“First-year teachers are pretty much useless. To me, the ideal teacher is a third-year Teach for America teacher.”

The principal of a South Bronx public middle school, Ramon Gonzalez, said this in a New York Times magazine article this past spring.

I reread it this week for the Legislation course I co-teach at the University of Baltimore Law School.

After Monday’s class, I learned about a program that directly responds to Gonzalez’s concern.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program pays the tuition of top high school graduates who attend a public college in the state. They must then teach in a public school for at least four years. Only Teach for America had better test results among 12 training programs.

Tuesday morning, I asked that a bill be drafted based upon this program – with one change Grants equal to the cost of tuition at College Park could be made to students attending a private college in the state or a post-secondary institution in any other state. We want these Marylanders to teach here as well.

Now begins the process of making the case for this idea on the merits and of finding a funding source.