Public education serves as our most powerful engine of economic mobility and community resilience. I view education funding as a core national security imperative. During my twenty years of active military duty, I learned that a nation derives its enduring strength from an educated, capable populace. We must fund our public school systems with the same urgency, discipline, and strategic focus we apply to national defense. I advocate for the full, equitable execution of the Blueprint for Maryland's Future. At the same time, I reject balancing the state budget on the backs of working families through regressive taxes. I demand an immediate, independent audit of state education funding formulas to ensure state dollars reach classroom teachers and direct student instruction, not administrative bureaucracy.
Public funds belong exclusively in public schools. I fiercely oppose voucher schemes like BOOST that siphon precious taxpayer dollars away from traditional classrooms into private and religious academies. In fast-growing jurisdictions like Frederick County, school construction funding fails to keep pace with rapid student enrollment. Overcrowded classrooms and aging portable trailers create substandard learning conditions and place unreasonable demands on educators and support personnel. In Annapolis, I will fight relentlessly to secure Frederick County's fair share of state school construction capital grants. We must modernize aging facilities, eliminate trailers, and construct new, state-of-the-art schools that function as true community cathedrals of learning.
Equally important, we must dismantle the damaging college-only stigma in our high schools. Raising five children taught me that every young person possesses distinct talents, and a four-year degree is not the sole path to prosperity. Pushing students into decades of crippling student debt when world-class, debt-free trade careers exist does our community a massive disservice. I will partner directly with local trade unions to ensure union Registered Apprenticeships receive the same institutional backing, promotion, and funding as four-year universities across all Maryland high schools. By expanding hands-on vocational training and dual-enrollment pathways with Frederick Community College, we equip students with specialized credentials in construction, electrical work, plumbing, and advanced technology before graduation.
We must also protect educators and support staff. I support an Education Support Professionals Bill of Rights to guarantee living wages, healthcare, and dignity for bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and cafeteria workers. Furthermore, I will protect the 120 million dollar annual baseline for school-based behavioral health programs, ensuring students can access qualified counselors, psychologists, and social workers. Safe, modern, and fully funded schools anchor our communities, attract durable employers, and prepare the next generation to lead.