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On Education: Politics & Science ; Four Issues; As Teachers Return to School, They Should Consider Elections

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

As the school year begins, the last thing on the minds of teachers is Election Day. Teachers are concentrating on class lists, lesson plans, and meeting the needs of Virginia's students. However, November 8 will have great influence on the future of public school employees. Educators should heed the sharp differences among Virginia's three gubernatorial candidates on key issues.

I've had the opportunity to listen to all three and to carefully examine their records on education issues. Allow me to highlight four issues and assign matching the positions to the candidates as homework for the reader.

First, nothing is more fundamental to schools than funding. Jefferson proposed the concept of public schools in Virginia in 1779, and we have been fighting for adequate funding ever since. Two of the gubernatorial candidates supported the appropriation of an additional $1.5 billion for our schools in the 2004 special session, and one opposed. Two of the candidates support the contention of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) that Virginia is not funding the Standards of Quality (SOQ) and should do more, and one contends we are fully funding the SOQ.

Second, the just-released Gallup poll (September Phi Delta Kappan) confirms the public's "strong preference for change through the existing public schools." It revealed that "support for choice shows no sign of increasing and could be said to be lagging; and it is the public schools to which the public turns for closing the achievement gap" among ability, racial, and socioeconomic groups. Despite this, one of the three gubernatorial candidates supports tax credit and/or voucher schemes to shift public dollars from public to private schools.

VRS Check, Ticket to Heaven

Third, when teachers start their careers, they know they will never get rich, but they know they can count on two things: (1) a monthly check from the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) until death and (2) a place in Heaven after. One of the three candidates supports a defined contribution (DC) option for VRS. (This is the same thing President Bush has proposed for Social Security.) Unlike the current defined benefit (DB) plans, a DC plan offers no guaranteed benefit. Could the option be part of a two-step dance to eliminate VRS as we know it for future employees?

Finally, in an August 18 report, the National Center for Education Information predicted that 8 percent of our teachers will retire each year for the next five years. We must replace 40 percent of our teacher corps, plus hire those needed for increased enrollment, in the five years ahead. How will we attract the best and the brightest teachers to Virginia's classrooms? Two of our candidates will meet this challenge by raising the average Virginia teacher's salary to a level at or above the national average. (We are now $2,057 behind.) One candidate offers merit pay as the answer. Merit pay has failed wherever it has been tried in Virginia (e.g., Albemarle and Fairfax). The promise is to reward good teachers, but the plans fail when it proves impossible to fairly compare a physics teacher to a special education teacher (apples and oranges), when school boards set quotas based on budgetary restraints and not on the merit of the teaching corps, when favoritism on the part of the principal influences evaluations, and when school boards simply cannot come up with the funds for the bonus payments. Teachers should note as well that bonuses, unlike salary increases, do not enhance retirement benefits.

Issues Determine Vote

I picked only four issues: funding, public money to private schools, retirement, and salary. I ask all educators to take the time to research each candidate's position on these and other issues. Doing so may make your decision issue-driven and party- blind. Doing so may help Virginia choose the best governor for the future of education in our beloved Commonwealth.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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