Issue: Education
Virginia needs an educational system that keeps pace with the world. We can no longer continue to fall behind other countries in key subjects like math, science, reading, and basic English. As the wealthiest nation in the world, America's students should not fall behind in one of the most internationally critical languages. English has replaced French as the language of diplomacy and is the language of business, finance, global politics, and increasingly, trade. Our citizens need to be experts in it.OVN supports paying teachers more for the important work they do, but we also believe we need a system that holds teachers accountable and requires our schools to produce results. OVN doesn't believe we can send a teacher into a school that is underperforming and expect miracles overnight. Together as a community we need to fight for the necessary resources that make it possible for every child to achieve success, that allow teachers to do their jobs, that allow school districts to create educational programs that meet the needs of its students. Again, the Federal government and State must get away from a one-size-fits-all approach. As a community, we all have to take interest in our schools. If our school system fails we all fail.
Failing schools lead to higher drop out rates. Failing schools lead to higher crime rates. Failing schools lead to high unemployment rates, which then puts the burden of providing benefits on the state and every taxpayer to supplement the income of those who drop out with too few skills to get meaningful employment.
With some changes and frankly, some goals, were confident our schools can do better. We need to put more value on education and we believe this starts at home. The most important factor in whether our kids succeed in school depends on parent involvement. As parents, our top priority is to make sure our children have every opportunity to succeed in school and in their community.
OVN realizes the challenges that face parents today. With so many families having both parents working, it is sometimes hard for them to meet all the needs of their children. We also know that an ever-growing segment of the population in our state is single-parent households, for whom providing for their children is even harder.
All this aside, parents have to play an active role in our children's academic lives, providing a helping hand and encouragement. We need to create and develop programs to help parents. We cannot continue to throw money at the problem without expecting or seeing real results. OVN believes any new educational plan has to make parents an integral part of the solution.
In addition, teachers should not have to be worried about violence in their classrooms. Nor should teachers have to worry about how they will support their families. OVN supports a pay increase for teachers that is fair, but also requires results and a commitment from teachers to students.
