, criticizing what he saw as an emphasis on “race consciousness” and “intersectionality.” He asked why TFN programs — including “Conversations on Race” and a DEI book club — didn’t instead focus on what he called a central cause of poverty and poor outcomes for children: the absence of a father in the home. He also suggested TFN’s approach may reflect political influence from the current state administration in Annapolis.
Andrew kept her reply steady, saying Montgomery had raised “more than we can unpack tonight” and offering to continue the discussion later. She clarified that the practice of disaggregating data by race and ethnicity began under the previous Hogan administration, not the current one, and reminded the council that TFN’s work is guided by its full board, not by any single political viewpoint.
Talbot Family Network Nancy Andrews Presentation
David Montgomery’s remarks
Mary Smith says
The data in TFN’s report is brutal: hungry children, homeless students, drug addiction, unemployment, and entire families living on the edge. None of this came from DEI metrics or family structure. It came from decades of conservation zoning that froze Talbot’s villages and treated residents like trespassers in their own county.
Talbot preserved scenery with ruthless efficiency, but in doing so it created economic oppression that harmed its own people. Our plantation-themed land use system blocks jobs, clinics, childcare, trades, small businesses, and local services. Talbot turned its villages into curated museums and kept communities from functioning by acting like a countywide punitive HOA. People lost the ability to work, get medical care, feed their kids, or age in place near home.
The report shows the human cost of extreme conservation: societal problems far above state levels. It mirrors a Hunger Games style society, where comfort is concentrated in a few places, and struggle is enforced for everyone else. It is hardship by design, because only the wealthy are welcome in Talbot County.
Doris Moore says
He is obviously a racist.and a conservative Republican
ROBERT HORVATH says
Another Andy Harris clone. Talbot County and Easton need to take a hard look at these characters and vote them out.
Jim Franke says
“These are things I’ve heard from others” is about exactly what his cult leader says to justify some of his lunatic ideas.
Michael Davis says
Dr. Montgomery uses a form of argument that is invalid but used all the time by prominent Republicans. He states a “fact” that is not true and then criticizes others not acting in accordance with his false claim. People who do not accept the false claim are biased according to Dr. Montgomery.
He claims that the biggest issue concerning poverty is the lack of a father in the home. And then he calls the Talbot Family Network biased because they don’t have programs to address that. Dr. Montgomery’s big lie is his claim poverty is due to missing fathers. That’s not even close. Poverty in America is due to insufficient income, medical expenses, work related expenses, all the forms of structural discrimination, housing costs, and unemployment. I am very glad the TFN is working to address the real – i.e., scientific evidence verified – causes of poverty rather than the fictional claim by Dr. Montgomery.
Dr. Montgomery spews out other lies in his short toxic remarks, but there is only so much room here. Let me summarize by promoting an idea from the great Admiral Rickover, founder of our nuclear navy. He had a saying for people like Dr. Montgomery. They should be given crayons and put in a room so they can spend all their time drawing pictures to the other members of the community that share Dr. Montgomery’s false beliefs.
I’ve seen comments written by Rick Hughes that have not been posted yet. His comments are great. As well as those already posted here.
The TFN does great work and we are lucky to have them.
Darrell parsons says
I notice that Council member Montgomery is guilty of the very thing accuses Ms Andrew of doing, namely, taking a decidedly personal political approach in responding to supportable statistics. I would be interested in the statistical basis of his argument, but I suspect that no such statistics exist – from any reputable source. And I suspect that he responded as he did because it struck a nerve, and there is no cogent refutation of those statistics.
Kent Robertson says
As a nation we have spent hundreds of billions on the problem of poverty with nothing to show for it. In Talbot County, by our TCPS own metric, less than half of students are proficient in English at grade level, and less than 20% are proficient in math.But 97% are graduating from High School?!?!?!
While I believe that intentions are generally good, in both instances we have apparently been barking up the wrong tree. Programs are defended on their good intentions, not on their ability to affect positive change.
It is time to look closely at how how effective our programs really are, and to start thinking outside of the box created by the State if we are going to solve our problems.
Rick Hughes says
I thought the Talbot Family Network presentation was well-balanced, fact-based, and an accurate reflection of life in Talbot County. Looking at data in a disaggregated way — by neighborhood, age, gender, race, and other real-world factors — is the only way to understand what our community actually experiences. If we lump everything together, the county’s overall affluence masks the very real challenges many residents face.
Race issues persist. Economic struggles persist — and they don’t affect everyone equally. Affordable housing remains out of reach for many residents who aren’t living in the most privileged parts of the county.
Dr. Montgomery objected to books featuring an Arab American trans teenager, but these young people exist in real life. He criticized adult programs like Conversations on Race and the DEI Book Club as “biased,” even though they’re simply opportunities for thoughtful, scholarly discussion about history and how it shapes current conditions. He asked why these programs discuss race instead of studying the Constitution — as though we can’t do both. (And the Constitution, for the record, also mentions race.) He questioned why there aren’t, instead, programs on great American presidents, “some of those happened to be white,” he said (a telling comment?). Perhaps we should teach the life of Frederick Douglass with sole emphasis on his great writing and speaking skills and leave out the part that he was black and had been enslaved? Montgomery continued his comments by promoting the idea that stable homes and marriages are those with a married mother and father.
Taken together, these comments reveal clear political bias — not in the TFN presentation, but in Dr. Montgomery’s own remarks. It was a Top Ten list of biased political talking points and disregarded the cold hard facts presented. Data isn’t biased simply because someone dislikes what it reveals. When facts reflect the lives of people of all races, ages, incomes, and experiences — including both their successes and obstacles — that’s real information.
What Dr. Montgomery seems to prefer is a whitewashed version of Talbot County, rather than an honest picture of the community he was elected to serve. That’s old-guard politics, and We the People of Talbot County deserve better if we are ALL to be served by our elected officials.
Alexa Seip says
I am astonished at David Montgomery’s comments and innuendos. The Family Network that Nancy Andrew heads is an asset to the county and all the families of Talbot County. If Mr. Montgomery doesn’t believe that families within his district are suffering from food insecurity to homelessness then he isn’t listening or caring. Who cares why? These people need support.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
Were Dr. Montgomery’s biases not so well known, one would think his pronominal references to Director Andrews an alarming ad hominem attack – which, in fact, it was. Being the gentleman that he is, he did, however, from time to time attempt to characterize his commentary toward democratic governors, shrouding himself in mere political costume. More alarming, however, was his insistence that the absence of a father in the home is the leading cause of whichever ill he insists. This shameful old dog whistle has for decades been spewed against African American mothers whose love, fortitude and hard work, despite myriad odds stacked against them, have proudly raised generations of strong men and women. Moreover, I congratulate Director Andrews and the Board of Directors of Talbot Family Network for their good work on our behalf.
Kent Robertson says
So many comments disparage Dr Montgomery’s belief that absence of a father in the home is a major determinant of poverty that I feel obliged to respond.
While there are many factors that contribute to poverty, it is undeniable that single parent households are 3-6 times as likely to be in poverty than two parent households.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the poverty rate hasn’t dropped significantly, in spite of trillions of dollars spent trying to address it over the last 60 years, is that this factor has not been addressed.
This is from Perplexity AI when asked what the primary causes of poverty are in the US:
“Studies also indicate that single-parent households, especially those led by women, are 3 to 6 times more likely to experience poverty compared to married-couple households.� More recent data from 2025 shows that nearly 30 percent of single-parent families live below the federal poverty level, compared to about 6 percent of married-couple families.�”
Judy R Simon says
I am surprised by the intensity of rancor in the feedback on this website and other online forums regarding Montgomery’s comments. While I disagree with several of his perspectives, it is likely that they represent some of his constituent’s views and therefore understandable for him to present. I found his presentation non-confrontational and contained many good suggestions (eg, civics).
While I’m a liberal democrat, I have found David Montgomery refreshingly able to fight many of the worst aspects of MAGA. He and the Mayor initiated town legislation to establish campaign finance transparency (as result of a MAGA-supported candidate who received outlandish amounts of funding to blanket our area with political signage and false messaging) as well as speaking out against a rise in MAGA Nazi-sympathizing speech.
Let’s acknowledge all the good he has done for our community and use this situation as an example to foster mutual respect and share the facts about why some of the issues he presented are misguided and inaccurate.
Andy McCormick says
Having watched this exchange a couple of times, I want to credit Nancy Andrew for handling the somewhat bombastic response to her presentation with dignity, and for being open to further dialogue. The data presented did not, in my view, identify race or any other single issue as the “explanatory variable” behind the serious issues too many local families are facing this holiday season. She was simply presenting data. Often troubling data. The data was cut by race, which many, including me, find informative— while to some it is, perhaps, triggering. That sounds like useful feedback. If people in your audience feel blamed by the slides rather than moved to work on solutions, progress can be hard to come by.
In this case, I hope the information value of the actual data outweighs any stylistic disagreements over how the data is presented, and that all parties can agree on ways to fight food insecurity in young people even if we can’t all agree on the reading list offered at the book club. If Mr Montgomery wants to see a different cut of the data, he should just ask politely next time, without feeling the need to remind us many former presidents were white.
As a result of the time spent looking through TFNs slides and watching the videos posted by the Spy, my wife and I have made a contribution to one of the food charities linked on the TFN website. Thanks to Nancy Andrew for bringing focus to some of the issues faced by families here in Talbot County. Happy holidays to all.