McPike: Students need more critical thinking and problem solving skills, not more standardized tests

Two-time candidate Jeremy McPike seeks the 29th District Senate Seat in Virginia. The district encompasses a wide swath of Prince William County, from Nokesville in the west to Dale City in the east, to include the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

McPike faces two other Democratic opponents in a June 9, 2015 Primary Election — Delegate Michael Futrell and Atiq Qarni.
In 2013, McPike nearly beat out his challenger Delegate Scott Lingamfelter is his bid for the 31st district seat in Dale City and a portion of Fauquier County.

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PL: What are the top three major issues facing the district you wish to represent?

McPike:  First, we need to focus on strengthening our schools and reforming our broken SOL testing system. Growing up here and attending Elizabeth Vaughan Elementary, Fred Lynn Middle, and Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, I know how strong our schools can be. Today, I want to make sure my three daughters attending public schools have access to the best education possible.

That means recognizing the current SOL testing system doesn’t work for parents, it doesn’t work for teachers, and it definitely doesn’t work for students. We need to ensure that teachers can teach students individually, not just teach to a test, and to fix our school funding formula to give schools the resources they need.

Second, like many others, I spend two hours of every workday just sitting in traffic. All of that congestion means lost productivity and more importantly less time spent with our families. We need to take a modern, innovative approach to our transportation infrastructure, emphasizing investment into long-term, regional programs that prioritize Route 28 and Route 1, and expand Metro and VRE to allow more people to live and work in Prince William and Manassas while taking more cars off the roads.

Third, expanding access to quality, affordable health care is critical to our success across the region and Virginia, and the first step is expanding Medicaid. My family was lucky enough to have insurance when my wife Sharon was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, and even then our medical bills were not easy on us. 400,000 uninsured Virginians, including nearly 10,000 here in the 29th Senate District and many families I have served as a first responder, continue to live one health issue away from financial ruin due to the lack of Medicaid expansion in Virginia. We cannot expect to thrive as a community if we continue to leave so many so vulnerable.

PL: What concrete solutions do you propose to address these issues?

McPike: For years, both parents and teachers have criticized the SOL tests for forcing teachers to forgo the individual attention students need in favor of cookie-cutter teaching models due to one-time, high-stakes, multiple-choice tests. The General Assembly finally started to listen when it slightly reduced the number of SOL tests and formed a committee to review the system.  As Senator, I will work to establish a growth model so that we can see what our students learn over the course of a school year, and create alternative assessments that emphasize critical thinking and problem solving skills.  Bureaucrats put too much weight on SOL test scores as a way to judge our schools and our teachers. SOL scores are a poor indicator of how a school or teacher is truly performing and cannot be used as the critical data point for assessing our education system.

I recently stood before the Prince William School Board in support of a $2.2 million grant to expand Pre-K in the county for 144 kids, and to emphasize the necessity of investing in early childhood education.  In the county alone, we currently serve only a quarter of children living below the federal poverty line. For underserved and at-risk kids in particular, Pre-K is a critical area where we can help to level the playing field early and make an outsized impact.  Many localities currently leave millions in Pre-K funding on the table because of the required local match.  I will work to change that requirement so that localities can take full advantage of federal and state funding.  I will always push for these investments locally and across Virginia to make sure our schools have the tools they need to succeed from their earliest days.

Our transportation system was not built to accommodate the volumes of traffic it bears today. To put it on pace to not only catch up to where we are now, but also be able to handle the needs of growing populations and business in the future, we need to seriously rethink our current system. As State Senator, I will demand Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park receive its fair share of state transportation funding, and use the tools I have cultivated over the past 15 years in local government to build long-term regional partnerships through both the public and private sectors to leverage and grow existing resources and establish new ones. First on the table will be to widen Route 28 and Route 1, extend Metro to Woodbridge, and expand VRE and bus transit services. Our area’s long-term power as an economic engine, and our own quality of life, depends on the work we do to address our insufficient transportation system now.

PL: From your prospective, what is the job description of the office you’re seeking?

McPike: As the representative for Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park in the Virginia Senate, our State Senator must be among our strongest advocates in Richmond, not only standing up for our interests, but also to truly know the district and bring the real innovation and results back that we need to prosper.

That’s why I’m running for State Senate. This district is my home.  It’s where I grew up and went to school, where I got married and am raising my family, and where I have served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT for the past 16 years.  So when local economic growth has stalled, the workers that lost their jobs or small business owners that had to shut down are people I grew up with.  When funding for schools fell to its lowest since 2008, my three daughters and their classmates were affected, and it’s the schools I attended as a kid that did not receive the resources they needed.  When progress stagnates on road improvements and Metro and VRE expansion, I feel that in my two-hour daily commute. When we fail to expand Medicaid in Virginia, and prevent tens of thousands in this district alone from accessing critical preventive care, it’s the families I have served as a first responder for the past decade and a half who experience the hardship and tragedy of medical emergencies.

I live these issues every day, and I’ve spent the last 15 years in local government advancing innovative, modern solutions by navigating state and local policy and building coalitions around our common interests and values.  We have an opportunity in this election to make real progress in the state Senate.  With a strong vision and the capability to make it happen, we can create a better, sustainable future for our families and our region.

PL: What expertise will you bring to the office?

McPike: I have worked in local government for the last 15 years, currently serving as Director of General Services for the City of Alexandria. This role has enabled me to bring an innovative and results-oriented approach to public services and building projects to help make sure they come in on time and on budget. I have also worked to establish gleaning programs and SNAP/EBT at local Farmers’ Markets so healthy foods can reach the most vulnerable, and I have led efforts on animal shelter operations, new public-private partnerships for the city, and sustainable green building policies. Over those 15 years, I have managed budgets there and in the non-profit sector as co-founder and president of the Dale City Volunteer Fire Department Foundation, well known in the community for its Santa visits to kids fighting cancer and its support of public safety initiatives.

PL: Do you feel that the average citizen is well-informed and understands the workings of local government? If not, how do you intend on improving communication with your constituency?

McPike: I am fortunate to have spent my life with the people of this district. They are my neighbors and friends, the people I went to school with growing up, and the people I serve as a firefighter and EMT during some of their most difficult moments. When your community has been as central a part of your life as it has in mine, you come to understand at a personal level the individual challenges, worries, and hopes that make up that community. When politicians stop listening to the people they represent, or dismiss “average citizens” as not well informed, they stop being accountable to voters.

That said, promoting greater transparency and accountability in government has been a central focus of my campaign and my career, and will be among my highest priorities as a State Senator. Voters throughout Virginia have lost much of their confidence in the electoral process, and their concerns are justified due to the evident gerrymandering in districts across the Commonwealth. Politicians have picked their own voters before voters have picked them. We must depoliticize the redistricting process, and bring it out into the open where the public has a voice. In the last year since I ran for the House of Delegates, I served as the Northern Virginia Chair for OneVirginia2021, a bipartisan organization advocating for an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that would change the way we do business and bring transparency to the drawing our districts. This is one of the fundamental policy goals that will define my success as a state senator, even if it means my being drawn out of my district in the future.

PL: Have you ever made any mistakes in your public life? How have they affected you?

McPike: As a firefighter and EMT, you face difficult life-and-death situations. When you things don’t go as planned, it’s hard not to second-guess your actions and whether you could have done something different for them in that moment. You make the best decisions with the data you have at the time, and you always learn and grow from every experience.

That perspective in challenging situations is critical in our lawmakers. Throughout my career, my focus has always been on making informed decisions based on a thorough analysis of available data to determine the most effective and efficient approach, rather than rely on potentially outdated assumptions given changing circumstances.

PL: Our readers want leaders in local government. Why should they vote for you?

McPike: This election is about who will go to Richmond and bring back the innovation and results we need for Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park. The issues facing our community are too critical for posturing, inaction, or diversion. We need to reform the SOLs and fix our school funding formula. We need to address our short-sighted transportation network, prioritize Route 28 and Route 1, and expand Metro and VRE. We need to expand Medicaid, so we get our tax dollars back working for us and start saving lives.

Over the course of my life here, and over a decade and a half in local government, I have shown that you can count on me to get results and make real progress for the community where I grew up, where I am raising my family, and where I have served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT for the last 16 years.

That is why many of our most effective leaders from across Northern Virginia, but more importantly from right here, are supporting my campaign, like Prince William’s other two Democratic State Senators Toddy Puller and George, Prince William County Supervisor John Jenkins, past Prince William County Board Chair Kathleen Seefeldt, and former Delegate David Brickley. They know that I am in the best position to make real progress for the communities they have spent their careers serving.

Our area has its challenges, but it also has a very bright future. I promise you, I will make real progress towards building that future, and I will be with you and working for you every step of the way.