Bill Ferguson:DFER Reformer of the Month

Speaking of TFA (yet again), '05 Baltimore corps member Bill Ferguson is running for state senate in Maryland and, at age 27, has a good shot at upsetting a 35-year incumbent.  He's DFER's Ed Reformer of the Month and I hope you'll join me in supporting him at www.actblue.com/page/dferaugust10.  The article below highlights his primary issue, ed reform:

A Montgomery County native, Ferguson moved to Baltimore in 2005 as part of the nonprofit Teach for America organization, and began teaching history and American government at Southwestern High School.

"The experience teaching was very eye-opening," the Canton resident says." The way that I had perceived the world was, frankly, not realistic. I sort of believed in the power of markets, this idea of the private sector is providing everything that's needed," but he says he learned that the core presumption of free-market theories—that "everybody has perfect information" —is a sham. "If we have a public education system that is not even coming close to providing everybody with the opportunity to obtain a great education, it's simply a flawed system."

Ferguson went to work as a community organizer. Then-City Council President Sheila Dixon appointed him part of a two-person team dealing city-wide with community associations, and, while in law school at University of Maryland, he also began working in Baltimore public-schools CEO Andrés Alonso's office, where he witnessed how Maryland state politics and education reform are, for good and bad, intertwined. He watched as, over three years in Annapolis, "a lot of education reform bills that are advantageous to the city or show a priority to the city [did] not get [to] make it through."

"I am under no illusion that as a first-year state senator I will be able to enact massive changes in education," Ferguson acknowledges, but he believes the best legislators are "the ones who know policy issues front and back for just a few issues, and they are the experts on those issues." Thus, Ferguson wants to be the Senate's public-education expert. "I think there's no better issue out there," because "it is the single best public institution where we get a return on our investment for every tax dollar that we put into it."

 

Here's a link to another article about the race: www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-baltimore-legislative-races-20100808,0,2175420,full.story

 

Here's what DFER has to say:

 

Bill Ferguson, a former Teach For America corps member and Baltimore Public Schools teacher, is running for State Senate in Maryland. Most recently, he worked for Baltimore's reform-minded City Schools CEO Andrés Alonso. Bill began his working life teaching U.S. History and U.S. Government to ninth and tenth graders in a breakout academy of the old Southwestern High School, historically one of Baltimore's most challenged high schools.

Recognizing the injustices that City Schools students faced everyday - too few classroom materials, dilapidated facilities, insufficient student transportation options - Bill fought to establish a culture of achievement in his classroom every day. By the end of his second year of teaching, Bill had motivated his U.S. Government students to earn the highest scores in the school's history on the U.S. Government Maryland High School Assessment (HSA). While teaching, Bill also earned his Masters of Arts in Teaching from the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

It's rare to see candidates for public office highlight their support for education reform on their web sites. (Usually they say they support smaller classes, but that's it - even the good ones!) Bill's site highlights prominently his background as an education reformer and a dedicated public servant.

Bill is taking on both the political establishment and the education establishment so every dime matters. DFER considers this race an investment in a great candidate who will be on the scene for a long time to come.

By Bret McCabe

Published: August 18, 2010

http://citypaper.com/news/columns/46th-district-fighting-words-1.955217

Bill Ferguson, the 27-year-old Democratic candidate for the 46th District's state Senate seat, knows he's in for a fight. He knew that once he decided to run and started going around the district and introducing himself door to door. "At the beginning of conversations, people always said, "You're going up against an institution—you know that, right?'" Ferguson says. "And, yes, I definitely understand. My eyes are wide open."