Teachers Offer Lessons in Race for Governor

It's not surprising that Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidates selected the state education association from among dozens of bidders to host one of their five debates.

Teachers, nationally and in Virginia, have long been a core constituency of the Democratic Party. They pay attention, they vote and they donate. Since 1996, 74 percent of the contributions given by the Virginia Education Association's political action committee have gone to Democratic candidates, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

So with polls showing that large numbers of voters are undecided less than six weeks from the June 9 primary, it might be worth noting the reactions of some teachers who listened to the three candidates at last Thursday's VEA debate.

The 700 teachers at the Hampton convention center, delegates to the organization's annual conference, clapped each time the three men offered their unified support on bread-and-butter education topics -- creative teaching over test-driven memorization, more spending for the classroom and, of course, better pay for state educators, whose compensation is below the national average.

Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath) got a hearty cheer when he said, "We can't expect excellence if we don't even pay for average."

Brian Moran, who spent 13 years in the House of Delegates, was warmly applauded for each mention of his work with Gov. Mark Warner (D) in 2004 to persuade moderate Republican delegates to support a tax increase that resulted in record investment in state schools.

But it was Terry McAuliffe who appeared to convert the hall, earning sustained applause and bringing some delegates to their feet by tying each education-related question to his campaign's central theme: As a successful businessman, he knows how to create jobs.

So will all that acclaim translate into votes for McAuliffe?

Some teachers said after the debate that they think it will.

"Just like Mark Warner, I think you have to be out in the public with the people, working your bones off, to know what people need," said Jeanna Ellis, a special education teacher from Pittsylvania County. "I just know that when he finished speaking, you felt . . . "

"Invigorated," chimed in her Pittsylvania colleague, family and life sciences teacher Rita Gimbel.

"Yeah," Ellis said. "It made you want to stand up and say, 'Yes! You know what we need!' "