I know Tim Kaine, and I know him to be a thoughtful man. I had a chance to speak to him at some length about education reform several months ago. Back then, before his campaign began in earnest, he articulated some interesting perspectives on education. He’d visited literally every single school jurisdiction across the state to get a sense of the varied challenges schools face across our diverse Commonwealth.
I recall that Kaine was especially concerned about the impending teacher shortage and what it would take to address it. (Addressing the teacher shortage, as coincidence would have it, was the main topic of Jerry Kilgore’s recently announced education initiative.) What impressed me about Kaine was that, although he clearly thought the education system needed more money, he also acknowledged that the system needed to be changed as well.
Judging by his latest campaign salvo, however, all education needs is more money. “Join teachers in the fight for full education funding,” he urges readers of his campaign e-mail blast. He attacked Kilgore for diluting his commitment to education funding. “Under a Kilgore administration, education’s funding would compete with big road project campaign promises, and Virginia’s school children would lose.” So much for nuance.
Question #1. What’s this about “full education funding”? I thought Gov. Mark R. Warner’s 2004 tax increase, which (as my fallible memory serves) raised about $600 million per year for Virginia schools, was supposed to bring Virginia up to the Standards of Quality. In what sense, pray tell, are Virginia’s schools not fully funded?
Question #2: What’s this about Kilgore’s commitment to funding big road projects? I didn’t detect that from the Kilgore transportation plan (detailed on this blog). What big road projects is Kaine talking about? … Can we presume from his comments that Kaine opposes pouring new money into “big road projects”? Can we have his commitment that, if elected governor, he will veto a tax hike for the purpose of funding more big road projects?
