It’s now official. After more than a year of hard-fought campaigning, Bob McDonnell is Virginia’s governor-elect. As a candidate, McDonnell rightly focused his efforts on improving the common wealth’s economy. As governor, however, he will have greater control not over economic conditions, but over the condition of schools and the quality of education in the commonwealth—an issue that directly impacts the economy of the future.

Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell supports charter schools. So does President Barack Obama, who discussed them with McDonnell during a brief chat the day after McDonnell’s victory. You’d think any reform touted by both a solidly conservative Republican and a staunchly liberal Democrat would face good odds in a purple state like Virginia. But not necessarily. Two major obstacles stand in the way: misperception and the forces of reaction.

In America, school choice is widespread—unless you’re poor. In few places is this truer than in Virginia. Middleand upper-income families can exercise school choice by moving to one of the many suburban districts surrounding cities like my hometown of Richmond. They can also maneuver through the system to send their kids to the few really good public schools that exist in cities like Richmond, allowing them to feel virtuous for supporting the “public schools” while protecting their children from the problems that plague the schools overall. Or, as many of the families in my old neighborhood did, they simply opt out by sending their children to one of the popular private schools in the area.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. The role of charter schools in K-12 education reform could gain focus in this fall’s Virginia gubernatorial election. Republican candidate Bob McDonnell said last week Virginians ought to have alternative ways of getting many more good charter schools online. Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds also has indicated he favors charter schools, although he has not yet emphasized them in his campaign.

IIn a recent sit-down with the Editorial staff of this newspaper, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was asked for his thoughts on education. McAuliffe heaped praise on Gov. Tim Kaine’s efforts to expand pre-kindergarten. He advocated smaller class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade. Spending more money on the front end, he said, would save money in later years. He noted that teacher salaries in Virginia lag behind the national average, and suggested higher pay—along with assurances of teacher quality.

Given that, I propose we make smoking all tobacco products illegal. Such bans have worked well in the case of forcing people to give up smoking marijuana and partaking of other designated unhealthy substances. Next, implement a statewide 5-miles-per-hour speed limit on all roads. That should eliminate all deaths and injuries caused by automobile accidents, thus providing great benefit to the state’s effort to solve the national health care challenges.

Richmond is set to get its charter school—at least until January when the next School Board is seated. The current board voted 5-0 last night to approve a contract for the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts. The vote means the group behind the long-anticipated charter school finally can begin working toward a projected opening in late July.

The debate surrounding a proposed charter school in Richmond has been as confusing as it has been contentious in the year since an application was first submitted to open the special elementary school in the old Patrick Henry building. The city’s School Board is preparing to vote on the issue for a third time, but that frequency has not bred clarity. Depending on who’s talking or, more likely, posting online messages, the “real” issue has been everything from creating an alternative educational choice for elementary school students to Jim Crow-style racism, from garden-variety political incompetence to a stroke of academic genius.

A white mayoral candidate and a black civic leader say race should not be an obstacle to the establishment of a charter school in South Richmond. “It only matters here in Richmond, where people want to make it a racial issue when it’s an educational issue,“ said mayoral candidate Paul Goldman. Goldman was joined yesterday by Antione M. Green, president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, one of the city’s dominant political organizations in the black community. Green also is a member of the board of directors for the Patrick Henry School for Science and the Arts, proposed at a former public elementary school building on Semmes Avenue.