Posted on 06/10/2011 1:25:10 PM PDT by Gopher Broke
Two moderate Republicans who have been friends of public education are retiring from the Virginia Senate. The retirement of William Wampler from Washington County is a shocking loss to the Commonwealth. William has always been a budget conferee, and was next in line to chair the powerful Senate Finance Committee should the Republicans take the Senate. He was the only Republican Senator on the committee to vote to protect our current retirement system in the last session.
Wampler’s retirement puts Senator Stosch, the Senate’s chief champion of vouchers, next in line to chair the Senate Finance Committee should the Republicans gain the majority.
Senator Fred Quayle of Suffolk has been a friend as well; however, he began to bow to pressure from the right and voted wrong on vouchers and the pension issue in the last session. But, Fred has helped us out many times over the years.
Fred’s comments to in Thursday’s Washington Post were most revealing:
"It's [the Virginia legislature] been moving to the right for a number of years now," Quayle said. "It is somewhat of a concern to me." "I don't think that Virginia should be governed from the far left or the far right," he continued. "The vast majority of the people fall in the middle." Quayle said he was concerned about growing partisanship in the legislature, particularly in the GOP-held House of Delegates. "I look at some of what happens there, and I think the people there do things purely for the sake of getting reelected."
Senator Quayle is most perceptive. There is only one way to keep Virginia from being totally controlled by the far right at this point, and that is the preservation of the Democratic majority in the Senate. Think about it – the House will shift even further to the right as a consequence of redistricting and it is only the Senate that is blocking Governor McDonnell’s most extreme proposals – vouchers, pension reductions and funding cuts.
What’s at stake? School funding, retirement and vouchers top the list for educators.
On the funding front, in each of the last two sessions, the Democratic Senate has been far more supportive of public schools than the Republican House.
The truth is in the numbers. This chart provides per-pupil funding levels.
Session Republican House Democratic Senate Approved Budget 2010 $4,304 $4,603 $4,549 2011 $4,445 $4,599 $4,581
The bills creating a Defined-Contribution (401k) option (which would have weakened VRS and reduced retirement benefits for future hires) passed the Republican House and were defeated by the Democratic Senate. The issue came up repeatedly, but what happened to Delegate Putney’s HB 2410 exemplifies the pattern of what happened with each bill. It passed the House on a 72-26 vote, only to be defeated on a 10 to 5 vote in the Senate Finance Committee. Voting to kill the bill were 9 Democrats and 1 Republican. The one Republican who voted right is retiring. If the Republicans gain the Senate, it appears that a similar bill would pass.
Finally, efforts to create the new entitlement of providing public funds, at taxpayer expense, to private schools for tuition vouchers passed the Republican House on a 54-45 vote, later to be defeated by the Democratically dominated Senate Finance Committee on a straight party-line 9 to 6 vote. The funds for the vouchers would deplete the General Fund, taking money away from our public schools. If the Republicans gain the majority in the Senate, the man in line to chair the committee is the Senate’s chief proponent of school vouchers.
I could list other issues, but clairvoyance is not required to see that public education will fare much better in the years ahead if the Democrats hold the Senate.
The VEA Fund will continue to support candidates from both parties, but if you doubt the danger of turning over the entire state to one party, please look at what is happening in Wisconsin and other states where one party controls all the checks.
Thank you,
Robley Jones VEA GR&R
The RINOs cannot stop the coming massacre in this fall’s election. We conservatives are going to finish the job on the left in the next two elections. The RINOs see it coming. All what they are going to have left in Marky Mark, Moron and Bobby Scott. May they and all lefties just get the hell out of our beloved state. What we are doing in VA needs to be duplicated all across the country.
b
“moderate Republicans” = RINO’s = liberal, progressive, Marxist pigs.
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