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Four Gubernatorial Candidates Welcomed at VEA Convention

VEA delegates warmly welcomed all four gubernatorial candidates to the VEA annual convention yesterday in an historic forum in which public schools were repeatedly cast as the engine to lift our country out of recession.

VEA President Kitty Boitnott first conducted a public interview with Republican candidate Bob McDonnell., who said as governor he'd try to cut the bureaucracy and direct more dollars directly into the classroom. He also advocated increasing the use of technology in schools.

PBS to Broadcast Forum. The gubernatorial forum will be broadcast on selected PBS stations on Tuesday, April 28. Stations carrying the forum are PBS stations serving Hampton Roads (10 pm), Richmond (9 pm), Roanoke (10 pm), and Harrisonburg (10 pm).

View convention photos from the first day here  at our Flickr site.

McDonnell also said he had advocated the use of tuition tax credits to permit high-risk students and those at "failing schools" to attend the school of their choice. He added that he supported expanding the number of charter schools.

Pointing out that his sister was a teacher, McDonnell said educators are central to growing our economy. "You are the links to the kind of Virginia we will have going forward," he said.

After McDonnell left the stage, Boitnott interviewed Democratic candidates Creigh Deeds, Brian Moran, and Terry McAuliffe

Deeds told delegates he'd be the "education governor," adding that the state's education challenges require "a governor who wakes up every day with an understanding of the challenges you face in the classroom." He said he'd work to increase teacher pay, which trails the national average by more than $6,000. "We can't expect excellence if we don't even pay for average," he said. Deeds also promoted expanding preschool options and creating incentives to attract teachers into high-needs schools and to math and science jobs.

McAuliffe emphasized revitalizing the state's economy, saying that, "to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, we'll need the best teachers in the United States." He advocated substantially increasing teacher pay, saying that, "When I'm done as governor, no surrounding jurisdiction will pay their teachers more than the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Moran, likewise, advocated raising teacher pay and boosting early childhood education. And he urged delegates interested in what he might do for schools as governor to look at his track record as a member of Virginia's House of Delegates.  "When it comes to fighting for education funding and raising teacher pay, I have a record of doing that," he said.

Prior to the candidate's forum, Dennis Van Roekel, president of the 3.2-million member National Education Association, pointed to the scale of the federal economic stimulus package as evidence  of the organization's power. NEA members sent more than 35,000 e-mail messages to members of Congress during the debate on the economic stimulus plan, and legislators responded with the biggest one-time boost in federal education spending in history.

 "That's going to make a difference in communities across the country," Van Roekel said. He added that since president Barack Obama took office, he's been invited to meet with new education secretary Arne Duncan four times. "That's four times more than we met with the education secretary in the previous eight years," he quipped. "We now have a place at the table."