Parental rights in education is not a campaign position for me. It is how I have lived as a mother.
I have eight children. Over the years, they have attended public school, private school, and I have homeschooled. Not because I was making a political statement, but because every child is different, every season of life is different, and the right fit for one child in one year is not always the right fit for another. That is what parental judgment looks like in practice. It is personal, informed, and it belongs to families, not to government officials in Annapolis.
I currently volunteer in schools, serve on Community Resource School Steering Committees, attend Cecil County Board of Education meetings, and run Community Connecting Us, a nonprofit in Port Deposit that works directly with families navigating education, wellness, and community challenges. Through that work, I have seen firsthand how much education happens outside classroom walls, and how much families need a community that actually shows up for them.
All of that experience has reinforced one thing: parents know their children. Teachers know their students. And the people who know the least about any given child are the ones making policy from the farthest away.
I believe parents should be active, informed, and respected participants in their children’s education. That means schools communicating openly with families, welcoming questions, and creating space for concerns to be heard and addressed. It means curriculum decisions being made with community input, not handed down without it. And it means trusting parents to make the right calls for their own children, rather than having those decisions made for them by people who have never set foot in their home or classroom.
I also believe teachers deserve genuine respect. The educators I have worked alongside over the years are dedicated, skilled, and deeply committed to their students. Good schools are built on that relationship between families and educators. When that relationship is grounded in mutual respect and honest communication, students win. When it becomes a battleground for political agendas, students lose.
Cecil County’s children deserve better than that.
As your delegate, I will fight for education policy that keeps parents informed and involved, respects local communities over state mandates, holds Annapolis accountable for how education dollars are actually spent here, and never loses sight of the fact that we are talking about real children with real futures.
No one in Annapolis knows your child better than you do. My job is to make sure Annapolis never forgets that.
Want to talk about education in Cecil County? Reach out or come to an event. I am always listening.