McAuliffe talks education, jobs with Stafford parents, administrators

Governor Terry McAuliffe met with parents, teachers and administrators at an ‘education roundtable’ at Brooke Point High School in Stafford last week.

Meeting in the newly completed library facility at the high school, the roundtable, which was run by Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, gave time for parents to speak to McAuliffe about education.

A lot of the usual topics were discussed – reducing class size, investing more money into education, supporting teachers and adding programs.

“We have to reduce class sizes, and we have to provide our teachers with support – whether it be professional development, administrators that are there to observe and to mentor…in my own elementary school, they wouldn’t be able to make color copies without being scrutinized,” said one parent.

“When teacher’s come into a school, there’s not funding for [teacher development] and that goes into everything…if you can keep your teachers engaged, and excited, and give them time to understand the teaching method, how to more effectively manage their classroom time,” said another parent.

During the roundtable, McAuliffe spoke about the success of the free and reduced breakfast and lunch program in Virginia.

“I want to thank my wife – our ‘First Lady’ – who’s whole effort has been to make sure that every child that goes to school has access to a breakfast and lunch, because we have so many children in the Commonwealth – about 300,000 when I became governor…you can’t learn if you’re hungry,” said McAuliffe.

A final point McAuliffe made during the gathering was that there were jobs available in Virginia, but not enough skilled workers to take them.

According to McAuliffe, he regularly meets with CEOs of large companies, who tell him that there aren’t enough workers with the right skill set to take available jobs at their companies.

McAuliffe stated that students need to be educated and get the skills they need, in order to keep major companies in the Commonwealth.