Bill Ferguson was 27 when he was elected to the State Senate in 2010.  (I was 32 in 1982.)

Before that, he taught in the Baltimore City public schools as a member of Teach For America and graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he took the Legislation class that I co-teach.

Shortly after his election, we decided to work together on education issues.

Bill would bring his knowledge of the classroom; I my knowledge of the legislative process.  Or as one educator commented, “Sandy will be the muscle.”

Last year, we enacted a loan forgiveness program for teachers who have excelled in the classroom.

Pre-schoolers are the focus of our attention this session.

President Obama encouraged education reform with his Race to the Top program.

Senator Ferguson and I hope to provide a better pre-kindergarten education for high-need children so that they can enter elementary school ready to learn.  Our program is called Race to the Tots.

Local school systems would submit their proposals in a competitive evaluation process.

Our proposal got a very favorable reception from two dozen education advocates at a lunch meeting.

Their one criticism: it doesn’t go far enough.

Our bill draft would fund the program at $10 million for each of the next three years.

More money and more years, they said.

I hope the bill hearing in Annapolis goes that well.