
DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709120777

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A22  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Decision '97

                                            LENGTH:  174 lines

IN THEIR OWN WORDS THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT ASKED THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR TO WRITE, IN 750 WORDS OR LESS, THEIR OWN JOB DESCRIPTION - FOCUSING ON VISION, NOT DETAILS, AND WITHOUT MENTIONING THEIR OPPONENT OR HIS POSITIONS.

HOW I SEE THE JOB

By JAMES S. GILMORE III

Before Gov. Allen and I took office four years ago, crime was on the increase, confidence in the public schools to adequately prepare our children for the future was waning, tuition at Virginia's colleges was skyrocketing and welfare was running out of control

Today, the citizens of the commonwealth are far better off. Though some said it couldn't be done, Gov. George F. Allen and I worked together to abolish parole and keep repeat criminals off the streets. As a result, serious crime is down more than 12 percent in Virginia. As governor, I will work to bring it down even more with tough new approaches like the mandatory arrest for domestic abuse law I shepherded through the General Assembly.

In education, many of our public schools were losing the confidence of concerned parents, promoting and graduating children who were unprepared to compete and who couldn't even read at high school levels. We've insisted on tough new guidelines to re-emphasize standards and quality in education, and our plan has been cited by the American Federation of Teachers for two consecutive years as the premier program in the nation.

Virginia students who went on to college were facing out-of-control tuition increases that often burdened them for years after they managed to graduate. We have brought those increases under control by freezing tuition costs, and I have already pledged to continue that policy when I'm governor.

Likewise, welfare caseloads were on an ever-increasing spiral upward when Gov. Allen and I took office, and while the naysayers tried to torpedo welfare reform, we pushed forward, and welfare caseloads have plummeted 30 percent across the state.

While there is much progress to be pleased with in Virginia, there remains more to do. If we are to build on the success Gov. Allen has had in attracting new jobs to Virginia, we must make sure that Virginia's educational system continues to improve.

As governor, my highest priority is to put 4,000 new teachers in Virginia's elementary schools to reduce class size and see that our kids get more of the kind of individual attention they deserve.

We also need to see that more of our graduating seniors from all income levels get the chance to go on to college, and I have proposed the New Century Scholars Program, which would provide $2,000 per year in scholarship assistance to any Virginia student who maintains a B average and a good disciplinary record.

To keep Virginia growing and provide the kind of good jobs a well-educated citizenry deserves, I have proposed abolishing the personal property tax on cars and trucks. Virginia's hard-working families, who created the prosperity we enjoy, should get to decide how they will spend more of their own money rather than the government. The personal property tax on cars and trucks, in short, is a bad tax.

Virginia is now well on its way back to economic, educational, spiritual and family prosperity, and I see a future that is even brighter for the residents of our commonwealth four years from now.

I see a Virginia where there are superb educational opportunities for our children, where families can live safely and securely in prospering communities, and where well-paying, stimulating jobs abound.

That is my vision for Virginia, and I will do all I can as governor to see that Virginia's government exerts strong executive leadership and supports its citizens to create that kind of climate.

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HOW I SEE THE JOB

By DONALD S. BEYER JR.

My father, a source of much wisdom to me over the years, raced in the early days of NASCAR. He taught me the trick about racing: Race-car drivers don't have any sharper eyesight than other drivers - they just look farther down the road. That's our challenge in Virginia: to look down the road and understand where we need to go to build the best Virginia.

With that wisdom, and building on my 23 years as a businessman, I know we have a single driving mission; to make Virginia's schools the best in the nation. Yet today some children are afraid to go to school because of violence. One-third of sixth-graders flunk their basic skills tests and go on to the next grade anyway. SAT scores are 13 points below the national average and many students cannot afford a college education.

I see a Virginia where children are engaged and interested in learning, where disruptive kids are moved out of class, where no child is promoted to the next grade without knowing the course work and where every child has an equal opportunity to learn.

The best teachers - held to higher standards and paid salaries equal to the national average - will teach our children. I will put a premium on early learning; regular day-care inspections; preschools for at-risk 4-year-olds; one teacher for every 15 students in K-3 classrooms; and reading instructors for each elementary school so that children can read independently by third grade.

Learning also should be a lifelong pursuit. Building on family literacy projects I have already founded, I will help 250,000 adults get their General Education Diplomas (GED). College degrees will be more affordable: my inVEST scholarship guarantees a free second year of community college for B students in high job-demand fields, and I will give $2,000 to high school graduates with a B average or better and nearly double need-based financial aid to meet 60 percent of need.

I will make Virginia the toughest state on crime - with serious consequences for criminals - but also the smartest on crime. Building on the sex-offender registry I created to help parents, schools and volunteer groups know more about adults working with children, I will enact strong community notification to alert neighborhoods when a convicted sex offender moves in, and will keep dangerous sexual predators locked up beyond their release dates.

Law enforcement will have the officers and other tools it needs. To solve crimes, Virginia's DNA backlog will be eliminated and testing expanded. Crime victims will have a voice in plea agreements and we will compensate victims of sexual crimes.

Tougher penalties will be balanced with prevention: an aggressive commitment to reducing teenage pregnancy, and after-school programs to give kids a destination beyond drugs and gangs. With four out of five inmates lacking high-school degrees, I will cut the dropout rate in half to help turn off violence before it begins.

With good schools and safe communities, we will build an economy that helps every Virginian and helps every region grow. My commitment to worker retraining will help fill thousands of high-tech jobs and will create new jobs. I will eliminate the corporate income tax for most small corporations to let companies plow profits back into new jobs.

Working families will have better lives if they can keep more of their hard-earned money. I will eliminate the sales tax on non-prescription drugs to give older Virginians and working families a much-needed break. And I will eliminate the personal property tax on cars and trucks for the average taxpayer and family right away - next year - in a way that will allow us to continue investing in schools, jobs and police.

We will build a state with the highest quality of life. With home-care tax credits and long-term care insurance, more older Virginians will be able to live independently. And after years of neglect, Virginia's water, land and air will get our full attention: fair environmental enforcement, more parkland, better air quality, safe and plentiful drinking water and a voice for Virginians in environmental permitting. I will lead the campaign to ensure that Virginia does not become the destination for America's trash, by cracking down on out-of-state and in-state trash.

Together, I believe that with a clear-eyed vision, looking far down the road, we can build the best Virginia.

--------------------------- ILLUSTRATION: Photos

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Graphics

DONALD S. BEYER JR.

PERSONAL

47, lives in Alexandria with his wife, Megan; father of one son

and three daughters.

EDUCATION

Williams College, BA, 1972

EMPLOYMENT