Virginia Tomorrow

One challenge in any campaign is to decide how to deal with issues that the other party traditionally “owns.”

All political consultants know that the public generally expects the Democrats to be stronger on environmental matters than the Republicans.

But they’re also aware that citizens usually believe that the GOP will be better on public safety and law enforcement issues than the Democrats. This may be one reason why Virginians haven’t elected a Democrat as Attorney General since 1989 (even if being the “top cop” is not really the principal  responsibility of the job).

Education is normally considered a “Democratic” issue.

Democratic candidates never fail to try to take advantage of it.  Democrats bash Republicans for not funding education adequately. Every GOP proposal to limit spending in general, cut taxes or ask for more efficiency in education is portrayed as a draconian attack on our kids.  And since education, especially support for public schools, has rated at or near the top of the public’s concerns for twenty years running, the Democrats would be foolish not to capitalize on it. 

In Virginia, Republicans have run best when they haven’t ceded the issue to the Democrats.  

George Allen’s call for higher standards and accountability (the SOLS) was not only a very effective campaign tactic, but ultimately shaped the state’s educational policy agenda for the next fifteen years.

And if you recall Jim Gilmore’s “No Car Tax” campaign in 1997 (when it was still fine for Republicans to be the Party of No), the slogan actually had a second part to it. On the stump, Gilmore never failed to describe his plan as “No Car Tax” and “4,000 New Teachers,” preempting the criticism that the the car tax was an attack on education funding.

This year Bob McDonnell has made the expansion of charter schools a centerpiece of his plan for public school improvement. Interestingly, he never fails to mention President Obama’s support for charter schools every time he speaks about education.

Here’s a McDonnell press release from earlier this week.

“Nationally there are about 4600 charter schools serving 1.4 million students.  In Virginia there are only four currently open. It is clear that President Obama and his administration strongly support charter schools, and they are committed to using federal resources to encourage their further expansion within our public education system. Virginia has not been a major part of the national expansion of charter schools to date. As Governor I will say yes to the establishment of more quality charter schools in the Commonwealth in order for all our children to receive the educational opportunities they deserve.”

“Virginia does not have an official cap on the number of charter schools that can be opened. However, our policies have acted as if there is one.  The opening of new charter schools in Virginia has proven extremely difficult over the past 11 years. As Governor I will ensure that alternative methods of establishing charter schools are put in place, such as allowing the State Board of Education to approve applications. And there will be additional state authority when the school district has schools that are not fully accredited. By doing this we will create more quality charter schools and introduce more choices into Virginia’s public education system. I will work with the Obama administration to put Virginia in the vanguard of the charter school movement.”

The vanguard of the charter school movement.

It has the ring of a campaign theme to me.

And it raises an important early decision point for the Deeds campaign.

How will the Democrats respond to McDonnell’s attempt to “own” the education issue in 2009?

Will Deeds fight McDonnell on charters and argue that our current system of vesting authority to establish them with local school districts is reasonable? This might be popular with education groups in the state, yet it would put Deeds out of step with Obama on educational reform.

Or will Deeds do something else?

Perhaps generally agree with McDonnell on charters, but argue that these occupy only a specialized role in the overall system and aren’t as important as other priority matters such as increased funding, bringing teacher pay to the national average, investing in technology for disadvantaged areas, etc.

McDonnell’s stance on charters and on issues such as performance pay for principal and teachers demonstrates that he will not be ceding ownership of the education issue to Democrats in 2009.

Yet the Democrats will not cede control of the issue willingly.

Deeds response will be an early indication of whether the Democrats can continue to “own” the issues that have enabled them to be so successful in recent years.