health pandemic forced the physical closure of schools nationwide in March 2020, moving students from the classroom to online learning. The public health necessity to turn to online learning further exacerbated the significant and persistent racial, ethnic, and income disparity learning gaps as students struggled to access educational technology devices and the internet. (8) At the start of online learning, Maryland school districts reported that on average, nearly 25 percent of Maryland students had not logged into their new online classrooms or picked up paper work packets, falling out of sight and behind their peers. (9) Millions of children fell further behind as a result of opportunity gaps that fail to provide students with ready access to individualized instruction, healthy meals, mental health counseling services, and hands on career training programs. (10) As school systems have returned full time to the in-person learning environment, assessments to determine the effect of COVID–19 have shown that achievement and opportunity gaps have only widened between students of color and low-income students and their higher income and white peers. (11) In order to address these inequities in education and harm caused by COVID–19, certain States, including Maryland, have researched and enacted bold, transformative Federal, State, and local funding and policy changes to their pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education systems, with five main policy areas under the 2021 authorized Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which includes the following focus areas: (A) Investing in high-quality early childhood education and care through a significant expansion of full day pre-school, to be free for all low-income three- and four-year-olds, so that all children have the opportunity to begin kindergarten ready to learn. (B) Investing in teachers and school leaders by elevating the standards and status of the teaching profession, including a performance-based career ladder and salaries comparable to other fields with