We Are Long Overdue In Filling the Hole in Education
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richmond, VA
January 29, 2004
CONTACT: Sue Rafferty,
Legislative Assistant,(804)698-1047
On January 29, 2004 Delegate Al Eisenberg made the following floor speech in the Virginia House of Delegates on the occasion of a visit by the Virginia Education Association:
"Today, the State Capitol is host to teachers and other educational personnel from all over the state. I welcome their presence and their message, as a former elementary and high school teacher in the city of Chesapeake. I received my Masters in Education from Hampton University and served in the Teacher Corps and spent four years on the front lines of the classroom. Teaching is a calling. I know how difficult it can be. My sixth grade class had 45 students.
In one form or another teaching has been my life's work. So, I am honored that those who hold the future of Virginia's children in their hands have come to educate our government about educational needs.
Thomas Jefferson said, "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."
He also said, "The patch should be commensurate with the hole."
And frankly, we are long overdue in filling the hole in education. We're 13th in the nation in per capita personal income, but 44th in state government funding for schools. A third of Virginia public schools need major repair and high school classes are 40 percent larger than the national average. Meanwhile, Virginia's average teacher salary is less than North Carolina, George, and the nation.
There are too many spirits around here who think that we can reach the level of educational excellence that our children's future demands without paying for it. And paying for it means decent pay and retirement benefits for our school personnel. It means providing the facilities and equipment that assure an appropriate learning environment. It also means guarding against the right wing ideologies of creationism and vouchers which can only divert and diminish our educational system and undermine our progress toward a society that is enlightened, and progressive, and that hearkens to what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.
I thank our teachers and educational personnel for the service they provide everyday and their commitment to it, despite the challenges that confront then. I am honored that they have come to the Capitol to provide some badly needed education about our state's poorly funded educational program."
-30-