Gov. McDonnell wants to make some changes to the Virginia educational system. In particular, he has been impressed by what he has seen in Asian schools. According to Newsadvance.com:
Driven by what he’s seen of education programs in Asian countries and other parts of the world, McDonnell said Virginia needs to step up its efforts. Those nations, he said, have “phenomenal education systems training people in math and science and technology.”
“I want to raise the bar,” McDonnell said. “I’d like to have more competition. I’d like to have more charter schools, more college laboratory schools, and more virtual schools. I’d like to find ways to increase our teaching of important life skills, from financial literacy to civics to business, so young people will have a sense of the broader things that are going to make them good citizens,” he said.
More money for K-12 schools isn’t necessarily the way to achieve his goals, he said.
“I am suggesting we may want to look at the ways we allocate that (money for K-12) and put it more directly into instructional programs and less in non-instructional ones,” he said.
