From time to time, Bearing Drift hosts a series of interviews we call “Five Questions” to prospective candidates to public office. These are intended as more of a non-partisan, “getting to know you” approach. Our first interview is with Republican candidate Chuong Nguyen running for House of Delegates in the 87th District, replacing Del. David Ramadan.
1. First and foremost, why are you running for the House of Delegates?
My campaign is about giving everyone a chance to live the American dream. I will touch on my story a bit more in a moment, but that’s what my desire to serve is about – opportunities that can only be afforded in the United States of America. We need to be doing more to promote economic growth, more to provide a safe community to raise families, more to make sure our education dollars are being used in the classroom and used efficiently. We need to be focused on creating an opportunity environment – that’s what this campaign is about. It’s also about strengthening families. Take the issue of transportation – if we relieve congestion we will give parents more time with their children, giving them vital hours to nurture, educate, and strengthen family bonds. At the end of the day, these are all family issues.
2. You and your parents have an amazing story as to how they came to America. Would you mind sharing that briefly?
As a child in post-war Vietnam, my family escaped the communist regime on a small fishing boat. We made it to a refugee camp in Malaysia before eventually making our way to the United States. My father was a doctor, and he delivered newspapers before going to the hospital for work. My mother, a former attorney, worked full time as an administrative assistant to help make ends meet. They even cleaned offices and homes in the evenings to help give me the opportunities I’ve had. Without their amazing sacrifice, I would have never been afforded the opportunity to attend Harvard, become a school teacher, or become a prosecutor. I’ve truly lived the American dream, and it wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else in the world.
3. Clearly, Medicaid expansion is going to be an issue in the next General Assembly. Under what conditions would you even consider an expansion?
Like many others, I have serious concerns about federal mandates and continuity of funding. I think other states are learning very quickly that there is no such thing as “free money” from the federal government. It’s worth remembering that the government is only providing 100% funding for their desired expansion for three years, then the Commonwealth would have to shoulder the burden, and this assuming that Obamacare isn’t completely overhauled (and I hope that happens).
It’s difficult for me to see a scenario in the current political environment where expansion would be a smart choice for Virginia taxpayers. Instead of getting caught in the trap of debating hypotheticals, I’d rather highlight what we could do from Richmond – which is to focus on reforms that increase consumer choice, lower cost, and give patients and doctors more power to pursue high quality care.
4. What is your opinion of Virginia’s Standards of Learning?
We need to move away from a system that almost necessitates “teaching to the test”. Standards and benchmarks are obviously necessary, but we can do better than the current system. We need to focus on promoting strong student-teacher relationships which incentivize real scholarly discussion. The current system doesn’t do that.
We need to encourage thoughtful scholarship between students and teachers, and we need to create an environment that integrates more collaboration between family and schools. We need to make sure students are allowed opportunities to engage in real-world practices as they hone their intellectual thinking.
5. Obviously there is a lot that Virginia could be doing to tie in education with job creation. What steps do you think Virginia Republicans could take to help draft that 21st century workforce?
The first priority needs to be ensuring that education dollars are ending up in the classroom, where they can impact results. Our biggest challenge is preparing our students for success after primary education. Job creation opportunities flow from education, so ensuring that we’re focused on students, teachers, and parents as opposed to a bureaucracy.
We also need to promote integrated STEM education and encourage collaboration between business enterprises and the academic pursuits of students. This will lay a foundation that will bridge the theoretical discussions and practical applications. We need to encourage our students to become prepared for burgeoning new industries, so that our scholars of today became the entrepreneurs and leaders of the future.
The 87th District has a lot of 21st Century opportunities, we just need to focus on preparing our students to tackle them.
