Does Del. Bill Carrico not support Virginia’s teachers?
Brian February 7th, 2006
One can certainly reach that conclusion based on his opposition to HB 1590 and HB 1084. Either of these bills would have brought the salaries of Virginia’s teachers up to the national average. Who can oppose that, you ask? Del. Bill Carrico can and did - twice.
Here is the key language of HB 1590:
It is a goal of the Commonwealth that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate that is competitive in order to attract and keep competent teachers. It is also a goal of the Commonwealth that the average salary for Virginia public school teachers equal or surpass the national average salary for public school teachers.
HB 1084 is a little different, but the key language is still:
With such funds as are made available for this purpose, the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth shall not be less than the annual national average teacher salary, in order to ensure the availability of a corps of high-quality instructional personnel in the public schools.
On two occassions, Del. Carrico has voted to kill each of these bills in the House Education Committee, breaking ranks with other Republicans both times.
I don’t know anything about running for congress, but Del. Carrico’s strategy of not supporting logical, needed, and sensible bills seems like a losing one to me.
Del. Carrico has (had?) high hopes of unseating one of the best - Congressman Rick Boucher. If this strategy works, will we see other candidates not supporting much needed bills? I hope not.
Apparently he does not care about Virginia’s teachers or the students who would get the significant benefits of having the most competent teachers in the nation.
It certainly looks that way, but will any one know? Even though he is running for Congress to represent Southwest Virginia, no media outlets are questioning him on his lack of support for Virginia’s teachers and schools.
Del. Carrico, though, did have time to introduce HB 372, which is summarized as:
Any person or persons who picket or assemble in protest at or near any solemn ceremony in a loud or unruly manner intended to disrupt the ceremony and the peace or order, such that the protest actually tends to inspire persons of ordinary courage with well-grounded fear of serious and immediate breaches of public safety, peace, or order, is a participant in an unlawful assembly. Every person who participates in such an unlawful assembly is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Del. Bill Carrico is the wrong guy for the 5th District (House of Delegates) and unquestionably the wrong guy for the 9th District (Congress). Luckily, here in the Ninth District, we have a great Congressman and have no worries of Del. Carrico even putting a dent in Boucher’s margin of victory.
Are you seeing something I dont? Carrico voted Yea both times. I await you correction and praise for Carrico on this.
(HB1590) 01/30/06 House: Passed by indefinitely in Education (12-Y 9-N)
YEAS–Hamilton, Landes, Reid, Rapp, Rust, Carrico, Frederick, Fralin, Cole, Crockett-Stark, Gilbert, Lohr–12.
NAYS–Tata, Shuler, Alexander, Ward, Ebbin, Ware, O., Shannon, McClellan, Tyler–9.
(HB1084) 02/01/06 House: Passed by indefinitely in Education (12-Y 10-N)
YEAS–Tata, Hamilton, Landes, Reid, Rapp, Lingamfelter, Carrico, Fralin, Cole, Crockett-Stark, Gilbert, Lohr–12.
NAYS–Rust, Frederick, Shuler, Alexander, Ward, Ebbin, Ware, O., Shannon, McClellan, Tyler–10.
Passed by indefinitely in Education
Yeah, that can be confusing, but actually what it means is it was killed in Committee. So a “Yea” vote is a vote against it.
Carrico voted “Yea” both times, which was a vote against Virginia’s teachers and students.
Yes, I saw that after I commented. In fact, I would be mad if he had supported it. I dont like the bill either. It will cost over 900 million dollars over 2 years and will be paid for by what? More Taxes. The impact statements are very troubling. A big raise that guarantees nothing. It also puts demands on local school boards. There are many problems with this bill Brian. I dont think higher pay = better teachers nor do I think we should base pay on national averages. That is a money pit game that never ends. Should all state employees be paid on national averages or just teachers? Just curious. BTW, for someone not worried about Carrico vs Boucher you sure are keeping his name out there. Wink;)
Of course Carrico doesn’t support increased education funding. An informed electorate would see through his ridiculous legislation (see his proposed constitutional amendment from last year) and wise up to the fact that his district deserves better.
J. Sarge:
You bring up an interesting point about an informed electorate. If the media here in the 9th District informed the constituents of Rick Boucher’s votes, he certainly would have a hard time getting re-elected. The media here is constantly portraying him in a good light. I’ve never seen a negative or challenging story about Boucher.
Additionally, everyone I’ve talked to in the 5th District overwhelmingly supported Carrico’s religious amendment last year. I’m sure the great majority of the 9th would support it too.
[…]
On Del. Carrico & Education
Brian Patton has this post in which he questions Del. Bill Carrico’s support of Virginia’ […]
“BTW, for someone not worried about Carrico vs Boucher you sure are keeping his name out there.”
I’ll admit it, I may be pumping this race up to be more than it really is, but I just love a good, hard-fought campaign (i.e., Kaine v. Kilgore).
“I’m sure the great majority of the 9th would support it too.”
I would respectfully disagree. I think that folks in the Ninth are worried more about common sense solutions to problems like unemployment, healthcare, etc.
I think they are for the most part “religious,” but would not share Del. Carrico’s interest for a constitiutional amendment. Unless people really get back into the Falwell/Robertson frame of mind, which I don’t see happening any time soon.
I didn’t say that supporting it (the constitutional amendment) would be a primary issue. I think those issues you mentioned (unemployment, health care, etc.) would indeed come first and foremost. I do believe that as part of an overall package it would receive great support.
The Hon. Del. Carrico is a Godly man, strongly pro-life, and therefore deserving of this blog’s praise, not its contempt.
You’re talking about a man so “Godly” that he thought the religious liberty clause penned by Thomas Jefferson needed a little “editing.” Right.
This is the kind of hubris that is losing elections for the sort of “public servants” supported by t. May the trend accelerate. Please, continue advocating religious freedom only for your own religion, and trying to undermine the public education guaranteed to all Virginia children. Because the people of Virginia would much rather have “Godly” figureheads in charge than be competitive in the 21st century global economy.
Better pay does = better teachers. As a teacher myself, I have seen many great teachers in the county which I teach (Carroll) and neighboring counties (Grayson, Wythe, etc.) leave to go teach in neighboring North Carolina because the pay and benefits are so much better. It dosent take a genious to realize that these highly qualified teachers would probably stay in Virginia if their pay was better.