I was at the press conference on pre-kindergarten legislation today because of a teacher and a student.
Nancy Grasmick, the State Superintendent of Schools, was a guest lecturer the first year I co-taught the Legislation class at the University of Maryland Law School.
For the next 18 years, she spoke to the students about bills from the most recent General Assembly session.
And she spoke to me about getting more involved in education issues, taking political risks for the betterment of our children.
Bill Ferguson was a student in the Legislation class in 2008. Before law school, he taught in a Baltimore City school as a Teach For America member.
He was elected to the State Senate in 2010.
At a gathering of education advocates before Bill’s first session (my 29th), I said to him, “The two of us should work together on education issues.”
Last year, we introduced legislation that would have funded a competitive grant program to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.
Today’s press conference was about a similar bill. It will be introduced by the O’Malley-Brown administration.
