Rendell visits Columbia

Governor Ed Rendell smiles as he enters Columbia High School this afternoon.

Pennsylvania's number one politician Gov. Ed Rendell spoke for about an hour this afternoon to the students and staff at Columbia High School.
Rendell was visiting the school as part of a promise made a couple of years ago to Principal Virginia Babic. The school administrator met Rendell in a McDonald's and asked him to visit her school. He was going to fulfill the promise last year, but cancelled out at the last minute.
Thursday, the governor was greeted warmly. As he entered the auditorium, Rendell was greeted with a loud ovation from the students and music provided by the high school band. As he made his way to the front of the auditorium, Rendell shook hands with students and staff.
During his talk with those in attendance, the governor spoke about the importance of education, mandated test scores and lauded the Columbia School District on their improvement with making Adequate Yearly Progress. The governor said the district's two elementary schools -- Park and Taylor, made the AYP, while the high school missed out by not achieving one of the 19 sub-headers, but in his opinion, the high school reached its goal.

After speaking for about 20 minutes on educational issues, Rendell talked about his future after he leaves office at the end of the year and what his accomplishments have been as governor and the future of jobs not only in Pennsylvania, but nationally. He told the students he never speaks from a prepared speech, rather choosing to use index cards or a sheet of paper to highlight what he wants to say. Rendell said the only time he uses a prepared speech is when he presented the state's budget.
"I would say the recession is not over. In my book, we cannot have a recovery until we start creating new jobs, but economists view the recession on the stock market success," Rendell said.
The governor said businesses might be making profits again but they are doing it with less people. "We need to create jobs and there are ways to do it."
Rendell, who has served the last eight years as Pennsylvania's governor, also served two terms as mayor of Philadelphia and prior to that was the District Attorney for Philadelphia. The governor said he's been in public life for 33 years.

He also took questions from the students such as what is his favorite jelly bean flavor and if he wasn't governor, what would he be? Rendell said he's not a big jelly bean eater and wanted to be a basketball player, but settled as a sportscaster. For the last 10 years, Rendell has been part of Philadelphia Eagles' coverage on Comcast Sports Net. After receiving a Columbia High School mug, Rendell promised to show it on the Eagles' Post-Game  Live coverage Sunday.
Rendell also gave the students an example as the way to succeed and get better grades in the classroom.