7th District candidate: Jack Trammell
Make no mistake about it. There are critical differences between myself and my opponent. I am not reluctant to tackle the reforms needed with the Affordable Care Act; not afraid to protect the retirement security of seniors; not fearful of the pressures to follow party lines.
We need leaders who are ready to fill the hole in the middle that is the root cause of the malaise in Washington. Such leaders should come not from the ranks of party insiders, or from the fringes of extreme movements, but in Virginia tradition from the common citizen’s experience that we all can relate to. . .
I propose that we begin with education, in order to create a workforce for the future. The accountability movement, which began in 1989 at a summit nearby in Charlottesville, has now resulted in an overarching federalization of education and an obsession with standardized testing that threatens to undermine our best educational intentions. Most people are very familiar with the accountability movement in education, and few will dispute the fact that we need to keep the educational bar set high, and push for progress in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), where we lag behind other countries.
We must be realistic. The No Child Left Behind legislation, and more recently the Common Core, have resulted in no tangible progress for struggling schools or significant progress in key areas, and in return we have schools under stress, systems accused of cheating, and angry students, parents, and teachers.
REMEDY: Hold the accountability movement accountable; downsize the Department of Education; return autonomy to states and local schools systems. This is smart government.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/th-district-candidate-jack-trammell/article_d22996c1-bad5-52da-9be3-36fa06ee6eb2.html