For generations, Kent County has taught young people how to work with both land and water. That knowledge built farms, businesses, boats, families, and communities. But somewhere along the way, we began sending a different message to many of our young people: if you want opportunity, you may have to leave to find it. I don’t think we should accept that.
One of the most important things we can do for Kent County’s future is make our schools stronger—and make sure the education students receive inside them connects to opportunities here, in their local communities and neighborhoods.
That starts with the schools themselves. Superintendent McComas has developed and supported a first-rate team of teachers and administrators at our schools—we need facilities that match. I fully support building a new Kent County Middle School and continuing to modernize our school facilities. The current middle school opened in 1950 and needs nearly $24 million in building-system upgrades. With the State of Maryland expected to cover a significantly larger share of a new middle school, we have an opportunity to seize a long-term investment in our children and our county.
But the schools are the first step. I see this moment as opportunistic in another way—it provides a chance to rethink how we prepare our young people for life after graduation.
Kent County is a working county. Agriculture remains central to our economy and identity. Our rivers and Bay support watermen, marinas, boatyards, aquaculture, and marine businesses and trades. Local employers need people who know how to weld, repair an engine or electrical systems, fabricate fiberglass, operate sophisticated equipment, solve mechanical problems, and understand the technology increasingly driving farming and the marine trades.
Those skills lead to real careers. Our schools should treat them that way.
Kent County already has a strong trades program. I want to expand our career and technical education, building close partnerships between our schools and the people already doing this work here. Students should be able to explore apprenticeships, earn credentials, learn alongside local employers and build relationships with them, and graduate with skills they can put to work immediately.
In agriculture, that could mean training in precision equipment, mechanics, welding, robotics, food production, and agricultural business. Along our working waterfront, it could mean pathways into marine mechanics, boatbuilding and repair, electrical systems, aquaculture, and commercial fishing.
There is nothing old-fashioned about these careers. Walk onto a modern farm or into a good boatyard and you will find technology, specialized equipment, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving alongside skills handed down for generations.
I have proposed partnerships with Kent County schools, the University of Maryland Extension, FFA programs, colleges and others to build a stronger pipeline of young farmers and watermen. We should take that same approach across the trades, bringing schools and employers to the same table and asking a simple question: What skills will Kent County need ten years from now, and how do we start teaching them today?
That is an education question. It is also an economic one. After more than 40 years building businesses, I know growth depends on people. Employers cannot expand if they cannot find skilled workers. Farms and working waterfront businesses cannot survive without another generation prepared to take their place.
College will remain the right choice for many students. But it should not be the only path we recognize as success. An entrepreneurial young person who becomes a skilled marine mechanic, welder, farmer, electrician, or business owner can build a good life, raise a family—and strengthen Kent County at the same time.
We talk a lot about keeping young people here. The best way to do that isn’t to ask them to stay. It’s to give them something to stay for.