Building Better Schools for Our Kids and Our Future

Nick Stewart is the only candidate in this race who has served within the Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) system, as Vice Chair of the School Board, and he understands what it takes to deliver results for students, families and educators including teachers and support professionals.

While the school board sets policy and the superintendent manages daily operations, the County Executive cannot sit on the sidelines. With 55% of every county dollar funding BCPS, the County Executive must lead in ensuring that our schools work—and work well—for every child.

Education isn’t just another line item in the budget. It’s the foundation of Baltimore County’s future. The tragedy of our age is that, according to the Student Support Network, 34% of public school students live in extreme poverty (income below 130% of federal poverty guideline) and many impoverished students experience elevated mental health distress. School may be the best meal these children have and educators can be powerful role models. We must do more to ensure our children are given opportunity, safety and health. It starts with a school district that is accountable, compassionate and engaged. 

Nick’s Plan to Strengthen Our Schools:

• Recruit and Retain High-Quality Educators: Successful schools start with high-quality teachers and high-quality support professionals. We must support our educators by increasing and protecting pay, reducing our unsustainable class sizes, expanding career pathways, and restoring the professional autonomy educators deserve. We must finish the work of building rewarding career paths into leadership, tenure and more so that the passion of the vocation translates into a beneficial long-term career.
• Re-evaluate Academic Goals: We must end the era of teaching to the test and ensure teacher performance is evaluated by thoughtful classroom observation and reviews of student work. Our testing practices must be calibrated to help us understand the state of the schools and improve county resource allocation to address factors like poverty, special needs, transiency, etc. Setting measurable academic goals with calibrated testing efforts will ensure that BCPS leaders are held accountable, teachers are given the freedom to teach, and our students are given the space to succeed.
• Ensure College and Career Readiness: We need to rebuild college and career readiness programs from the ground up in the County so that our web of programs is effective and easy to access, rather than duplicative and difficult to understand. That means developing a comprehensive online interface for students and caregivers so that they can easily identify the opportunities that make the most sense for the student. Meanwhile, we should leverage AVID and the Early College Access Program, expand the P-TECH program and the BCPS Work-Based Learning program so that we meet and exceed our state-mandated college and career readiness goals.
• Sponsor an AI Workforce Education Taskforce: The taskforce would combine resources from BCPS, universities and industry partners to understand how AI will reshape our economy and industries. It would ensure we have resources to meet the needs of our economy right here in the County and that our graduates are prepared for an AI-enabled job market.
• A Culture of Mentorship and Engagement: Nick will spend at least one week a year as a substitute teacher at a different school across the county. He will also visit every BCPS school on the anniversary of his swearing-in as a mentor to students. He expects his senior staff and employees of BCPS Central Office to do the same.
  • The One Hour Initiative: Nick will lead the charge for every BCPS parent to volunteer at least one hour per school year in their child’s school to empower our schools to be the center of our communities.
  • County Executive Mentorship: Nick will visit every BCPS school annually by the anniversary of his swearing-in as a mentor and role model to students.
• Enable Full Transparency and Accountability: We will reimagine Education Stat as SchoolStat, a public-facing, educator-informed performance dashboard that empowers teachers, support professionals, parents and taxpayers to understand what’s working and what’s not. It will also allow them to be part of a decision-making process using disaggregated data and state-of-the-art interfaces.
• Fix School Overcrowding: Unsustainable class sizes can be addressed by continuing school construction and renovation projects, while not shying away from comprehensive redistricting to eliminate overcrowding once and for all. We should also explore public-private partnerships to rapidly build multiple new schools, similar to the Design-Build-Finance-Maintenance model used by Prince George’s County to deliver six schools simultaneously.
• Expand Access to Free Full-Day Pre-K: Universal Pre-K will help parents—especially women—stay in the workforce without childcare barriers.
• Invest in Community Schools: Community schools provide wraparound services that support students, families and entire communities, such as food services, basic healthcare services and rental assistance. That is because challenges like housing insecurity directly affect academic success. At their best, community schools serve as hubs for social services, job resources and food assistance, strengthening both student outcomes and the broader community. 
• Office of Childhood Hunger: We will establish a dedicated office under the County Executive to partner with local organizations like the Student Support Network and others to address childhood hunger, particularly by administering the ENOUGH Act and coordinating with Governor Moore’s recently created office at the state level.
• Healthy Relationships and Safe Communities: Too many young people receive inconsistent education around healthy relationships, consent, emotional regulation and nonviolent conflict resolution. The consequences can be devastating, contributing to domestic violence, abuse, unsafe environments and public safety incidents that alter lives forever. We will partner with educators, mental health professionals and community organizations to expand access to evidence-based relationship education across BCPS, our colleges and universities, mentorship programs and initiatives serving at-risk youth.

Baltimore County can’t afford to fall behind. With Nick’s leadership, we’ll prioritize students, support educators and make BCPS a system that truly works for every family.

For more on Nick’s vision for strengthening Baltimore County schools, check out his op-ed below:

Maryland leaders must safeguard education investment | GUEST COMMENTARY

Facing looming budget shortfalls, Maryland shouldn’t be too hasty to cut education funding, Nick Stewart and Abby Beytin write.

Baltimore Sun