Jon Baron’s 100-Day Plan

Maryland Matters invited the 2022 candidates for governor to answer the following question: 

In 300 words or less, please share your vision for your first 100 days in office. Please include individual policy priorities and specific actions you will commit to take if you are elected.

The response from Jon Baron (D): 

My first 100 days will focus on addressing longstanding problems that damage millions of lives — and we’ll bring a fundamentally different approach.

In education, more than 1/4 of Maryland middle school students can’t read at basic level — same as 20 years ago. The bottom 40% of Marylanders have seen stagnant wages since the 1980s, as income inequality has soared. Our state’s made no progress reducing poverty in over 30 years.

Fellow Marylanders, we can’t just keep doing the same thing we’ve done for decades — rolling out one unproven government program after another — and expect a different result. To make progress, we must expand solutions that have actually been tested in the real world and shown to improve lives.

Click the logo to read Maryland Matters’ election guide and 2022 campaign coverage.

Solutions like providing high-quality tutoring to every struggling first and second grader in Maryland — which has been shown to move them up toward grade level early, before their problems become serious in later grades. To do this, we’ll recruit an army of tutors from the community, including retirees and recent college graduates, to become tutors for a modest stipend as a public service.

We’ll also partner with Maryland businesses to provide effective job training to every adult who wants to advance. Done right, job training can raise earnings as much as 40 percent — but the key is to focus the training on fast-growing industries, and work closely with local employers who provide paid internships to trainees. Under our plan, the state pays for the training, employers pay for the internships, the economy gets skilled workers — everyone benefits.

Here’s the bottom line: If we continue on our current path, we’ll be here in another 20 years and nothing will have changed. To make progress, we have to zero-in on solutions that have actually been tested and shown effective.

Let’s do what works, Maryland!

Republish