Nguyen for.. what, exactly?

Republican candidate Chuong Nguyen (whom I’ve met, and like), has a new flyer out. It lists a number of ways he says he’s going to change our schools:

The only problem with the first four items in his plan (in the lower left, above) is that the office he is running for is powerless to make any of them happen. Those might all be fine suggestions if he were running for the school board, but the house of delegates doesn’t control where school money goes. Indeed, for his district, the house barely contributes any of the school money it gets.

This is typical of first-time candidates who haven’t been involved in the public process much before. They say things based on their personal notions of what might be a better way to do things, not knowing that they can’t actually make any of them happen. Not only does it mislead the public about what the candidate can do if elected, it risks alienating voters who, when he fails to deliver, lose faith in the process overall. Now, if Chuong were to stick to what a legislator really does and (since he is a Republican) offer an agenda of say, more guns, more restrictions on women, more charter schools, and the other things his party supports, he might still get some votes and, if he won, he could actually vote on those things. But the public is either tired of those issues or, I think, not in favor of Republican thinking on them right now. The public wants more math and science, and more money in the classrooms (actually, they want full-day kindergarten). So, heck, just say you’ll get those things instead of what you’ll most likely really end up voting for.

Anything to get elected, eh?