This year help Maryland bridge the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Our first-ever legislative campaign, Bridge the Gaps, will push for three smart policies to put us on track to giving every Maryland child a great public school.

Maryland’s public charter school law desperately needs a complete overhaul. We ranked 40 out of 41 by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools among states with public charter school laws. Written in 2003, the core tenets of Maryland’s law are at odds with the growing body of research documenting charter school best practices and results. States with the strongest charter school laws allow their public charter schools the flexibility to be innovative while still holding them accountable for improving student achievement. The small number of charter schools we have created struggle under a system that makes it difficult to innovate and also impossible to grow to scale. The law must be changed.

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Improving the outcomes of Maryland students means providing every Maryland four-year-old with access to a high-quality, full-day pre-K program. Maryland parents should be able to choose from a wide variety of state-approved pre-K programs for their children so that they can find the learning environment that best meets their child’s needs. Maryland’s recent Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge victory means that we have a smart statewide plan and key federal investments to emerge as a national leader on preschool. Now we need to make good on that promise. During the 2012 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly will have the opportunity to demonstrate the state’s belief that all Maryland children deserve the chance to be set on a course towards academic and economic success by providing every Maryland four-year-old with access to a high-quality, full-day pre-K program.

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No parent should ever have to choose between providing for their family and participating in their child’s education. Most people agree that active parent engagement is critical to ensuring a great education for all kids. While we cannot legislate parental involvement at home or in school, we can advocate for laws that reduce the barriers to active parent participation in their child’s educational success. One critical first step is legislation to allow parents to meet with their children’s teachers, such as in parent-teacher conferences, without penalty from employers. Just as employers are required to allow employees to carry out their civic duty and vote or serve on a jury, they should also be required to allow parents to fulfill their obligations to actively participate in their child’s education. Regardless of whether or not a parent’s job affords them leave time or whether or not the parent has remaining leave time, they should have the right to attend biannual parent teacher conferences without risking their livelihood.

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Read our report, "The State of Maryland Public Education," to get the facts about what's working in our public schools, what's not, and what we can do about it. Download the report.