Education has the power to lift up communities, transform economies and change lives. It’s a sacred duty we owe every child, and the foundation on which each generation is built. But just as society benefits when everyone receives a good education, we all pay a cost when that opportunity is out of reach for any of us.

There are so many aspects to a good education, from classroom instruction, to resources after school, to the home environment and community support. But the best programs in the world cannot deliver the promise of education if students are unable to get to the places where they are available. Mobility is everything when it comes to opportunity.

In Baltimore City, mobility is one of our greatest challenges. While opportunity is plentiful throughout our region, it is not evenly distributed. That means enduring heavy traffic and long trips to access jobs, groceries, retail, medicine, education, entertainment and more.

Great cities unlock the region’s potential by offering a multitude of transportation options. In a city where up to 60% of households in some neighborhoods do not have access to a car, the Maryland Transit Administration plays a make-or-break role. And for as many as 25,000 Baltimore City Public School students, it is their primary route to school.

As one of the nation’s largest public transit agencies, MTA provides a critical link to destination centers throughout the region, including schools. But it has done so for decades without the benefit of adequate investment and support.

While Baltimore’s Northeast Corridor neighbors completed extensive rail systems long ago, Baltimore’s system remains unfinished. Decades of deferred maintenance have brought the existing system to the brink of failure in recent years. You get what you pay for, and when you don’t invest in maintenance and staffing, you get broken-down and unreliable transit service.

Thanks to the efforts of the Maryland General Assembly, the Moore-Miller administration and MDOT MTA, the last few years have seen a reversal of fortune. In 2019, the MTA published its Capital Needs Inventory, providing for the first time a sober accounting of the administration’s investment needs. Then in 2021, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Transit Safety and Investment Act, mandating a level of investment that would allow MTA to meet those needs within a decade.

Under the Moore-Miller administration, progress has continued. The administration’s FY 2025-2030 transportation budget, now under consideration by the Maryland General Assembly, will invest new revenues to meet mandated investment levels, fully staff MTA, advance the Baltimore Red Line and fund a desperately needed overhaul of the central light rail line.

The administration’s budget proposal is no routine matter. It requires modernizing the transportation funding formula to account for technology change, new patterns of roadway use, rising inflation and declining revenues.

But nothing would cost us more than failing to meet the moment. It’s not just important for our students striving to become our next generation of leaders, but for all of us. The public transit system that primary school students rely on is the same one that parents, employees, medical patients and college graduates rely on.

We urge the Maryland General Assembly to pass the administration’s transportation budget to ensure that Maryland is built to win, not doomed to fall back into declining service and opportunity just out of reach.

Brandon M. Scott (mayor@baltimorecity.gov) is mayor of Baltimore City. Holly Arnold is the Maryland Transit Administration administrator.