• Follow on Snapchat
  • Follow on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Follow on Instagram
  • Watch on YouTube
For all Virginians

An Excellent Education for ALL Virginians

“The proper role of government is not to guarantee equality of outcomes, but equality of opportunity. That means we have a moral duty to ensure all children have access to an excellent public school.” – Ed Gillespie

The Plan in 30 Seconds

As governor, Ed will work to ensure that every child has the opportunity for quality, personalized learning. In the past four years, Virginia dropped ten spots in Education Week Rankings from number four to 14. Just 10 years ago, Virginia ranked number one in the country. It’s T.I.M.E. for a student-centered education plan for the 21st Century. His education agenda is framed around four key priorities:

  • Teacher Leadership. Greater freedom to innovate and work with parents to respond to the unique needs of individual children. This plan provides teachers professional autonomy to make decisions in the best interest of their students while ensuring accountability.
  • Innovation. Virginia students will benefit by bringing innovation into the classroom to enable personalized learning.
  • More Opportunities. Virginia students, teachers, and families will benefit from innovative solutions—driven by technology—to more efficiently deliver and monitor learning and teaching in the 21st century.
  • Excellence. To secure optimum outcomes in student achievement, we must insist upon excellence at all points of the education experience—from teacher preparation to early childhood resources.

Summary

From the moment a child is born, parents want their child to get a good start in life and receive a good education, but many Virginians increasingly see their child’s future as uncertain. Unlike past generations that had confidence the next generation could do better, parents today are unsure what the future holds for their children.

Creating a better future starts with a quality education that provides a strong foundation for young learners and prepares students for success. From early childhood education through high school and onward to postsecondary education, Virginians need a strong education system providing school age children every opportunity to succeed. While Virginia has an excellent education system, the reality is that too many of our young people are entering the workforce without the skills they need to get good paying jobs. Too many students graduate high school unprepared for college or the workforce. And too many children lack the opportunities they deserve and are forced into failing schools because of the zip code in which they live.

Much of this stems from a rigid, top-down educational structure imposing unnecessary mandates on schools and teachers, stifling innovation, and diverting funds that would be better spent in the classroom and various alternatives which show great potential.

This system is no longer adequate for a diverse Virginia. We are a state with three of the five wealthiest counties in America – and also one with 18 school systems in which more than 70 percent of the children are poor enough to receive free and reduced-priced meals. We are a state with some of the most powerful technology companies in the world – but also one where children have to do their after-school research at McDonald’s or the public library because their neighborhoods lack internet access. We are a state with overcrowded classrooms – and schools with rapidly declining enrollment.

A “one size fits all” system will no longer work in Virginia. The challenge for our next governor is to make sure that all students – no matter where they live – have the opportunity to reach their full potential and that our high school and college graduates are career-ready on day one, prepared with skills for life.

Ed’s agenda of teacher leadership, innovation, more opportunities, and excellence puts students first by giving families and schools the tools they need to help children reach their full potential. Ed will channel more money into the classroom, reform our system to give teachers and schools more flexibility and move Virginia toward personalized learning for all children. Ed and his team, working with the General Assembly and stakeholders, will tackle the challenge of failing schools head-on and meet our constitutional responsibility to ensure that every child, in every community, has access to a high quality, safe and student-focused public education. Ed will work with local educators, institutions of higher education and businesses to reform and better align our workforce development system with the demands of the marketplace of today and the future.

Download Ed’s Education Plan

Download Ed’s Education Plan

Click here to download a copy of the plan.

TEACHER LEADERSHIP

Virginia is blessed to be home to teachers and school leaders who view their work as a calling, a mission to provide opportunity and enrichment to a new generation. We must do more to support teachers and school leaders to do what is in the best interest of the child.

  1. Increase Teacher Compensation
    Ed will support innovative funding models that put more money into teacher pay, while simultaneously incentivizing growth outcomes for students and professional learning communities for our educators.
  2. Teacher Paperwork Reduction Act
    Ed will put forward legislation to evaluate and reduce the amount of paperwork teachers are required to complete so teachers can focus more on teaching.
  3. Teacher Cabinet and Senior Advisor on Teaching
    Ed will appoint a Teacher Cabinet to advise the administration on education. Teachers will have a direct line to the governor, and he will be responsive to their ideas and concerns. As a sign of Ed’s respect for teaching, Ed will appoint a senior advisor on teaching to advise the Secretary of Education and the entire administration.
  4. Reform Teacher Licensure and Create an Adjunct Teacher Category
    The Virginia General Assembly has taken important steps to advance reforms to our teacher licensure laws. There is more we can do. A NASA astronaut could not teach High School physics tomorrow in the current system. A skilled-engineer or scientist should be able to serve as an ‘adjunct’ teacher in our public schools to teach a limited class. As governor, Ed Gillespie will support legislation and action by the Virginia Department of Education to advance policies and protocols that allow for adjunct teachers in our public schools. We should also reward school divisions that create innovative opportunities for student learning.
  5. Support the Implementation of Career Ladders
    Career ladders are a way to incentivize teachers to improve their practice, and stay in the classroom rather than assuming administrative roles. Too many of our best teachers are heading into school administration because of the nature of the current incentive structure. As governor, Ed will work to ensure the development and use of career ladders for Virginia teachers.
  6. Bolster Teacher Preparation Programs
    Ed will work with deans of Schools of Education across Virginia to better align the training future teachers receive with the challenges of actual classrooms. Teachers should be equipped with detailed knowledge about the Virginia Standards of Learning, trained on how to use assessment data to improve student learning, and exposed to exemplary teachers and examples of best practices.

INNOVATION

We all want to challenge children to reach as high as they can. But an overly restrictive system inhibits teachers from challenging their students. To succeed in the 21st Century, education needs to drive instructional decision-making as close to the classroom as possible. Only then can we create an accountability system based on measuring outcomes, rather than inputs.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES

Every child is unique, which is why families should have a variety of options when deciding how to educate their children. Creating new opportunities is about making public schools better, and giving families the freedom to choose the school that will help their children learn and grow. When parents are empowered to make the decisions that are best for their children, students will benefit from personalized learning.

Many of the following initiatives have succeeded with broad bipartisan support in both “red” and “blue” states, and there is no reason that Republicans and Democrats can’t come together here in Virginia as they have across the county to drop lifelines to kids in failing school divisions. We must unleash the potential and talents of these children.

EXCELLENCE

If you believe, as Ed does, that the government’s role is to guarantee equality of opportunity for all, then we have a moral duty to work hard to ensure that all children have access to an excellent public school.

Endorsed By

Farm Bureau
NFIB
PBA
National Right to Life
Richmond Times-Dispatch
National Review
Winchester Star
Bluefield Daily Telegraph