An Investment in Education
Republican rhetoric on teachers doesn’t match Virginia’s reality.
Republicans in the General Assembly have a four-prong strategy to focus on job growth.
Three of the prongs — tax credits for companies creating at least 50 jobs, aggressively pursuing global opportunities and protecting Virginia’s business friendly reputation — are ideas worthy of debate. We might quibble with how these strategies are implemented, but we agree that job growth is particularly important as Virginia tries to emerge from the national recession.
That’s why we find the fourth prong of the Republicans’ plan particularly vexing.
They wish to prepare the future workforce by recruiting the best teachers and rewarding them based on their success. How about hanging on to the great teachers Virginia already has?
There seems to be a disconnect between the GOP talking point and reality.
Hundreds of Virginia school teachers are expected to lose their jobs this year — not because they aren’t performing well but because the state is severely cutting aid to public schools.
Virginia’s premiere school system in Fairfax County is looking at stripping away many of the programs that make it an attractive tool in recruiting new businesses and new residents. Closer to home, Roanoke city is looking at lopping $6 million more from this year’s school budget; Franklin County is trying to find $6 million in cuts for next year, and on it goes.
While Republicans loftily talk of rewarding outstanding teacher recruits, good teachers already in our classrooms haven’t had a raise, don’t know when they will have one, and are being asked to teach larger classes with fewer aids and materials. Even paper is rationed.
In which classrooms are these new, bright recruits going to teach?
In his parting budget, former Gov. Tim Kaine proposed a way to help both the state and localities cushion the blow of an unreconciled $2 billion deficit. It involved a modest tax increase — an idea so repulsive to Republicans that they plan to speedily dispatch the idea without considering the repercussions.
Virginia is attractive to new and relocating businesses for several reasons, one of which is its terrific school system. Lawmakers would do well to protect that investment.
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