My Platform:  The stability of public schools is paramount; only they are required by law to serve all who come to them for education and education related social services.  As a Delegate, therefore, I will work to fund badly needed school construction and work further to assure that more expensive jurisdictions like Montgomery County get the funds needed to close the achievement gap and reduce classroom size.  But public schools are not our only schools, nor should they be; private education is of great importance to many in District 19.  I will therefore work to forge compromise legislation in Annapolis, consistent with the very pressing financial needs of our public schools, and working within federal and state Constitutional limitations, to provide ongoing support for nonpublic school technology, transportation, textbooks, special needs, and construction.  (I would, however, continue to oppose vouchers to provide public subsidy of religious education.)  I will work together with community leaders, Montgomery County Public Schools, the Montgomery County Education Association, and the Montgomery County Executive and Council to close the achievement gap; create universal pre-kindergarten; reduce public school classroom size; promote greater use of digital learning in our classrooms; strengthen our public charter schools; increase special education funding; increase English as a second language program funding; and increase the budget devoted to school construction and renovation.   I would call for the creation of a new statewide program to provide learning technologies for all our students, at reduced costs, through mass purchase of laptops and other learning devices by the state (as is increasingly being done by other states.) And I would pay for the expanded state education budget for which I would fight by raising income and estate taxes on those who can afford them.

 

My Experience:  I chaired the private Hebrew Day Institute my three children attended for their elementary education, and I worked with the various parent teacher organizations of the MCPS middle and high schools they subsequently attended.  I am therefore well positioned to help forge compromise legislation in Annapolis to allow all Maryland parents to give their kids the education they desire.  And I am nationally and even internationally known as a successful innovator within the emerging online education and job training industry.

 

I can therefore be a leader of legislative efforts in Annapolis to provide new approaches to providing quality education for all.