"The solution to our transportation problem must include three components: strong accountability of our transportation agencies, better connections between land use and transportation planning, and new, reliable, long-term funding of our system."
I couldn't agree more. Our transportation system is clearly overwhelmed daily by traffic. We need to turn this around and Kaine has a specific plan to move us forward here. Kaine calls for greater coordination between land use and transportaion planning. He wants funding to come auto tax tilting and vehicle registrations. Unfortunately the House of Delegates leadership is strongly resistant to any funding increase to improve transportation. I think they need to think of it as less than a tax increase and more of a long term investment.
On education, Kaine has proposed two big goals: First, raising teacher salaries by three percent and systemic teacher evaluations. Seoncd, by investing promoting universal pre-K education. As a teacher I think both ideas are great.
Of course, I am biased in believing that raising teacher pay is a good idea, but also I think it is good idea to hold high standards and evaluations for teachers. Poor teachers need to be either given more support or leave the profession. Regular evaluations will ensure that all of students succeed.
Now on to universal Pre-K. This is one of Kaine's most important initiatives and the Republicans wasted no time in belittling it in their response. I don't want to get into all the details (if you do go here http://www.raisingka...), but the basic idea is that if we make a big investment in pre-K education we can prevent thousands of kids from falling behind. A Rand study gave credence to the idea that making an investment in early childhood education in addition to being the right thing to do is also the cost effective over the long term.
Finally Kaine addressed Virginia's average record on health care:
"An estimated 1 million Virginians do not have health insurance. As a result, many of our citizens often do not receive the preventive care that is so important in reducing the onset of more serious health problems.
Perhaps our most glaring health failure is our infant mortality rate. Today, VirginiaGÇÖs infant mortality rate is 32nd in the nation and has remained high for decades."
I am no expert here, but my opinion is that we need to move toward the the path that California seems set to follow. We should strive for universal care. We should reduce the bureacratic overlap that the private sector insurance too often creates, and move toward a more streamlined public sector system. Kaine largely punted on this one by appointing a commission to study the problem. This might be the best course, however, because the Republican legislature would be steadfastly opposed.
Overall I thought it was a strong ambitious speech that laid out a clear plan for Virginia. If Republicans decided once again to block any meaningful reform in the legislature, we must make them pay this November.
If you didn't see http://www.governor.... read it and share your thoughts.