Meeting with Educators

The Roanoke Education Association held a membership meeting yesterday to discuss the current state of education funding and to discuss any efforts to try to affect final decisions being made in Richmond.

They also invited City Council to attend the meeting and offer a few words. I'm happy to report that the sense I got was that the educators who were able to attend the meeting are fully aware and understand the consequences of the decisions being made in Richmond to cut massive amounts of funding to our public schools. For the last couple of years, and certainly for the next several years, teachers and educational staff have been and will be asked to do more work with less resources, teaching larger classes with less materials offered. We have some of the very best educators in the state, and I think we should all be confident that they will do their very best to help work through the current situation.

I also addressed the meals tax proposal that I made several weeks ago. I believe that the matter is urgent and that City Council should deal with the need for more revenue sooner rather than later. All my colleagues on Council are working exceptionally hard to navigate the current financial crunch, and I believe that in the end we'll make the right decisions.