Senator says education, communication must improve

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine sat with Wythe County business and education leaders Tuesday morning and discussed a variety of topics ranging from the shifting role of education in America to how to improve communication in Washington.

Kaine, who has a long-time friendship with Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe and has visited the area many times, was open and relaxed during the 90-minute meeting, much of which focused on education.

The senator said he is passionate about technical and career education.

“I really believe it is a path to success for so many, but so often, we overlook it,” he said. “People are not thinking right about technical education.”

As an example of a successful technical education, he cited shipbuilders in Newport News who, after high school, combine two years of education with a two-year apprenticeship.

“They are making more than 75 percent of Virginians with a bachelor’s degree,” Kaine said.

More and more, students are learning skills in other places besides the classroom and higher education needs to adapt by testing for skills and talent, he said.

“Eventually, testing agencies will develop tests that can test students’ skills and talents they have learned online or outside the classroom. That way students can get the equivalent of a degree in terms of skills, but do it in a non-traditional way,” Kaine said.

He suggested that educators and parents start working with middle school children to expose them to the realm of work and gauge their interests. Students that young may not know what career they want, but by then they know aspects of their personality that can help determine an appropriate field for them to consider, Kaine said. For example, by middle school, a student knows if he prefers to work on a computer or with people, or work inside or outside.

Educators need to do a better job of reaching parents and letting them know that that manufacturing jobs are real and viable, Kaine said, adding that a successful career is not always defined by a four-year degree.

“A lineman for AEP makes a lot. It’s a profession where people make a very good living,” he said.

The senator said that computer programming and coding is “huge” and that high schools should make computer classes a requirement instead of an elective.

According to Kaine, manufacturing is returning to America, but it is not the same as it was decades ago. Instead, the businesses rely on heavy machinery and computer programs to operate the machines. People will be needed to code and program the computers, Kaine said.

Regarding employment in Southwest Virginia, the senator said that in this area of the state, there is a history of boom and bust cycles. When jobs disappear, people move. When jobs open up, people return. The result is that there is low unemployment, but not many workers to fill jobs because they have moved.

Kaine suggested that employers communicate with educators about their future needs so that high school technical centers and community colleges can start training qualified workers.

“Communicate to the education system, say, ‘Here are our needs and if we need them, others will too,’” Kaine said.

Employers and educators aren’t the only ones who need to communicate better, according to the senator, who said that problems in the nation’s capital are just as much about communication as partisanship.

“It’s about communication and cooperation,” he said. “It takes time to find similarities and people don’t take that time.”

Some of the newly elected legislators, especially former governors like himself, are trying to get Republican and Democratic leaders to meet for lunch from time to time in an effort improve communication, he said.

When Wythe County Community Hospital CEO Tim Bess asked Kaine how to improve communication with state leaders in Richmond, the senator suggested a similar idea.

Meet with house delegates and senators together to ask questions and seek opinions, Kaine said.

Kaine’s stop in Wytheville was part of a two-week tour of Virginia. Also on Tuesday, he toured General Dynamics in Marion and delivered a guest lecture to a politics and public policy class at Emory & Henry College. Later, he met with leaders in Abingdon to discuss economic development initiatives in the region.

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