Virginia's gubernatorial elections are just around the corner. Unfortunately, they may not be as exciting as last year's presidential election. In fact, Republican nominee Bob McDonnell appears to have a pretty significant lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds. One explanation is voting trends. Over the last thirty years, Virginians have voted for a president and a governor of opposite parties in consecutive elections. Another reason is disillusionment. Polls suggest Virginians feel terrible with the way things are going. Thus, nominee Creigh Deeds is catching the heat from national impatience. Partisanship aside, not having Deeds as governor may have negative impact on Virginia's future, because Creigh Deeds has proposed an excellent higher education plan titled Virginia Forward.
Virginia Forward is a scholarship plan that would pay 50 percent of in state tuition at a public University, assuming that the student maintained a "B" average throughout high school. This scholarship is contingent on the student's working in public service for at least two years after graduation. Deeds plans to more forcefully sell state surplus properties in order to receive the funds to support this project. Surprisingly, he vows not to raise taxes. This plan is directed at above average students who cannot realistically afford a college education. In addition, students who are more financially sound could become scholars and benefit in other ways as well.
For some, four years in college is not enough education to work in the careers they desire. A lot of people go on to graduate school and some careers even require longer periods of education. The Virginia Forward scholarship plan would be especially beneficial to those who want to continue their education after an undergraduate degree and work outside of public service jobs after the two years. The plan would help save money in the long run. The money can be put toward the expensive price of graduate school.
A 22-year-old college graduate is oftentimes not ready to settle down into his career of choice. I would say this is probably true for people aged 24 as well. Basically, those two years in public service aren't going to negatively impact pursuing one's career of choice. If anything, they will help people get to where they want to go professionally. Also, these jobs aren't the easiest. Some public service workers face adversity almost every day. As a result, they learn about good work ethic, resilience, and how to handle bad situations, which are good tools for many different career genres. Exposure to public service jobs so early after college will also help scholars become more mature and independent.
This scholarship plan would continuously add people to the public service workforce. Public service is just what is needed in today's society. Sometimes people with extremely important jobs are oftentimes overworked and their institutions understaffed.
Not to sound clich
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