Progressives understandably prefer one of their own in the VP slot. Plus, Kaine isn’t a powerful stump speaker like Sanders or Warren. They have a rare gift. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, both higher octane than the low-key Kaine, are also thought to be preferred by the progressive wing.

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Despite the strengths of Warren, Castro and Brown, we believe Kaine is the best choice for vice president.

To prove our point, we adopt the story-telling approach of President Abraham Lincoln, whose maiden speech as a political candidate declared that ensuring quality education for all was the highest priority of a public servant.

In 1960, presidential hopefuls John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon said modern public school buildings were key to the United States’ future. They said, within the context of local control of education, the nation had to incentivize localities to maintain modern educational facilities.

But the Cold War diverted our attention. By 1997, President Clinton told Americans the average public school building had fallen into educational obsolescence by national standards. He said we would likely need new ideas to fix it.

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By 2009, President Obama, in his first speech to the NAACP, said Americans sent too many of our children to “crumbling halls of shame” incapable of teaching a 21st-century education.

Later that year, Kaine, then the governor of Virginia, wrote Congress about the urgent need to fix a portion of the federal tax code that had unwittingly driven up the cost of modernizing old schools by 30 percent to 40 percent in Virginia and elsewhere. The National Educational Association, a key Democratic group, agreed.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, a former public school teacher and now president of the National Education Association, said this to a reporter for the Huffington Post:

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Let’s talk about this education reform movement. It is the ultimate bait and switch. I do get fairly passionate about the corporate reform movement, because it has taken us down the wrong path. It has been an excuse to say, ‘We don’t have to worry about having equity in our school funding, making sure all kids get what all kids need.’ We offer them a voucher and say, ‘Here’s a little ticket to nowhere, here’s a little ticket where you can find a private school that accepts you.’ That gives us an excuse to not worry about the fact that your roof is leaking.”

Small things do matter. A lot. Virginia Tech’s Glen Earthman, a leading authority on antiquated school facilities, has long said children spending their primary school years attending classes in dilapidated buildings lose the equivalent of a full year of learning.

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This problem is getting worse.

Refusing to give up, Kaine co-authored an article Politico in 2011 explaining how the tax code barred the use of historic tax credits to refurbish old school buildings. Progressives have long championed such rehabilitation over bulldozing because it is pro-environment, pro-land use and pro-jobs.

But a glitch in the tax code creates this perverse situation. An old school can be transformed into luxury condos using such credits, the financing approach being used by Donald Trump to turn the Old Post Office Building in Washington, D.C., into a first-class hotel.

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However, this approach is not available — and neither are the 30 percent to 40 percent savings such credits could supply — should a locality want to modernize a local public school building.

That’s because of the “prior use” rule, which was intended to block phony transactions where government officials did “paper” sale-lease back deals on public buildings to enable their cronies to gain lucrative tax benefits without having to spend any money.

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Historic tax credit projects require real cash, sometimes more than $100 million. As Kaine noted in another article, the glitch, by denying localities the ability to leverage these savings, kills many desperately needed projects.

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Is Kaine’s idea perfect? Of course not. But if Congress had backed the Kaine approach, millions of public school kids would today attend classes in modern buildings offering new and more equal learning opportunities. It still would be the best option for many localities.

Powerful stump speakers can enthrall. And refurbishing an old school isn’t sexy. But a quality education is more important than ever. With all due respect to his vice-presidential competition, Kaine is best suited to get it done as part of the Democratic ticket.