“I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”

The subject is public education. The speaker is Abraham Lincoln, campaigning for the Illinois Legislature.

The source is Leadership in Turbulent Times, a profile of Presidents Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, written by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The people of Maryland and the General Assembly will be engaged in this issue next year. Our funding and policy decisions will affect public education for the next decade and beyond.

Reading Lincoln’s quote prompted me to review what I’ve been doing.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve had breakfast meetings with advocates, brought about a meeting on pre-kindergarten, solicited chaitable funding for two of the 21st Century schools in my district, and discussed this issue with my Legislation classes, with the assistance of a former student, Senator Bill Ferguson.

“This is a once in a generation moment,” he told the class.

Will we provide sufficient funding to prepare all students, regardless of their zip code, to be partipants in the 21st Century economy and society?

Will we hold teachers to standards that the evidence tells us make a difference in pupils’ performance?

“Everybody says they’re for education,” an advocate told me this morning.

In the general election campaign and the legislative session that will follow, we’ll learn who follows through on that commitment..