During that time, we have balanced the budget, increased funding for public education, enacted tough laws to protect our children from sexual predators, and made real investments in transportation - and we did all this without raising taxes.

But we still have much more work to do! We need to enact a "classrooms first" initiative that requires school systems to dedicate 65% of all funds to the classroom - where the learning takes place. This would include teacher salaries, textbooks, computers, and other instructional materials.

We also need to amend the Virginia state police registry to ensure that registered offenders may not work in proximity to schools, playgrounds or other places near children. And we need to provide real tax relief to homeowners who are feeling squeezed by the rising assessments on their real property taxes.   I look forward to the challenge.

 
Bill Janis
Delegate, Virginia House of Delegates