VCC Magazine Fall 2018

V irginia C apitol C onnections , F all 2018 24 In Memoriam Thomas R. Hyland died August 23rd, and I spoke on August 28th at his Service of Life and Resurrection . While I have either conducted or spoken at hundreds of such services over the past 50 years, this was one of the most emotionally challenging. Most of what I now write more than a month later is what I said on that day. I cannot recall when I first met Tom. I feel like I’ve always known him. Tom is my brother, but even closer than a brother.While we occasionally had different opinions, but never an argument. Tom had passion for ethics and ethical behavior, and Tom and I could tell some stories—but not today.We also shared a love of history. Tom was the avid reader and we often discussed a variety of books, comparing the past with the present. His interest in public policy led to our strategizing on potential solutions to many issues. Some of the topics were academic while others were timely, being considered in legislation. Two colleagues wrote about Tom, and either of them could write this article. In 2007 Bonnie Atwood writing An Honest Man , concluded her Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine feature about Tom with these words: “To work alongside Hyland, as this reporter has, is to spend many fulfilling hours in delightful conversation. Sitting around with coffee mugs and The Washington Post , he and colleagues discuss everything from Marion Barry to the history of American Indians to old movies to basic etiquette. Hyland is a learner, a thinker, a talker, and a doer.” Tom speaking to Atwood about himself said, “I’m idealistic, and, I hope, practical. I believe we all have an obligation to set standards for people, particularly as we get older. . . . We should set examples as much as possible. I don’t always succeed, but I’m human.” Tom was modest and did not like to speak about himself, but he was a great colleague and friend, and he is already missed. Toward the end of his career, Lydia Freeman wrote Tom Hyland: Foundation in Truth , that was published inVirginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine, Spring 2017. Freeman’s comments included: From childhood to political work to archaeological research, Tom Hyland’s life has been characterized by an unbending dedication to truth. He said, “People will say to you, ‘Tell me what you really think, and I always said what I really thought,” explained Hyland. “I stood my ground and stayed with it when I thought it was right. I faced a lot of controversy when working with Senator Waddell. You learn to take the heat. “It was always a strong thing—do the right thing,” explained Hyland. “We had a lot of teachers. We thought they were old fashioned sometimes. These were being constantly drummed into us: do the right thing. Tell the truth. Even when it hurts.We learned it.When I came toWashington, my mother said, be sure you’re doing the ethical thing.” And with that piece of wisdom, Hyland began what he called a series of 5-30 distinct jobs that would, upon his retirement from David Bailey Associates, end with the Virginia Senate passing a joint resolution commending him for his ethical conduct and effectiveness. It would be an understatement to suggest that Tom was a student of the game of baseball. We both grew up following our different childhood teams. I had seen my Giants play the Yankees in a pre-season game in Danville, and I think Tom knew everything about his St. Louis Cardinals. I had never been to Spring Training. It was not long before we took many spring trips to Florida and one to Arizona. What I learned about baseball on these trips has enriched my life in more ways that I can enumerate. I recall that Tom considered owning a minor league team. He could easily have been a coach or a manager, and if he owned a team I would have been involved. When the Nationals came to DC in 2005, we adopted our local team and along with Mark Ingrao obtained season tickets. Upon retiring after a long career, Tom became the Editor-in-Chief of Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine. He wrote only a few articles, but each remains a Hyland classic: • The Lost State of Franklin: An Historical Incident of Disaffection, Delusion, Deception and Disloyalty on the Late 18th Century Appalachian Frontier, 2005 • The Birth of the Anglo-American Dream, 2007 • The Way We Were, The Elections of 2008, 2008 • Virginia Rest Areas, 2009 • Ethics in Government: Money, Power and Corruption, 2013 • The Great Unsettling, 2016 • A Republic if You Can Keep It, 2017 Tom’s last article ended with these hopeful, and yes long, sentences: Disruption, confusion, and intense partisanship about politics, elections, legislation and all the other rudimentary activities of our various democratic institutions are as much an American way of life as baseball, ice cream and apple pie; it has always been that way and always will be. The simple point to be made is, as the old folk saying goes, hopefully, “this too shall pass. I don’t know with certainty what is beyond this life but knowing Tom I get a glimpse of a Field of Dreams. I see Tom, invited by the baseball players to go with them. He wants to stay here with family and friends, but the players are Cardinals John McGraw, Cy Young, Roger Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson— there’s Red, Whitey,—more than 30 Cardinals all Hall of Famers. He hears the voice of Harry Caray who has returned from the Cubs to the Cardinals. He’s calling. Tom knows he will not be able to come back, but he’s with his childhood team. They don’t invite him to play, but to be the umpire who knows all the rules and who will be honest and fair in calling balls and strikes and enforcing all the rules. Goodbye, Tom, I’ll see you in the 10th inning. In the meantime, I’ll cheer for your Cardinals—at least when they are not playing my Giants. Thomas R. Hyland By David Bailey V C 4 When we decided as a family that my husband Ralph would run for Governor of Virginia, I knew it would bring great changes in my life. I had been happily working at a Virginia nonprofit where I felt we were making a difference in protecting the environment. Now, along with the privilege of serving the Commonwealth as First Lady of Virginia, I have a new opportunity to use my professional experience to advocate for Virginia’s children. I began my professional career in San Antonio, Texas as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, where I met Ralph during his pediatric neurology residency. Ralph’s Army career briefly took us overseas, but we were happy to return home to raise our children in Virginia. I spent 12 years as a science educator before retiring to work at a local environmental nonprofit. Throughout our professional careers, Ralph and I have experienced the joy of sparking curiosity and igniting a passion for learning in young minds. We see the potential in every child, especially in those first five years when about 90% of brain development occurs. InVirginia, we are proud of our education system. Unemployment sits at 3% and we are consistently ranked among the best states to raise a family and run a business. However, the numbers show we can do better at educating our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. According to the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Project (VKRP) 40% of children are not entering kindergarten fully ready with the literacy, math, self-regulation, and social skills needed for success throughout their K-12 years. We also see that 70% of disadvantaged children from birth to age five lack access to affordable early childhood care and education option, and two-thirds of children under age five have all available parents in the workforce. Every child is capable of succeeding in school, and beyond, if they have access to quality affor able early educati n.We can do better. Virginia can lead the nation in early childhood education. For over a year, I researched the early education system and sought the advice of expert . It was clea we need a s rong vis onary leader who was prepared to o something innovative, scalable, and sustainable. We heard gain and again about a leader in Louisiana who successfully implemented a first-of-its-kind unification of early childhood programs. After everal month of conversations, Jenna Conway, a Charl ttesville ative, moved back to Virginia to join us as the Chief Depu y of the epartment f Education in a new role we are calli g our “Chief School Readiness Office.” Jenna hit the ground unning in June me ting with key stakeholders from multiple secr tariats and stat agencie , nonprofits, business, and local governments. Vi ginia is fortunate to have some many people doing suc great w rk, and our goal is t enter the 2019 Ge eral Assembly session speaki g w th one voice. InAugust, our team set out on an ambitious “Back to School” tour that would take us to all of Virginia’s eight superintendent regions to visit child care, Head Start, Early Hea Start, and Virginia Presch ol Initiative (VPI) classrooms. After nearly 2,000 miles on the road, it became clear that the problems facing our early education system are diverse, and unique to each community. One afternoon we arrived at a Head Start classroom tucked behind an industrial park in a modular building in Scott County. Despite the humble setting, we found a warm and supportive classroom environment. This program had received teacher-student interaction scores that put them among the highest rated programs in the nation. In both rural and urban classrooms there are exceptional teachers working hard to provide quality education for children. With a universal rating system, we can shine a light on both the good work, and potential areas of improvement, for each individual classroom. Having an evidence-based, apples-to-apples comparison of all classrooms will improve quality of education by making our programs more transparent, unified, data-driven, and efficient. Teachers hold the future in their hands. We know that every teacher, whether they are working with infants or teenagers, has the ability to make lasting impressions on young minds. In addition to providing them with a simple, universal, and effective rating system, Continued on next page A Letter From First Lady of Virginia Pamela Northam