A vote for VEA-recommended candidates is a vote for students, for public schools, and for the dedicated educators who staff them. We need to elect candidates who will Fund Our Future.
Use the resources and links below to:
Members from across the Commonwealth have stepped up and become candidates for state and local offices in these elections, including FOUR who are running for seats in the General Assembly. Virginia Beach Education Association member Cheryl Turpin, currently a member of the House of Delegates, is running for the Virginia Senate; Henrico Education Association member Schuyler VanValkenburg is up for re-election as a House member; and Karen Mallard of the Chesapeake Education Association and Timothy Hickey of the Greene County Education Association are running for a first term in the House.
Electing Turpin, Mallard, VanValkenburg, and Hickey won’t just put more informed educators in the statehouse—it could help swing the balance of power. Both the Senate and House of Delegates are held by Republicans by thin margins. VEA’s goal is gaining a majority of legislators who will fight for public schools, and the election of these three teachers will help put us on the path to victory.
VEA members are volunteering for all four campaigns, and VEA and NEA are helping out, when possible, with support such as mailers and advertising to inform members and the public.
Here’s a complete list of Union members who are running in November:
“I need to get very personal about the votes soon to be tallied here in Virginia’s statewide elections,” says VEA President Jim Livingston. “They are so critical that all of us—you and me—have a compelling moral, personal, and professional responsibility to get to the polls, and to encourage those around us to do the same. The future of our public schools, and the students and educators who spend their days in them, is at stake. And lest you think your vote doesn’t really matter, remember that it took drawing the winning name out of a hat to decide the winner of one Virginia election just two years ago.
“The 2019 elections are a crucial step in our Union’s Fund Our Future campaign and in our ongoing #Red4Ed efforts.”
Read on to see VEA’s full look at this year’s elections and their importance to public education in our state.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers in Virginia earn 67 cents on the dollar compared to other (non-teacher) college-educated workers. Virginia’s teacher wage penalty is the worst in the nation.
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