A debate between Senator Siobhan Dunnavant and Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg for the Virginia State Senate District 16 seat. Moderated by journalists from VPM News.
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ANNOUNCER:
This is the Virginia Decides Senate District 16 Forum, brought to you in partnership with ChamberRVA and VPM News. The forum's moderators are Billy Shields and Whittney Evans from VPM News. The candidates for Senate District 16 are Siobhan Dunnavant and Schuyler VanValkenburg.
Whittney Evans:
Welcome to the studios of VPM for this forum between candidates for Virginia Senate District 16. Thank you for joining us. I'm Whittney Evans for VPM News.
Billy Shields:
And I'm Billy Shields, multimedia reporter for "VPM News Focal Point." The live stream and broadcast of this forum are produced by VPM and the in-person event is made possible in part by Dominion Energy, which contributed funding to ChamberRVA for candidate events prior to its partnership with VPM News.
Whittney Evans:
Before we begin, a brief word about the format and rules of this forum. Both candidates participated in a coin toss prior to the debate to determine the order of questioning. Candidate Siobhan Dunnavant won the toss and will start with the opening statements. Then candidate Schuyler VanValkenburg will share his remarks. Each candidate is allowed two minutes for their statement.
Billy Shields:
After opening statements, we'll have a round of Q&A in which the candidates will have an opportunity to respond to the same questions with 90 seconds to answer. Any redirects or rebuttals will be given at the sole discretion of the moderator asking the question. The debate will include a sort of lightning round of questions, involves very brief or yes or no answers. We'll then go back to another round of Q&A with 90-second responses, and then finish up with one minute closing statements, starting with candidate Dunnavant who won the coin toss.
Whittney Evans:
Most of the questions for the candidates were written by journalists with VPM News and a few additional questions came from members of the live audience here now. No questions were shared with the campaigns ahead of this forum. Now, for Candidate Dunnavant, as winner of the coin toss for this District 16 debate, you may begin.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Thank you for having me here tonight and for you guys moderating. Thank you to VPM, and Chamber of Commerce, and everybody that's here and watching at home. I'm State Senator Siobhan Dunnavant. I'm a mom that have raised my kids with my husband here in Henrico County. All are graduates of Henrico County public schools. I'm an OB-GYN that's practiced for about 24 years here. I still practice full-time even while I serve in the Senate of Virginia. I ran for office eight years ago because I thought that the dialogue and the conversation around politics was something that could benefit from a different perspective and maybe a different tone. I also ran because I really thought there was an enormous amount of low hanging fruit. Things that I saw were lost opportunities for my children, challenges that my patients saw. And I thought that having a seat at the table, and being a part of the conversation, and utilizing the skills I've developed in that life as a doctor and a mom might help make a difference. And my mom taught me, you can't just complain. You've gotta be a part of the solution. And that's what I've really done in the last eight years that I've served you. I have innovated, I have looked at problems, I have listened, and I've come up with solutions that I could garner consensus around, get people to support, actually get those bills passed, and solve problems for Virginia. We're gonna talk about some of those solutions tonight, but I wanna say, as we serve in the legislature, everybody has to take a vote on the bills that everybody else offers. And that is something that I think we're accountable for but I don't think we can take credit for. And you can co-patron a bill very easily, but actually coming up with a solution, bringing people together, getting that passed, and making it law to help is a far higher threshold of effort on your behalf. And so, I'm happy to serve you. I hope I earn your vote. And I'm excited to tell you about some of the things I've done.
Whittney Evans:
And now, candidate Van VanValkenburg, you have two minutes.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Thank you. And first, I'd like to thank VPM and the Chamber for having us here. I'd like to thank Siobhan for coming to debate the issues of the day. I'd like to thank everybody in the audience for being here. My name is Schuyler VanValkenburg. I'm a parent of three children. I'm currently in my 19th year teaching government and history at Henrico County Public Schools. And I've been in the House of Delegates for the last six years. You know, I never planned on being here. I never planned on being a politician. But in 2017, I looked around and I saw a general assembly that I didn't think upheld Henrico values and Virginia values. I saw a general assembly that just said no, said no to affordable healthcare, said no to investing in public education. And I also saw a general assembly that I thought was out of step with what Henrico wanted from its legislators. We were trying to pass transvaginal ultrasound bills. We were voting down a judge just because of who he loved. And I didn't think that that reflected our Henrico community. And in the last six years, we've accomplished a lot. We've expanded access to affordable healthcare. We've started investing in our children again, getting more counselors in schools, but also passing policies that help create a world-class education in the classroom. And we passed the Virginia Values Act, which showed that everybody's welcome no matter who they are and who they love. And I'm running for Senate this year because I think we're at a real fork in the road. We can continue on that progress, we can keep trying to bring down healthcare costs, we can keep focusing on our kids, we can keep focusing on the policies that bring good paying jobs or we can go back to a legislature like we had before, one that just said no, one that focused on taking away people's rights. I wanna keep moving forward, that's why I'm running for this race. I'm really looking forward to your questions in this conversation. Thank you, everybody, for being here, and let's get started.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you so much both for those opening remarks. Now we'll begin with our first question, which, according to the rules, goes to candidate Dunnavant. Many Virginians see inflation and the cost of living as one of the most important issues they face right now. What can the General Assembly do to make life more affordable for people in the Commonwealth?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Thank you so much. I think one of the most important things we do is make sure that the money that individuals earn stays in their pocket or returns to them as much as possible while still providing robust and wonderful services in the state of Virginia. And I'm very proud that I've been able to support an increase in the standard deduction, which has gone through and been raised somewhat. But this is the amount of income you have before you ever have to pay taxes. This is a threshold that serves our lowest income Virginians most significantly. And it is something that my opponent has been opposed to and has voted against. This is an important start, but we need to build a Virginia where we have a broader base of taxpayers so that each person pays less to get the services. We've been working on that. The governor gave a $4 billion tax rebate, tax break last year, another billion dollars this year. I support that. But we also have to do things so that we can use government more efficiently. I've passed passport legislation, which is where you can save $20,000 for your kids' baccalaureate education by making sure they don't have to repeat expensive credits in school, lower the cost of healthcare, lower the cost of prescriptions. All of this means more money in the pockets of every family in Virginia, and I think that's how we go forward. We also have to build a workforce that enables our kids to get an education that can help them compete and have the benefits that allow them to have solvency and opportunities as we go forward.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg, the same question to you.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, thank you. That's a great first question, and I'd say it's a couple things. First is I would say it is tax relief for working families. That means the grocery tax that Ralph Northam introduced and that we got passed. That means tax rebates to working families, which was just in the budget that we passed a week or so ago. And it does mean increasing the standard deduction. I did vote for the budget that increased the standard deduction. I think that's important. We did have a back and forth in the legislature about what tax cuts should look like. I think tax cuts should go to people that need it the most, not to wealthy corporations. And I think that's what the tax fight was about. That's not gonna stop inflation, giving it to the people who need it is. But I'd say it's also some other policies that the state has a huge role in, healthcare costs, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. We know that when people look at their budgets, that's one of the things that really busts their budget, right? Makes it so that they can't pay all their bills. And we've done some work. We capped the price of insulin. But there's more to do. We need to pass a prescription drug affordability board. We need to have bulk purchasing at the state level of prescription drugs because we know that'll drive down costs and save money for the taxpayer. And the final thing I'd say is you can't knock doors in our community without people talking about the cost of housing. The rent is too high. The mortgage and the property taxes are too high. And we have got to tackle housing. That means more housing. It means more affordable housing. And it means doing things to make sure that folks can pay the rent, because when rent prices go up like they are, people can't put food on the table, and that's not right.
Billy Shields:
Following the established format, candidate VanValkenburg will begin the answers in response to our next question, and it does involve housing. There's a shortage of affordable housing in Virginia, and those who are most affected are renters, those with low incomes and those who live in the state's densely populated areas. What role should the state have in addressing affordable housing?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, that's a good question, and I think the answer is there's not one answer. Housing is a really complicated thing to solve because it involves supply, right? And it involves affordability. And so, I think that the state needs to be playing the role of incentivizing, incentivizing localities, incentivizing developers to make sure that we have the supply that's necessary. We know that in Henrico County, we currently don't, and you can tell because of the way prices are going up. Mortgages are going up, rent's going up, property taxes are going up. And so, we really need to take a kind of holistic approach to this. We've started this a little bit by putting money in the Housing Trust Fund, which we know increases affordable housing. But we need to look at, you know, kind of clever solutions. You know, one small one I put in is we need to look at local land and see if there's places on local government land where we can put affordable housing for police officers, firefighters, teachers, right? The folks who are getting priced out. Now that's not gonna be the solution, that's not gonna solve the problem, but I think it's a symptom of, we have to have a lot of small policies. You know, we need to have things that make sure that developers can build so that they can have supply, but we also need to make sure those developers have affordable housing as part of what they develop. And so, we really need to be on top of this. I think in the next 10 years, this is gonna be the biggest issue in the Richmond area. For a lot of folks, it already is, for folks who've seen their rent double. And so, I think the legislature, and I think the good news is this could be bipartisan. Glenn Youngkin cares about this issue too. I think the legislature really needs to be proactive, and it really needs to look at a wide range of policies.
Billy Shields:
Now the same question to you, candidate Dunnavant. What role should the state have in addressing affordable housing, giving renters, those with low incomes and those who live in the state's dense densely populated areas affected the most by the shortage in Virginia.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
And I think the state has a challenge in making that work because so much of that is regulated and overseen by the localities. So definitely, the Housing Trust Fund in which we've been investing in every budget as we go forward. The governor also put another $1.5 million in this year to make sure that affordable housing was built. But a lot of this has to do with regulations that are imposed by localities on builders that ratchets up the base cost of every unit that they have. And there is incredible variability between different localities. And I think what the state has the opportunity to do, and I'm glad that that Schuyler mentioned incentivization, because this is something that I've talked about in a conversation we had earlier, and that is the state has the ability to incentivize but not mandate that localities do things. There are many things that localities need to be solvent, that they look at. It might be a occupancy tax when they're talking about hotels. It might be a cigarette tax. And we actually look at talking about those every single year piecemeal. We need to offer robust opportunities for localities to find a way to make things work for them and take away some of the regulations. We had regulations this year in the legislature that would've mandated electrical sites for electric cars to plug into be required or offered in each development as it went forward. We are making too many mandates on what has to be put into a housing development, and therefore none of the units can be affordable. We need to fix that.
Billy Shields:
I do have a follow-up question, starting with candidate VanValkenburg, since candidate VanValkenburg started this question. We've been talking to eviction people who defend tenants from eviction, and they say that there are several things that they would do differently. For example, they would extend the grace period between when you can file a lawsuit and when you actually evict someone to 14 days, guaranteeing that someone get a paycheck. Also, they said that the cost of filing an eviction lawsuit is too low in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Your thoughts on that.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg
Yeah, look, I think there are things that we can do to be more tenant-friendly under current law without going too far the other direction and being kind of hurting the landlords, right? I think there's a middle ground here. I think tenants really have a hard time legally in this state. But I think, ultimately, if we're talking about how we are gonna solve this issue and if we're thinking about kind of what are the ways to go about it, the real answer here is supply. And Siobhan mentions it, right, as kind of, it's the regulation side, right? And it's the zoning side. And now I agree that it should be incentives, but I will say this. We've had two localities in the last five years that have increased their minimum lot size, which means that developers have to build bigger houses on these lots, which means they can build less affordable housing and less housing. And that's just not helpful to the problem. And I think the state, while it should mainly be an incentivizer, has to use its power at times to make sure localities aren't being bad faith actors and not allowing developers and affordable housing groups to build. Because if we can't build and if we can't get affordable housing put up, we're not gonna ever solve this problem. We're gonna go round and around and around. And so, I think the legislature, while we can tweak the tenant laws to make it better for tenants, and I think we should, we really need to be focused on those regulations and those zoning requirements that really prevent developers and affordable housing groups from building, because the problem's not gonna get better if we don't.
Billy Shields:
I'll follow up with candidate Dunnavant. Your own thoughts about the eviction grace period and the cost of filing a lawsuit.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Common sense is important. And I supported that bill as it came through. And it makes sense that somebody who can't afford to pay would more likely be able to pay and actually save the landlord money if they got their paycheck and were able to make up the deficit they had in rent. I've actually advocated for employees of mine that have been caught up in this very complicated, fee-related, you miss one payment, that may be an adjunct, and all of a sudden you've got all these fees that have nothing to do with your actual cost of living there. So I think we need to apply some common sense and get involved in that without setting up a situation where the owners of the property cannot pay their mortgage. And so, you know, common sense has to be applied in rent when we're talking about it. Talking about incentivizing localities, look, the government has to hold more accountability for how it interacts with localities. And so, I think the incentivization system, where we would say, you must be able to build this number of units, which would affect their decisions. We're not gonna tell them what decisions to make, but we are going to have that carrot that says, if you actually take these actions and you have an outcome that we can measure that shows that you have more affordable units, we are going to really reward that with access to things that value you. What that is, we have to have a conversation with the localities and with the state, and we need to collaborate and see what that is. But there is a way to go forward here and really get the outcome that we want.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you. Our next question is about abortion. Virginia is the last Southern state without significant abortion restrictions. The Commonwealth bans abortion after 26 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. Governor Glenn Youngkin supports a ban at 15 weeks. Would you support that measure if it came before you, candidate Dunnavant?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I have already voted on that bill. And I did not vote for the governor's bill. And I'll tell you a little bit about why. I will make one correction. The state of Virginia allows abortion until 40 weeks. There are restrictions that are applied in the second trimester and some in the third, but it does not end at 26 weeks. And I will reference the code for you to look at that. But Virginia has abortion up to the moment of birth. I think this is a really incredible, important opportunity for us to show how government can work and how people can get together and build consensus. As an OB-GYN, I've taken care of women for all these years. I've been with them in moments of great joy and tragedy. And that really brings me to a compassionate position in looking at how we deal with this issue. I do support that abortion should remain legal until 15 weeks. I think that we should not have abortion when a baby can survive in a NICU and be cared for. And that is a reference to the evolution of medicine over the last 50 years since that law was written that allowed abortion in the third trimester. In between, you have exceptions for rape, incest, and severe fetal anomalies, which is why, because the governor wouldn't amend his bill to include those anomalies, I did not vote for it. But I always, life of the mother is protected. And there's another important point, and that is that we need to stand up and say that non-viable pregnancies like ectopics and miscarriages need to be treated immediately. That should not ever be delayed. And I will just close by saying, where can we all get together on this? I think the entire state of Virginia is engaged in making sure that we will help women be able to succeed.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg, your thoughts on a 15-week ban?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, I support the Roe v. Wade framework and the framework we've had for 50 years in Virginia that has gone along with Roe. I think that the consequences of Dobbs, we can see across the country with bans, with laws that criminalize doctors and women. I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, we had the Alabama attorney general saying he would prosecute people who helped women cross state lines to get access to an abortion. And so, what we have seen across states is a ramping up of restrictions, bans, and punishment. And, you know, if something's legal and then it becomes illegal, it's a ban. That's what that is. I think the consensus is around the Roe framework. I think you can see that not just in polling across Virginia and the country but in the actions of voters across not just liberal states but conservative states. And I think that rather than focusing on and prioritizing taking away women's rights, we should be focused on other issues, like lowering healthcare costs. Like, how are we gonna fund our schools? How are we gonna create a world-class education? And so, I think the Roe framework we have is what people want. I think it's worked. I think it continues to work. And I don't think we should go down the road that all of our Southern peer states have gone down.
Billy Shields:
And we'll continue with that topic and ask this follow up question. Candidate VanValkenburg, will you support any measures to further restrict abortion access in Virginia?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
I think the system that we have now works, and I would keep the laws in place that we have.
Billy Shields:
And candidate Dunnavant, I'll allow you to be more specific on your previous answers. What measures would you support? What restrictions would you support on abortion in the state?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I think I've already laid that out. No abortion in the third trimester when a baby can live. I have delivered 23-week babies, 23-week pregnancies who've gone to the NICU and gone home. And I can tell you, with modern medicine, there is no reason to kill a baby in order to protect a mom, health, mental health, anything in the third trimester. I think I've articulated my points. Otherwise, I will say that I do not support a ban. And something that is illegal that becomes illegal is not a ban. A ban means none. A ban means absolutely none. And I don't support a ban. And I think that's part of the hyper-political conversation that keeps us from being able to build consensus. My opponent co-patroned a bill to, in short, was easier. We talked about restrictions in the third trimester. It takes three doctors to say there's a mental or physical reason for an abortion in the third trimester. I can tell you as a doctor, that would be delivery, not an abortion. But in any case, my opponent supported a bill to make it so that one doctor could make that non-medical discernment. Again, these laws are 50 years old. It is time to modernize our laws and do the right thing. I will embellish a little bit what I didn't get to finish before, and that is that there is so much we can do to help women. We can have case management so that they actually get chronic disease care. We can make sure they have supportive housing. This is for all women but certainly a woman that has the dilemma of a pregnancy, and she's alone, and doesn't know what to do.
Whittney Evans:
Now, moving to a new topic. Candidate Dunnavant, Virginia's climate is changing. Higher water levels are eroding beaches, submerging low lands, and exacerbating coastal flooding. Should the state play a role in addressing climate change? And if so, how?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Thank you so much for the question. I think that the state needs to play a role in figuring out how to help localities work with the rising water issues that they have. This is a real issue in Tidewater. I've supported legislation where we actually allow them to have a framework that they can get together and provide some resolutions. I think some of the things we've done are not benefiting us. And, you know, of course the RGGI Act, which is the Virginia climate, oh, I'm so sorry, I can't think of the name of the bill. But in any case, it was the bill that tied us to California discernment for what our emissions would be and when we would completely convert to electric cars. We now have a board in California deciding economic decisions for us here. That's not helpful. We need to have low cost energy. We need to make sure that we do that in a green way. The governor has supported an investment in nuclear energy and in hydrogen energy, both of which are green energy that will reduce costs and make sure that we both protect the climate and keep energy costs low. That's pivotal, and we need to make decisions along those lines. And I think that we need to figure out how we make sure that we can protect localities from the flooding and the issues that they have.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg-
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
They've made big investments this year in storm water and other things in the budget to make sure that that does happen. And we've made those investments every year, and we'll continue to do so.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg, the same question to you. How how much, or should the state be involved in helping to combat climate change?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Yeah, we should be involved. We've all felt this summer. We've all seen the tragic weather events that have occurred not just in Virginia or the United States but across the world. And the good news is we can build off what happened under the Northam administration, whether it's being in RGGI, the Clean Economy Act, or the Clean Cars Act. I would note that all of those things are both good for the environment and good for business. RGGI is helping us bring down our emissions, but it's also helping with coastal resilience and the projects that go into coastal resilience. And coastal resilience actually doesn't just mean the eastern part of our state, it also means the flooding that's happening in southwest, right? It's also helping us weatherize low-income folks' homes so that their energy bills come down. The Clean Economy Act is helping us get to a hundred percent clean energy while bringing whole new industries into Virginia and making us a leader in the country for those industries and all the industries that sprout up around them. And then finally, with the Clean Car Act, I mean, the important thing to note is you have one of two standards that you can follow. You can follow the national government standard or you can follow California standard. You can't have any other standard. By following California standard, it is good for the environment, but there's a reason why the auto dealers supported it, because it's also good for business. It's gonna get us infrastructure first. It's gonna get us electric cars first. It's gonna allow us to be on the frontline of innovation. And I think we should wanna do right by the environment. I also think we should wanna do right by our economy. We should wanna be innovators. We should want to be entrepreneurial. That's what's great about these bills, they allow us to do that. We can both get good paying jobs and do right by the environment.
Billy Shields:
This question comes from our audience, and we'll start with VanValkenburg. Do you think there should be stricter rules and/or regulations on the use of money on political campaigns?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
I am a good government civics teacher, and I will be forever. That's why I carried the redistricting amendment even when many people in my party disagreed with me. And why I thought it was important to pass? Because I think voters should be able to choose the politicians they want to serve them. The politicians shouldn't get to choose the voters, right, that they serve. And I think that's true of campaign finance as well. Virginia is the Wild West of campaign finance laws, and it's the system we have to play under, but I think we could have a better one. I think we could have one where we could have reasonable limitations on what donors can give. I think we can have one where we have more transparency. We're lauded for our transparency, but the governor got a $1 million check from the LLC. That is not transparent. So I think there is a better way to have campaign finance to ensure that the system works for voters. That's what I did with redistricting. I think it's what we should do with campaign finance. And I've put in bills for limits the last couple of years. It doesn't go very far. I hope that'll change because I don't think Virginians like the system we have and I don't think the system we have works for Virginians.
Billy Shields:
Candidate Dunnavant, do you think there should be stricter rules on political, on the use of money in political campaigns?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I think there should. And I think it's a very difficult path to navigate. I will say that there's some things that particularly concern me. You know, my opponent did carry legislation to limit how much an individual so that one individual could not over-influence a campaign, how much an individual should contribute to a delegate race or a senate race. I believe it was 20 and $30,000 respectively. But he has, in this race, taken $70,000 from a single individual. And so, I think that that's why it's difficult, right? I mean, if you're gonna carry legislation that you feel is important for campaign reform, I think you need to practice what you preach. I'm also concerned about, we've talked about a donation that was made from an LLC to the governor, where I've seen a multitude of mailers that have come out in this campaign that are paid for by a C4 that is covering, you know, a lot of hits in the campaign on me that is dark money. They don't have to report anything. So there's a lot of campaign spending that is already happening that doesn't even have to do with what we're reporting. I report everything. And so, I think that, yes, you need to have an ethical foundation for how you compete in these races. And I have supported bills on that across time. I think we need to have a robust conversation and practice what we preach.
Billy Shields:
Thank you.
Whittney Evans:
And now it's time for the candidates to answer a lightning round of questions. We'll, again, begin with the coin toss winner. Each of you will be given the same questions, and you've both agreed ahead of time to limit your answers to yes or no responses with very brief explanations if needed. Candidate Dunnavant, Governor Youngkin supported legislation last year to create vouchers families could use to pay for private education using public money. Do you support this concept?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I believe we're talking about the vouchers to use to support tutoring. I do support tutoring, and I do support families having the ability to find somebody to help their child overcome learning loss.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you. Candidate VanValkenburg, same question.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
If we're talking about tutoring, those are good, but better would be intensive tutoring in the schools where we get the kids that need the help the most. If we're concerned with test scores, if we're concerned with learning loss, we have to get in the school, have high intensive tutoring. That is the most effective way to do it.
Billy Shields:
Sticking with candidate VanValkenburg, given the problems that exist with the teacher retention, should the Virginia Department of Education resume its diversity teaching grants?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yes. That program was solving a specific problem. We knew we needed minority teachers. We knew this is one reason why they were not entering the profession. And so, the money was targeted so that we could get more teachers in the profession. We should be doing everything we can to get teachers in schools that are trained and professional. And this policy was doing that, and it was taken out for ideological reasons that I think is getting in the way of solutions.
Billy Shields:
Candidate Dunnavant, same question. Should the Department of Ed revive the diversity teaching grants?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I think we ought to have teaching grants for everything, including diversity. And I think we need to find a way to get teachers in the classroom. We also need to retain them. I would like to be sure, as we go forward, that we have exit interviews for every teacher that's leaving the schools. And I want the exit interview reports published, because as I go door to door and I talk with constituents and people who have left the profession of teaching-
Whittney Evans:
Please keep your intro short.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot, thank you.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate Dunnavant, this question is for you. The governor proposed cutting the state's corporate income tax rate from 6% to 5%. Is this something you support?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
It is. And I think we need to compete with our neighbors. If you wanna talk about entrepreneurial startups in Virginia, they pay their taxes based on their individual income taxes. And so, that reduction in rate gets us to begin, North Carolina's gonna have no corporate tax shortly. We have got to be able to compete because the way that we lighten the load for everybody in Virginia, the way that we keep our kids here when they graduate with a good degree, is this a short one, yes, is by making sure that we can employ them and keep them here. So I forgot it was a short one, go ahead.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you. And to you.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
No, we shouldn't. We were the number one state for business twice under Ralph Northam with this corporate tax rate. Nobody's been asking for it. We need to focus our tax relief on the people who need it most, which is working families. But we also need to make sure that we are funding our schools and our mental health system. The reason we were the number one state for business, the highest rating we have, the highest ranking is education. We need to make sure that we keep that ranking because businesses wanna have an educated workforce. Businesses wanna have good roads where they can get their product to market. And so, we should focus tax cuts on the people that need it, but we also need to make sure we have the money-
Whittney Evans:
Thank you.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
For the programs that help uplift everybody.
Billy Shields:
Sticking with candidate VanValkenburg, should schools allow transgender students to participate in school programs matching their gender identity?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
I think that this is a loaded question because I think, when we look at school, people oftentimes go to school because of the extracurriculars they do. It's the sports that keep 'em in school. It's the drama program that keeps 'em in school. And I don't think a legislature should be making that decision. I think the experts within sports should be making that decision. VHSL, NCAA, they talk to experts, they talk to athletes, they talk to parents, and they come up with solutions that solve this problem to make sure that people can participate but that women are still able to compete at the highest level.
Billy Shields:
And candidate Dunnavant, same question. Should schools allow transgender students to participate in school programs matching their gender identity?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
We should be sure that gender-affirming care is compassionate and readily available. I was so happy to see the Olympic Committee come out and say that we need more evidence to know if somebody who has gone through puberty, that is a transgender woman, should be supporting or participating in sports. We need more information and we need to make sure that young women have the opportunity to compete and succeed. And parents need to be involved with their children and know what's going on.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate Dunnavant, do you think the Richmond area should have a casino, and a reminder to keep this short.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I would say no. They voted against it, and Petersburg made an incredibly sound presentation on why they should have the opportunity to have that themselves.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg, same question to you. Should Richmond area have a casino?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
No. I agree, the people of Richmond voted against it, and I already think we have four casinos. I'm not sure we need four casinos, let alone five.
Billy Shields:
Thank you Candidate VanValkenburg. And do you support Virginia's current legislative goal of capping carbon emissions from electricity plants by 2050?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
This is a short one?
Billy Shields:
Yeah.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah . I think we should always have targets to bring down emissions, and I think we should always reassess 'em. I feel the same way about regulations. We should be looking at what works. If it works, we should keep it going. If it's not working, we should either fix it or get rid of it. And so, yes, we should have targets because this climate crisis is real. We've all felt August, we all saw what was happening. So we should have targets, but we should also always be reassessing them.
Billy Shields:
Same question to candidate Dunnavant. Do you think that power plants should have caps in their carbon emissions by 2050?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I think we should have holistic programs to answer that question, and that setting political dates on things for a political agenda is not the way to go forward. There's a lot of evidence that now that we're importing energy, that there are carbon emissions that are elevated. It's not an authentic change if we're not actually doing all of the infrastructure changes to make it work. So I'd say we'd have to have a long conversation before I would say yes.
Whittney Evans:
And starting again with candidate Dunnavant, should Virginia ban assault-style weapons?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I, you know, supported selling no new assault style weapons this year in the legislature. I crossed the aisle to do that because I believe, to really represent your constituency, you have to listen. And the very important part of that bill was that it raised the age to purchase an assault-style weapon, which is hard to define, from 18 to 21, which gives us an opportunity to make sure that the national database, which is the mechanism by which we make sure people who shouldn't have guns, don't have them, can get information on that individual. Is this short or long?
Whittney Evans:
Yes, thank you.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Okay.
Whittney Evans:
Same to you, candidate VanValkenburg.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yes, and we should do much more than that. We should have safe storage laws. We should have other things. We passed a series of laws a couple years ago that helped start trying to reduce gun violence, but there's so much more to do. Unfortunately, when Republicans can control the legislature, they refuse to pass these laws. I had the leader of the Republican House say sometimes I think too much about these bills when they defeated my safe storage bill. And we need a legislature that's gonna schedule these bills, vote for 'em, and pass 'em, and send them to the governor's desk. It should be a priority. It has not been a priority for Republicans or when they've had legislative majorities, and I think that's a problem.
Billy Shields:
Sticking with candidate VanValkenburg, which budget amendment that you supported did not get adopted in the 2023 session would you still want to see adopted in the 2024 session?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, that's a great question. I put in a budget amendment that modeled after Tennessee's tutoring program. Tennessee, as an educational state, does some really good things and does some really bad things. But one of the great things it did was high intensive tutoring to get to the kids who needed it the most for Covid learning loss. And they've been able to study this program over the last couple years. It works. You get a tutor into that school with 5 to 10 kids. It's intensive, like, frequent dose tutoring. We know it works. I put that budget amendment in because I think it's the right thing to do by our kids. We know it'll bring up NAEP scores, we know it'll help with Covid learning loss, and we couldn't get it through. You know, the governor's voucher program is better than nothing. But if we really wanna help our kids, we need to get tutors in schools. That budget amendment would've done it.
Billy Shields:
And I'll ask the same question to you, candidate Dunnavant. Which budget amendment that you supported did not get adopted in 2023 that you would like to see adopted in 2024?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
If I may, I'm gonna say I'm so glad that the governor put $418 million into the budget, a lot of which is gonna go to intensive, in-school tutoring three to five times a week. So very happy about that. The budget amendment I'm passionate about is the case management budget amendment. It's a waiver that would allow us to get additional funds from Medicaid to provide wraparound support services for pregnant women. It would be everything from chronic disease management, to supportive housing, to childcare, to connecting them to high quality education so that they could get high value jobs, and they could choose prosperity, and to have their child. And we would reduce some maternal mortality rate with that. So that would be the number one thing I’ll be back for.
Billy Shields:
Just a short answer.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you, that's the end of the lightning round. And now, we'll return to a second round of regular questions, starting with candidate Dunnavant. Again, 90 seconds to answer this question. Virginia's average in-state tuition is the eighth highest in the United States, costing about $4,000 a year more than the national average according to the Educational Data Initiative. Is the value of a college degree worth what it costs in the state of Virginia?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I would say that we have a lot of opportunity to make improvements. I think higher education is always valuable, but there are many paths to that outcome. I would start by saying I'm so glad that we put, I believe, 75 million into the budget this year to keep tuition low so that we make sure that we address that while we figure out a way forward. And we need to make sure, one of the things that I'm very proud of that's one of those pieces of legislation, is passport credits. And those are credits that actually we aligned all the community college credits with the four-year public institutions and made sure that if you got those 30 core curriculum credits in the community college, you didn't pay for them again. When I started in the legislature, you did. That saves families over $20,000 in tuition costs to get a baccalaureate. It's that kind of innovation that I think makes a difference. I've now dropped that back into high school so that we will be able to make sure that kids, even before they leave high school, already have those highly valued college credits to reduce their time and money. But we do need to, we have been emphasizing and working on workforce. I've carried legislation to abbreviate how long you need to spend to complete your nursing degree and make sure those credits are aligned. But we really need to find a way that we can incentivize colleges to get kids out sooner. I really think if we paid colleges about the same tuition to get kids out in three years instead of five, we'd be able to do so at a reduced cost to families and we would also get kids into the workforce and mobilize faster.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you. And the same question to you. Are people getting their money's worth in this state when it comes to college education?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
It's a good question. I'll start with that, we need to remember there's three pathways when you leave high school that a person can take to get access to a good paying job. There's the armed forces, there's workforce, right, and there's higher education. And I think all three of them are incredibly important, and we've done a lot of work on the workforce part of that to try to make that more robust. The G3 Program we passed into the Northam era, that gets people into community colleges so they can get access to a job in a high needs area. You know, think engineers, nursing, things like that. When it comes to higher education, however, to answer the question directly, no, not in the moment. The governor talks a lot about how we have people leaving Virginia, and he's right. I don't think his solution is correct. His solution is to lower the tax rate a little bit. But I think why people are really leaving is they're leaving because they can go out of state and get a college degree for the same price, if not cheaper. You can go to New York, you can go to Tennessee, and out of state there is the same price as the in-state here. I'm doing that right now with my senior in high school and looking at those costs. And I think there's really three things we need to do. One is we actually do need to properly fund them. The legislature's been patching it for the last six years to make it so that schools don't decrease their pay. But only in a surreal world is $27,000 a year affordable. Second, we need to make sure that they're not spending money on all kinds of vanity projects at the colleges that raise tuition. You know, the rock climbing gym is the famous example. And third, we need to centralize some of their services. They all have separate governing boards. That's the Virginia way. But things like janitorial service, food service.
Whittney Evans:
That's time.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Things where we can cut cost is important.
Billy Shields:
And we'll stay with candidate VanValkenburg for this question related to parental authority over education. How much control should parents have over the education their child receives in a public school?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
I think the parents should have a ton of authority, right? I mean, I think this is incredibly important as a teacher. The schools work best when parents are involved, right? When parents are engaged and when we're all working together to lift everybody up. I think that's incredibly important. That's one reason why, for example, I send out a weekly email to every parent to let 'em know what's going on. And it's important to note that parents do have a say, right? They can decide if they don't want their child to read a book. They can challenge a book in the library. They can have says through PTAs, through school boards, through the state legislature. And they should have a say, a hundred percent. I think where we've gone wrong in the last couple years is we've allowed other people's parents to decide what my kids can do. We've passed policies, including my opponent's bill, that censored books, have Hanover banning books, right? It's okay for a parent to say they don't want their kid to read a certain book, but it's not okay for them to say my kid can't read that book. You know, in Hampton Roads, we saw a censorship lift with "The Diary of Anne Frank," "1984," "Of Mice and Men." I want my kids to read those books. Those books are important. And so, parents should always have a say. We should always be talking to parents about what their say is about bringing them in the fold. We should not give veto points to a minority of parents that impact everyone else's child.
Billy Shields:
Candidate Dunnavant has a chance to respond. How much control should parents have over the education their child receives in a public school?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Parents and teachers should be collaborators. I've often said that one of the scariest things a teacher could say to me is, I'm gonna tell your mom. And parents and teachers need to work together for the enrichment of that child. Teachers have expertise, and teachers want the parents involved. But parents have expertise about their kids as well. I'm so sorry that that Delegate VanValkenburg misunderstood the legislation. That may be why he voted against it. That bill specifically has a clause in it that says, in the enactment clause, that it cannot be used to censor books. That bill is simply that if there is sexually explicit material that is gonna be built into a curriculum, something that will set expectations for a kid that year, then that parent needs to know. And that's reasonable, and it should be common sense and a given that that's what we're doing. And we should have the opportunity for parents to inform teachers about certain issues that their kids have that enriches that teacher's ability to serve that child. And so, I think that we need to be working together in going forward. I'm sorry we have to have this conversation. It, again, seems common sense, but in cases, it's necessary to legislate it now because there's so many obstacles to common sense in education.
Billy Shields:
Thank you.
Whittney Evans:
And this question comes from our audience. And we'll start with candidate Dunnavant. What policies would increase teacher retention and increase the number of students who want to be teachers?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I think there are so many things we can do to free our teachers to teach. One is we've got to change the way that we evaluate them and holding them accountable for SOLs instead of how they grow a child. That's why I carried growth assessments for the schools. We need to make sure that teachers feel safe. That's the number one thing I hear from teachers that have left, is that they're not safe in the classroom. They don't feel that the administration has their back. And I think that's why we need those exit interviews so we can understand why teachers are leaving and we can make sure that we make changes to retain them. We definitely need to pay them more, and I've supported every teacher pay raise. And we have a great effort that we can make going forward, and we ought to prioritize that. Recruiting kids to wanna be teachers, you know, I have a child that chose not to be a teacher because she got so turned off by kind of people talking about how frustrating it was. We need to let teachers find the joy in the art of teaching, and that means we need behaviorists in the schools to manage the difficult behaviors in the classroom so that teachers can teach. And we need to make sure that we cover some of the costs that we have associated with the regulations and the credentialing that we have for them to stay and be our teachers. We've done a lot of that. We removed a lot of obstacles, but there's a lot more that we can do. But we need to find out the other soft reasons why teachers are leaving, in addition to pay, and make sure we solve all of the above.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate VanValkenburg, the same question to you. How do we increase retention?
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, I've seen this all 19 years of my career, teachers leaving because of a variety of reasons. But I'll tell you the number one reason is pay. If they can go make more money in another field, and they're having a family, right, or they have needs that can't be met with a teacher's salary, they're gonna leave. And that's what we've seen time and time again. We have the biggest gap between, if you have a bachelor's as a teacher and a bachelor's in another profession, we have the biggest gap in pay. And that's just killing us with teachers leaving. So that's one thing. The second thing is we don't do enough in the state to focus on the things that help teachers teach. Governor Youngkin and I are working on a bipartisan test reform bill. I think that's a huge step forward. The testing system we've had is broken. If we can fix it, it will help empower teachers in classroom. And so, it's stuff like that, right? Making sure that the classroom can run smoothly, making sure that teachers are spending most of their day teaching, right? And being able to do the thing they love. Nobody gets into teaching to be the home monitor. You know, nobody gets into teaching to do 20 pages of paperwork, you know? People get into teaching to see kids light up. And the final thing I would say is the political climate matters. She may not have intended for her bill to be a bill about censorship and banning, but it is. It's what she enabled. You can see it in Hanover County, where every school board meeting is about the books they're banning from her bill and stuff like that. And the teacher tip lines and the kind of constant attack on teachers has an impact. It does, it just has an impact. We need to be working together to better the public education system, and that will keep people in teaching.
Whittney Evans:
Candidate Dunnavant, did you wanna respond to that?
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Well, I do. And, I mean, I think this is just throwing fuel on the fire. It simply bills are sometimes misinterpreted, and that has to be corrected through courts and through other action. But the bill is clear and definitive. It specifically says it cannot be used to censor books, period.
Billy Shields:
Candidate VanValkenburg, you mentioned bipartisanship, we'll go to you for this audience question. As the parent of a Henrico public school student, I'd like to know what you propose to do about gun violence in schools.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
I mean, it's one of the important issues of our day. And in Henrico County, we're seeing it personally with some tragic murders but also with kids bringing guns to schools. We had a kid in elementary school last year, a kid in middle school, and kids in high school bring guns to schools last year. And so, it's a problem in our community, just like it is across the country. Since the very first year I've been in the legislature, I've worked on school safety. School safety means getting more counselors and support staff in schools. It means making sure that the police and the school system are in constant communication and constantly updating the way they work together. And it means gun violence prevention. It means making sure that kids can't get access to guns that they're not supposed to. It means making sure guns are not awash on our streets, that then can come into the school, or really any of our public spaces, because this is also an issue in places of worship, for example, where places of worship have to hire security because they're afraid of what somebody could do, because of things they've seen across the country. And so, this should be a priority for us. We should have passed legislation last year on safe storage. We should have passed legislation last year on assault weapons. We didn't because Republican leadership thought that we were thinking about it too much. School safety is about a little bit of everything, but gun violence is a huge part of it, and we need to address it.
Billy Shields:
And now, candidate Dunnavant has a chance to respond to this audience question. As the parent of a Henrico public school student, I would like to know what you propose to do about gun violence in schools.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
I say we put everything on the table. And I'm very pleased that Henrico has taken the efforts that it has to make sure that they can screen for guns. I think they've done it in a very unobtrusive way. It's taking a little, there's some kinks to get out of it, but it's kind of the same way Disney does it. And so, I think our children should be as protected as any other community space you can think of. If you think about walking into an airport and how many mechanisms are in place to protect our children, they should not have to worry. I have carried reporting apps. Many of the shootings, you hear that there is somebody that is suspicious, and nobody quite knew what to do, or, for instance, in the case of Parkland, they were reported 31 times, and nobody ever connected the dots to intervene. I will continue to push for that universal reporting like they have out in Utah, where they've actually intervened and prevented shootings. I am a person who actually listens to my constituents, and I know I represent them, not an ideology. And for that reason, I actually am the Republican that supported safe storage in the legislature this year. I am the Republican that supported penalties for not locking your guns in your cars and crossed the aisle to support universal background checks. But it is also about making sure we're screening our children for depression. We're not treating them. We're not providing services. We are not implementing trauma-informed care where kids have experienced trauma. We really need to put everything on the table and solve this problem because it's our children.
Whittney Evans:
Thank you so much. And that concludes our question and answer portion of this debate. Now we'll turn to the candidates for their closing statements. Candidate Dunnavant, you have one minute for a closing statement.
Siobhan Dunnmavant:
Thank you so much. I'm very honored to have supported you and would like to continue to do so. And to that end, I offer you my absolute fidelity on making sure that I am working to identify problems, to answer your needs, to solve problems, to cross the line, and to actually provide proposals that can be oriented around consensus. In the eight years I've been in the legislature, I have passed 111 bills. Every single one was bipartisan because I was able to build consensus. Most of those years, there were Democrat governors that were signing my bills. That's the kind of integrity I bring to the process, the motivation and the effort. It's not just saying how I vote on somebody else's bill or co-patroning. I'm actually gonna go to battle for you and make sure I get the job done. Thank you so much.
Whittney Evans:
And now, candidate VanValkenburg, please give us your closing statement. You have one minute.
Schuyler Vanvalkenburg:
Yeah, it's been the honor of a lifetime to serve Henrico as a delegate, and I hope to as a senator. To go back to where I started, we're at a fork in the road where we can go. I've always worked on a bipartisan basis, whether it was redistricting reform, school reopening, or now with Glenn Youngkin on test reform. And I always will do so. But do we wanna be a state that focuses on the issues that impact people, lowering healthcare costs, making sure that their cost of limit, they can afford where they live, making sure their budgets aren't being blown up by high costs, are there schools world class, are their schools safe, or do we go the other way and do we go back to a legislature that prioritizes taking away people's rights? Do we go to a legislature that just says no? I'd like to keep moving forward. I think we can do so in a smart way, a bipartisan way, but a way where we are focusing on what matters, and that's families and their kids.
Whittney Evans:
Okay, thanks to those of you watching the 16th Senate District Forum, brought to you by VPM News and ChamberRVA. I'm Whittney Evans with VPM News.
Billy Shields:
And I'm Billy Shields for "VPM News Focal Point." Thanks for watching. And for continuing coverage of the 2023 Election or if you want to find out when this forum will be broadcast on television or radio, visit vpm.org.
VPM Media Corp. partnered with ChamberRVA on debates for Virginia House District 58 and Senate District 16. These debates were between the Democratic and Republican candidates in each race — VPM News and VPM News Focal Point staff moderated both. Dominion Energy sponsored ChamberRVA's debate events; Dominion Energy is also a VPM donor.
