|
It
was only a matter of time. In recent days, the
Virginia gubernatorial campaign has become a bidding
war.
Tim
Kaine, the Democratic candidate, upped the ante on
education by proposing to spend more taxpayers’
money on teachers’ salaries, to establish a
pre-kindergarten program for four-year-olds, to push
for a new university in Southside Virginia and to
“fully fund” higher education.
Kaine’s
opponent, Republican Jerry Kilgore, has offered
educational proposals that would cost taxpayers
considerably less.
As
Alexis deToqueville feared, American politicians
have become adept at bribing voters with their own
money. Kaine promises what he cannot possibly
deliver, but that doesn’t seem to matter in modern
campaigning. The major premise undergirding
Kaine’s proposals is that more money will improve
the educational product.
The
record in the City of Richmond, where Kaine served
as mayor, should make us question that assumption.
Spending for Richmond’s public schools has
increased dramatically, but performance has trailed
far behind.
Every
politician, including Kaine, speaks of bringing
accountability to education. Despite more than two
decades of political promises of stronger
performance standards for teachers, true
accountability has not been achieved.
Kilgore
has focused on funding the capital needs of
Virginia’s public schools by proposing to fund an
Education Investment Trust with revenues derived
from economic growth. He favors an education tax
credit program as a way to encourage parents to pay
for computers, tutors and other items to provide
educational support for their children. This is a
far cry from the kind of tuition tax credit needed
to introduce real accountability to public education
by giving parents a choice about where and how their
children will be educated.
In
the area of higher education, Kilgore proposes
increasing from $2,500 to $4,000 the average tuition
assistance grant to Virginia students who enroll at
private colleges and universities. He contends that
this will provide a wider range of choice for
students while partially addressing the need to
accommodate the projected growth in the state’s
college-age population. A state tuition assistance
program at the elementary and secondary school
levels would serve the same purpose.
Kilgore
proposes several other education initiatives,
including a program to recruit, retain and reward
public school teachers and programs to make
Virginia’s community colleges a stronger player in
the state system of higher education.
The
problem for Kilgore is that he can’t win a bidding
war against his Democratic opponent. Kilgore must
show a principled difference between himself and
Kaine on education by challenging the notion that
Virginians must accept a future of ever-rising taxes
and spending on education.
If
this gubernatorial contest is about which candidate
promises the more grandiose education program, it is
already over. We watched that happen in 1985.
Most
Virginians surely understand that our educational
system has not improved at anything close to the
rate of increase in state spending for public
schools. Even before the 2004 tax increase, spending
on public education was rising ten times faster than
enrollment, after adjusting for inflation.
Comparisons
with other states are a trap because the nation at
large is plagued by a common malady -- a persistent
but mistaken belief that student performance can be
improved by ratcheting up spending without
fundamental change.
At
least a half-century of experience with that policy
should dispel such a belief. Selling fundamental
change is not what most politicians are interested
in undertaking during an election campaign. But
without a debate about fundamental change, we are
stuck with a bidding war.
--
August 8, 2005
|
