Gov. McDonnell: Virginia Needs to do Better on Education

Some of Northern Virginia’s schools are ranked as some of the best in the country – but Governor Bob McDonnell wants the state to do even better.

“We’ve overall got good schools but I tell you we’re really concerned about how we’re doing in both our k-12 system and our colleges compared to other nations,” McDonnell said. “We cannot get complacent in America. There are some countries in Asia and other developing countries that are really coming on in the quality of their schools [and] the work ethic of their students.”

He is particularly concerned about schools in the Commonwealth such as TC Williams in Alexandria, labeled “persistently lowest achieving,” according to the current standardized tests.

“I’m very concerned about it; if you don’t have an accredited good quality public school, a young person is effectively denied full access to the American dream,” McDonnell said. “We guarantee that in our constitution – a free quality public education.”

The governor has directed his secretary of education to spend a lot of time working with under-performing schools.

“We have beefed up the role of the turnaround specialists that have been retained by the state to come in and work independently with those schools that are not fully accredited,” McDonnell said. “Just a couple years ago we had 72 schools that were not fully accredited and I think now we’re down to about 25. So we’re making progress.”

McDonnell is also looking at a number of different ways to help improve public K-12 education in Virginia, including looking at a pilot program for merit pay for teachers. Last year, bills were passed to create public charter schools, virtual schools and college laboratory schools.

“All of [these schools] create some competition and some other options with the public school system for parents and kids to utilize,” McDonnell said.

Editor's note: This is one of several video interviews with Gov. Bob McDonnell published this week. The final installment will be tomorrow.