Years of being an advocate for Maryland's children left Matthew H. Joseph, Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s new point man on education, with strong views on public schooling in general.

"Every child needs a good education, yet you have a sense that not all children are getting it," he said. "They're either getting a mediocre education or they're not getting the education they need to compete in an international economy."

But Joseph is still learning about Baltimore County's school system in particular.

What the 36-year-old Harvard graduate eventually concludes promises to affect the education of the school system's 108,600 students, because Joseph's findings could have the largest impact on the county executive's views on the school system.

"He's not going to try to micromanage the school system or politicize instruction," Joseph said of Smith, "but that doesn't mean he cannot have an impact on the quality of education."

Only weeks into the $70,000-a-year job of "education liaison," Joseph has been making the circuit of school board meetings, community forums and getting-to-know-you lunches, introducing himself and emphasizing the new county executive's commitment to public education.

All the while, he's been asking everyone their views on the district, the nation's 23rd largest.

"The county executive will learn a lot about what is going on in the Baltimore County school system," said Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the Abell Foundation, where Joseph once worked to improve Baltimore City's school system.

"He's very skeptical," Embry said, "and he's heard a lot of excuses over the years, so he's very attuned to finding out what the facts are."

Education liaison is a powerful position because the county executive, with the County Council, controls the school system's purse strings.

Joseph said he would characterize Baltimore County's school system as "fundamentally sound," but facing the challenges of responding to the needs of students from low-income families and keeping their more affluent classmates in the district.

"For me the things to look for," he said, "are having good principals who are empowered and have the ability to be good instructional leaders, teachers who are well-trained and supported, and instructional strategies that are research-based."

Although he's a lawyer by training, Joseph knows more than most about education.

Son of an electrical engineering professor at the Johns Hopkins University and a Baltimore City school system testing analyst, Joseph wanted to become a city schoolteacher after college but lacked the required certification. So he shifted his attention to advocating better instruction for children.

At his last job directing public policy for the nonprofit Advocates for Children and Youth, Joseph lobbied policymakers for measures to improve the schooling of Maryland's youngsters, such as the Thornton Commission report that paved the way for a law promising more state aid for education. He also wrote a law review article arguing for quasi-state takeover of Baltimore's school system.

As an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Delegates this fall, he expressed support for charter schools. Charter schools, which are not permitted in Maryland, are funded with public money but run independently of public districts.

In his new job, Joseph will have to work for school reform from within the system, but Jann Jackson, executive director at Advocates for Children and Youth, expects him to do that without abandoning principle.

"It's quite possible to be a change agent inside the system," she said. "You need the same tools and knowledge -- you just use them in a different way."

Joseph said he moved from outsider to insider to get good ideas implemented. He emphasized that he does not have a "private agenda" for the post.