Hundreds Rally for Kids

I experienced one of the prouder moments of my VEA presidency yesterday. Not that I am not always proud to serve as the president of the Virginia Education Association. Indeed, I always feel proud, privileged, and honored to have the opportunity to represent our VEA members and to advocate for the children of the commonwealth, but some moments are, frankly, more memorable than others...and yesterday was certainly right up there near the top of the list of most memorable moments.

First of all, I have to offer a great big shout out to the school bus driver from Orange County who made yesterday possible. Lori Gues of the Orange County Education Association proved that one person CAN make a difference. Of course, she needed help, and that is where her president, Wanda Jones, her UniServ Director, Dave Oberg, and members like Kyle Wormuth joined in. A great big shout out also goes to the Superintendent of Schools in Orange County. Dr. Bob Grimesey modestly deferred all credit to Lori and the OCEA and offered that all he did was stay out of their way as they planned yesterday's event; but surely he knows that staying out of their way was a huge contribution to the event. Not many superintendents have the kind of courage that it takes to "get out of the way" of his or her employees, frankly, so a special thanks should go to him for his support--both moral and material.

In the final analaysis, though, it was the hundreds of members who showed up yesterday that made the event truly noteworthy. There have been times in the past when the VEA has attempted to sponsor an event and the concern is always whether anyone will come or not. In this case, because it was a grassroots effort--and because the issue is so critical to the future of Virginia--the rally took on a life of its own.

As I surveyed the crowd, I was moved by a variety of emotions. I was certainly proud of the Orange County leaders for stepping up and offering leadership the way they did. They didn't let cynicism or resignation or defeatism win the day. They stared the obstacles in the face and decided to do something anyway. Good for them!

I was also moved by the number of children in the crowd. Some carried signs (like the picture above). Few probably really appreciated why we were there. Surely they can't comprehend that their governor and their elected leaders are about to set them back educationally at just the time when we need to be more competitive than ever. Surely they don't understand that the budget shortfall of the commonwealth is to be balanced on their backs or that they are being asked to pay the price for an economy in crisis. Surely they don't appreciate that their teachers are about to be laid off by the hundreds leaving them in classes that are too large and too unweildy for any real learning to take place. At least, I hope the kids don't understand. It's bad enough that the adults in the crowd understood only too well what is about to happen.

The one thing that I hope came through what everyone said yesterday from Robley Jones, the Director of Government Relations at the VEA to Kathy Burcher, the Legislative Liaison for the Virginia PTA to Dr. Grimesey to Senator Edd Houck to me is that yesterday has to be the first step in what is going to be a long, drawn out battle for the hearts and minds of Virginians. The economic crisis that we face is very real, it is extremely deep, and it is going to last for several years.

That means that we at the VEA and our members across the state need to start educating members of the community at large about the need for a BALANCED approach to our state budget. A "cuts only" approach is going to set Virginia on a backward course...a course from which we may never really recover. If we are to move forward and recover from this period of crisis, we need to start looking at realistic ways to raise revenue. There are many avenues available to us and they wouldn't have to be painful; but they will require a recognition that we have an obligation as a society to work together on matters that relate to public education, public health, and public safety. The VEA is going to have to lead the way in developing that conversation, I believe, and based on yesterday's first step, I believe we are poised and ready to move that conversation forward. Too much is at stake not to. Indeed, our children are depending upon us, and we cannot let them down.

Virginia Needs Leadership NOW!

The snow is still on the ground, but it's really beginning to heat up here in Richmond. Senators have been calling on the Governor to take a stand and offer some leadership. Meanwhile, the Governor finally unveiled his "education initiatives," but he has kept it strangely quiet that he has plans to cut education funding. The article that details the Governor's plan is entitled "McDonnell Privately Proposes Children’s Insurance, Education Cuts" which can be found at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/02/mcdonnell_cuts_emerge_slowly_p.html.

Another article which lays out what is happening in Richmond is entitled "Va. Senate Democrats in a Bind on Balancing State Budget," and can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/AR2010021104789.html.

These articles and several others like them get to the point that the General Assembly members are fast running out of time--and options--regarding what to do about the gaping hole in Virginia's budget for the next biennium. While they stick steadfast to their pledge to one another and the public not to raise taxes in the midst of a recession, they have also failed to offer one concrete suggestion as to what should be cut, and the cliff toward which they are careening will present itself next Sunday afternoon when the budget must be made public.

In the meantime, those who understand only too well what is about to happen--those in the education field including school board members, superintendents, and VEA leaders and employees--walk around the capital grounds with grim expressions and a very real sense of dread and doom. We understand only too well that unless something drastic happens soon, our school children are about to be robbed of their educations and their future prospects for successful lives. Instead of being the best place to bring a business and the best place to raise a child, manufacturers and corporate presidents will run away from Virginia as quickly as possible because our schools will no longer enjoy the ranking of being one of the best in the nation.

Ironically, it was just this week that the College Board recognized Virginia for increasing Advanced Placement test scores more than any other state over the past five years. (The full article can be found at http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/virginia-ranks-third-advanced-placement-test-rankings.)

The Roanoke Times seems to have summed it up fairly well with the commentary, "McDonnell Wanted to Lead; Now's the Time" which can be found at http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/radmacher/wb/236365.

The VEA is ratcheting up its activity, too, in hopes of getting the public to pay attention to what is happening before it's too late. Starting this week, we will be paying for eight billboards around the Richmond Metro area. The site that we are using to promote our campaign is http://supportvirginiaschools.com/. We will be using a banner campaign on numerous web sites hoping to catch the eye of Virginia parents and citizens who care about the future of Virginia and its children.

If you haven't already gone to that site and clicked on it to communicate with the Governor and your Senator and Delegate, please do that right away. The only effective strategy that we have at our disposal is to put pressure on our "leaders" letting them know that decimating our schools is not the job we sent them to Richmond to do.

We need leaders now. Please join me in letting our legislators know that shortchanging our children on their futures and the quality of their education is not an option.

Until next time.

Kitty

Since my last posting on January 17th, I have been busy monitoring the General Assembly; attended the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Conference in Cincinnati; traveled to the Tidewater and NOVA regions for two more Presidents’ Dinners; conducted a press conference; held a Tele-Town Hall meeting; chaired the January VEA Board of Directors meeting; and met with the new Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson.

As I write this post, I am snowed in—like most of my fellow Virginians—watching the third major snowstorm of this winter and the second one in a week. Last weekend, I was snowed in at the Embassy Suites about six miles from my home because by the time we recessed our Board meeting that had started at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the roads were too treacherous to try to navigate my way home and have any hope of returning for the rest of our board meeting on Sunday. The members of the board who were also snowed in made the best of the situation, sometimes playing in the snow while digging their cars out of the snow banks that surrounded the cars in the hotel parking lot.

In spite of the snow, we had a hugely successful VEA Lobby Day on Monday, February 1st. About 200 VEA members from all over the state showed up for the briefings either Sunday night or Monday morning. I cannot thank those folks enough. Their determination to show up in spite of the weather conditions speaks to their dedication to their jobs and also speaks to their understanding that we are facing some dire circumstances with regard to this year's General Assembly session.

We also had a few thousand members tune in to our Tele-Town Hall meeting on Thursday, January 28th while Robley Jones, Tom Allen, and I talked about the serious budget shortage that we are anticipating and some of the proposed changes in our Virginia Retirement System. I wish I could convey to our members just how hard our VEA lobbying cadre is working on their behalf. We have worked tirelessly to protect our VRS program; and we are also ever diligent in our efforts to kill off bad bills and promote those that we believe would be beneficial.

It's all an uphill battle, however. Our legislators in the House of Delegates seem to have undertaken a full out assault on public education with their cuts only approach to the budget. They have also taken steps to send the message that they don't trust local school boards to make decisions that they would rather make for them while not seeming to care about not being able to meet their financial responsibility to the school divisions around the state.

It leaves me wondering about leadership and the lack of it that I witness everyday.

While members of the House of Delegates prepare to gut school funding, they blissfully go about insisting on more tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. They would permanently change the SOQ funding with no regard for their constitutional duty to "provide a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained."

Where has visionary leadership gone? There was a day, I believe, when legislators governed with a sense of deep responsibility toward their constituents--including children of future generations. Somewhere along the way, however, long range planning has become a thing of the past. Concern about future generations makes for good rhetoric but not for realistic action.

Legislators routinely speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim the need to govern from Richmond such local issues as when school divisions can start school and what sorts of things need to be included in the day-to-day curriculum, but when it comes to sending the state's fair share of funding so that teachers can be paid a decent salary and students can continue to count on important programs like full day kindergarten or art and music, they claim that that isn't their responsibility. I believe that some have either never read the Constitution of Virginia and therefore really don't understand their duty or they have deliberately chosen to ignore their constitutional duty to the citizens of Virginia. Either way, what they are doing is, in my opinion, unconscionable.

What I entreat those reading this post to do is to start paying close attention to what is going on in Richmond this winter. The unusual snow storms that we have experienced are not the only historic events that are taking place. What is also about to take place is a gutting of historic proportions of our school funding at the state level. Our children are being robbed of their futures, and it is happening right under our noses.

I urge readers to monitor the VEA's legislative update daily at http://www.veadailyreports.com/ and to read your local newspapers to try to keep up with what is happening in Richmond.

Respond to the Cyberlobbying action alerts and information alerts. If you aren't yet a Cyberlobbyist, please sign up. You may do that by going to http://www.veadailyreports.com/2009/11/become-vea-cyber-lobbyist.html.

We need our members to take action.

Write your legislators. Call the legislative hotline.

Let your legislators know that shortchanging our children is not an option. We need them to do the job that they were elected to do--responsibly.

Until next time.

Kitty