Hillary Clinton heads to the Democratic convention this week with her pick for vice president, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, by her side. During her speech on Saturday in Miami, the presumptive presidential nominee praised Kaine for increasing education spending in the state while he was governor as well as increasing enrollment in pre-K programs. Education, he said, is “the key to everything we want to achieve as a nation.”
Kaine, who worked his way up in politics from Richmond city councilman, is married to fellow Harvard Law School class of 1983 graduate Anne Holton, who is the current Secretary of Education in Virginia.
Virginia is home to just nine charter schools and Kaine and Holton are no promoters of school choice. He did, however, sign legislation in 2006 that allows parents with high school diplomas, and not just those with college degrees, to home-school their children. As a governor and now senator, he has promoted career and technical education.
Here are some of his views on education:
Free college:
We will make college debt-free for everybody.
Introductory speech, Miami, July 23, 2016
Education spending:
We had to make tough decisions when I was in office (as governor) because it was the deepest recession since the 1930s. But that didn’t stop us from expanding early childhood education, from building more classrooms and facilities on our college campuses so that more could go to school. Because we knew that education was the key to everything we wanted to achieve as a state and it’s the key to everything we want to achieve as a nation.
Introductory speech, Miami, July 23, 2016
No Child Left Behind:
The administration's No Child Left Behind Act is wreaking havoc on local school districts. Despite the insistence of Democrats in Congress that the program should be funded as promised, the administration has opposed full funding and is refusing to let states try innovative alternatives.
Democratic response to President George Bush’s State of the Union, January 2006
Start school at age 4:
Someday soon, a governor will decide to lead a salutary change by adjusting K-12 education downward to begin at age 4, finishing at age 17, instead of the current 5 to 18 age norm that was set before we fully understood patterns of brain development. There is no question that there is a higher public return on investing in education for a student from age 4 to 5 than from age 17 to 18. I predict that we will eventually move to an earlier start to public education and experience great educational improvements as a result.
Education Week, November 2013
Teacher pay:
The pay of teachers is another issue that should be the focus of national discussion. Traditionally, this is a matter for states and local governments and not a federal issue. But, at the national level, we should show how teacher compensation practices in this country stack up to the "best in class" education systems worldwide… Many teachers pursue a rigorous national certification process after they have a few years of classroom experience. The multi-year certification process is a powerful form of professional development. How about a federal commitment to provide a salary enhancement for teachers who achieve this distinction?
Education Week, November 2013
Career and technical education:
Career and technical education is a very important pathway for life’s success, and there should be no stigma surrounding (those) programs. But whether it’s in our K-12 schools, or in the higher-ed world, or in the mindset of parents or guidance counselors, or even in the military. Today…our military members can get tuition benefits but they can only be used for college courses. You can get up to $4,500 a year in tuition assistance benefit, but you can’t use $500 of it to take the certification exam from the American Welding Society to get your welding certificate. We still have a stigma against career and technical education and we shouldn’t.
Introducing the “Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce Act” in Washington, July 2014
Personal education background:
Timothy Michael Kaine, 58, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended Rockhurst High School, a Catholic boys’ school run by the Jesuits. He earned his degree in economics from the University of Missouri in three years and signed up for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which sent him to Honduras to act as principal of a school. He used his experience working in his father’s welding company to teach the students the basics of carpentry and metal-work. It was there that he polished his Spanish, which he used at his introduction as Clinton’s running mate. He worked as a lawyer for many years before getting into politics and has taught law courses at the University of Richmond.
At Harvard Law School he met Anne, the daughter of former Gov. A. Linwood Holton. The first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Holton had insisted that his children leave their all-white schools and attend integrated schools, even as white families were deserting Richmond in the early 1970s rather than submit to court-ordered busing. She attended the Open High School, an alternative school, and Princeton University. Anne’s brother, Woody Holton, is an author and history professor at the University of South Carolina. A former judge on the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for the city of Richmond, she was appointed Secretary of Education by Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2014.
The Kaines have two sons (Woody and Nat, a Marine officer who will soon be stationed in Europe) and a daughter (Annella). They attended public schools in Richmond, including an elementary school in their neighborhood that was named for their “civil rights hero grandfather,” Kaine says.
