Governor Martin O’Malley issued this statement today, Jan. 11 following Education Week Magazine’s official selection of Maryland public schools as number one in the nation for the third straight year.
“Today, Education Week Magazine, for the third straight year, has ranked Maryland the number one public school system in America. Even during these difficult economic times, we’ve worked with students, teachers and parents to continually improve and reform our public education system. Since we received this same distinction last year, Maryland has begun integrating our data systems to better track student progress, and has won President Obama’s Race to the Top competition to continually improve our school system, recruit and retain the nation’s best teachers, and turn around low performing schools.
“In this changing new economy we are in a fight for our children’s future. In this fight, there will be some states that lose, and some states that win. For Maryland to win we must move forward by creating and saving jobs through innovation, and that includes protecting our best-in-the-nation public school system. We must also be willing to continue making tough choices so that we can protect our shared priorities; priorities that will allow us to make this new economy ours.”