Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

  • Uh, Oh, Fairfax Schools Are Updating Grading Standards

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    by James A. Bacon

    Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school system in Virginia, has updated its grading standards in an effort to make them fairer and more consistent, reports The Washington Post. Among the more prominent features of the new system, students will be allowed to retake tests for full credit.

    In theory, the new system will base grades on what a student has learned rather than “behavioral metrics,” a term the Post leaves un-defined but apparently refers to how students behave in class.

    Let us postulate up front that there is no “perfect” grading system. Creating uniform criteria makes it difficult for teachers to exercise judgment based upon their personal knowledge of the student. On the other hand, a system that allows teachers to inject personal judgments in their grades opens itself to charges of bias, in particular racial/ethnic bias.

    As educators have wrestled with grading practices over the years, the overall trajectory in Virginia public schools has been to lower expectations, relax standards, and promote students to the next grade on the pretext that they have mastered the material. Grade inflation is the result. If grade inflation were a country, U.S. schools would be Venezuela.

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  • Ryan’s Testimony All Over the Map

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    Jim Ryan

    by James A. Bacon

    Testifying under oath several days ago in a Daily Progress lawsuit to pry open a report into the slaying of three UVA football players, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan elaborated upon his official explanation of why he decided to withhold the report until after the trial of the alleged shooter next year.

    Based on the reporting of the Daily Progress (admittedly, not a disinterested observer), Ryan offered multiple explanations before Judge Melvin R. Hughes in Albemarle County Circuit Court, none of which withstand scrutiny.

    By way of background, here’s the justification the University offered November 23, 2023, in reversing earlier promises to make the report public:

    “After conferring with counselors and Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley, we have decided that we need to wait until after the criminal proceedings to release further information. Making the reports public at this time, or even releasing a summary of their findings and recommendations, could have an impact on the criminal trial of the accused, either by disrupting the case being prepared by the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney, or by interfering with the defendant’s right to a fair trial before an impartial jury.”

    What Ryan did not reveal at the time — but The Daily Progress exposed through Freedom of Information Act queries — was that Ryan had requested the meeting with Hingeley, using University police chief Tim Longo as a go-between.

    Now the newspaper is suing to get a copy of the report, which was ordered by Attorney General Jason Miyares and outsourced to the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan law firm at a cost of $1.5 million. The Daily Progress‘ attorney Brett Spain posed the central questions: “What did UVa know before the shooting? What could UVa have done differently?”

    The newspaper’s lawyers put Ryan on the stand, and his story has, to put it charitably, “evolved.”

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  • Republicans Still Fighting in the Fifth District

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    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Republicans are still fighting each other over the primary results in the Fifth Congressional District. 

    As reported by Cardinal News, Bob Good is still contesting his loss in the Congressional primary and a candidate for Lynchburg City Council has filed suit to invalidate the results.

    According to the latest tally, Good, the incumbent, trails John McGuire by 376 votes. He raises three objections to certifying the election:

    • Fire alarms went off in three precincts. Good claims the odds are against that being a coincidence. However, the cause of each fire alarm going off has been identified as innocuous. Furthermore, no potential voters were turned away.
    • Ballot tabulation in Albemarle County began without a Good representative present. Good won the vote in the county and his current percentage (almost 55 percent) is virtually the same as the unofficial percentage on election night. Therefore, it is hard to see that anything untoward was going on.
    • Unsecured drop box. A dropbox in Lynchburg was left unsecured and ballots were found and counted days after it should have been checked. For a party that is constantly voicing complaints about “election integrity” and is now in charge of the electoral process, this is embarrassing. On the practical level, however, only seven ballots were involved, not enough to have influenced any election.

    The margin between Good and McGuire is 0.6 percent of the total number of votes cast, small enough to entitle Good to request a recount. However, because it is greater than 0.5 percent, he would have to pay for it. Cardinal News estimates the cost would be greater than $100,000.

    In the city of Lynchburg Republican primary contest for a council seat, incumbent Chris Faraldi was being challenged by Peter Alexander, who was backed by Marty Misjuns, the maverick council member who has been censured by the council majority.  (See “Showdown in Hill City.) Final voting totals show Faraldi winning by 33 votes. In his suit, Alexander alleges that the registrar received 125 absentee ballots, but the records do not show they were ever counted.

    Unlike Good, Alexander does not have the option to request a recount. The 33-vote margin between the two candidates is 1.6 percent of the total 2,051 votes cast. State law allows for a recount when the margin is 1.0 percent or less. Consequently, he is taking the unusual step of suing to have the election invalidated.

    The State Board of Elections meets tomorrow to officially certify the election results.

  • Youngkin Appointees Now a Majority in Virginia University Boards

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    by James A. Bacon

    With the announcement of his third round of appointees to the governing boards of Virginia’s public universities, Governor Glenn Youngkin has ushered in a new era for higher education in Virginia. For the first time in his two-and-a-half years in office, he will enjoy board majorities to back his priorities of free speech, intellectual diversity and affordable cost of attendance.

    However, the nominees face confirmation by the General Assembly early next year, and more forceful advocates for change could face resistance from within universities and their Democratic Party allies in the legislature.

    Developments at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, where Youngkin appointees enjoy support from well-organized alumni groups, especially bear watching. Old Dominion University could prove to be a wild card as well.

    At VMI the appointments represent a clear victory for traditionalists, building on the election of a new slate of board officers in May. John D. Adams, a McGuire Woods attorney from Richmond and 2017 Republican candidate for Attorney General, replaced Tom Watjen, a Northam appointee. Watjen had been a stalwart supporter of Superintendent Cedric T. Wins and the contentious effort to re-make VMI after former Governor Ralph Northam accused VMI of being systemically racist. The new board wins plaudits from alumni offended by the racism epithet, the implementation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), and what they view as a relaxation of standards.

    The implications of a Youngkin-appointed Board at the University of Virginia, by contrast, are unclear. UVA Rector Robert D. Hardie, a Northam appointee, has not stepped down, and there is uncertainty about how committed the new Board will be to challenging the administration of President Jim Ryan. Although Youngkin and close advisers have signaled their unhappiness with the politicized social-justice agenda at Virginia’s flagship university, the Governor declined to appoint Joel Gardner, a UVA alumnus whose passionate advocacy and deep knowledge of the University would have made him a force to be reckoned with on the Board.

    Also worth watching is Stanley Goldfarb, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus and founder of the Do No Harm organization opposed to “gender-affirming” care, DEI and racial preferences at hospitals and medical schools nationally. His appointment at ODU comes on the heels of the university’s merger with the Eastern Virginia Medical School.

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  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    From The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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  • Governor, Pick Fighters for the UVA Board

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    Note: The Jefferson Council released this open letter to Governor Youngkin today. He released his nominations for university board seats shortly after. — JAB

    28 June 2024
    Glenn Youngkin
    Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia

    Dear Governor Youngkin,

    You are getting close to the June 30 deadline for announcing five new nominees to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. As of July 1, your appointees will comprise a Board majority for the first time in your two-and-a-half years in office. To leave a lasting legacy, however, you cannot nominate business-as-usual candidates.

    UVA’s rector, Robert Hardie, is a Northam-era holdover, and he works with President Ryan to set the agenda, frame the discussion, and control the flow of information of the Board. Both men support the status quo, and both will have the backing of administrators, faculty, and student leadership who are hostile to your vision for the University.

    You need to nominate fighters willing to ask hard questions and shrug when their names are dragged through the mud. Don’t appoint passive candidates to avoid stirring up controversy. They will accomplish nothing.

    You also need to set clear priorities.

    The Jefferson Council offers the following:

    Address astronomical tuition cost and administrative bloat. The cost of attending UVA is pricing out the middle class, especially for out-of-state students. You have called upon all Virginia universities to cut costs and tame tuition. Cosmetic, one-time cuts won’t accomplish your goal. (more…)

  • Lies, Damn Lies, and Presidential Debates

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    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia played prominently in the disinformation spewed by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in their first 2024 presidential debate last night. Biden brought up the seemingly unkillable canard that Trump referred to the White supremacists in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as “good people.” Meanwhile, Trump asserted that former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said it was OK to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.”

    Predictably, conservative news sources called out Biden for his false claim, liberal sources criticized Trump for his, and both sides ignored the failings of their preferred candidate.

    One would think that with video, transcripts, and Google searches, bad information would have a short life span. But it is a perverse characteristic of human nature to repeat a meme that confirms one’s worldview and reject evidence of its inaccuracy. This foible is a trait not only of the great unwashed but highly educated elites who presume that they know more than the hoi polloi.

    Let’s look first at the “good people on both sides” untruth, which I have blogged about before and watched with dismay as it has proven as indestructible as the Terminator.

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  • Charlottesville Gas Study Not Pointing To Elimination. Yet.

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    By Steve Haner

    Charlottesville is one of three Virginia municipal governments that still owns and operates a natural gas distribution utility. With the current political hostility to all forms of hydrocarbon energy, the future of that utility is under debate and its customers will soon have a chance to speak up.

    The listening sessions follow other stakeholder sessions and a presentation earlier this year to Charlottesville City Council. It included some recommendations about the future of the utility, but notably not any path toward eliminating it. Not yet anyway.

    There will be two public comment sessions online, July 9 and 16, and one in-person hearing on August 22. The portal to sign up is here.

    The Charlottesville municipal gas utility serves more than 21,500 customers, almost half of them not in the city. It reaches well into Albemarle County, especially along U.S. 250 and U.S. 29. There are 16 industrial users and for some of them gas might be an essential energy source.

    More than a year ago, Charlottesville hired an outside consultant, Black and Veatch, to do what it has termed a decarbonization study. In 2019, the city council adopted a formal goal of reducing the city’s own carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 (just five years away now) and achieving “carbon neutrality” by 2050. Carbon neutrality, just as vague a goal as “net zero,” does not mean zero emissions.

    Richmond City Council has also gone on record as worried about the climate impact of its own municipal gas utility, with more than 100,000 customers in the city and three surrounding counties. A similar organized decarbonization effort was proposed for Richmond, but if it is underway it is below the radar screen so far. Charlottesville’s transparency is a pleasant contrast.

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  • Some Homeless Deserve Compassion, Others Don’t

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    by James A. Bacon

    The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on a case that will determine if local governments can criminalize the homeless for sleeping in public, even when shelters are unavailable, reports The Virginian-Pilot. Citing National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) figures, the newspaper notes that there were nearly 6,000 homeless people in Virginia on any given night in 2018, including nearly 1,500 in Hampton Roads.

    Bing image creator: homeless encampment in the style of Hogarth

    Unsurprisingly, the Pilot devotes much of its story to quoting advocates of compassion for the homeless.

    “We cannot arrest and punish our way out of homelessness,” said Isabel McLain, director of policy and advocacy for the Virginia Housing Alliance. “We have to provide affordable housing and support services for people to be healthy and stable. Housing someone in a jail does nothing for improving their life and it cost the state a lot of money as well.”

    “I think it’s a tragedy that we have gotten to the point in this country that we want to criminalize people who are unable to pay for housing,” said Antipas Harris, chief executive director of the Urban Renewal Center in Norfolk. “It is a travesty for humanity.”

    Utter nonsense. It’s worth making two points regarding indiscriminate compassion for the homeless.

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  • A Curious Appointment

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    Banci Tewolde, newly-appointed director of the Dept. of General Services Photo credit: Richmond Times Dispatch

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Governor Youngkin has appointed Banci Tewolde as director of the Dept. of General Services (DGS). She will fill the vacancy created by the sudden departure last December of Joe Damico, who had served as deputy director for 16 years and as director for the last six years. It is a curious appointment for a complex agency that is in the middle of a turf battle between the governor and the legislature.

    DGS does not have a high public profile, but, within state government, it is well-known and its operations affect every state agency in some way. 

    Tewolde is an attorney. Her career in Virginia includes serving on the staff of the Norfolk sheriff. From there, she joined the state Attorney General’s office as an Assistant Attorney General. Her duties included providing legal advice to agencies in the public sector, particularly the Dept. of Corrections, and representing them in court. She became a protégé of Marla Decker, the Deputy Attorney General for criminal issues.

    After Bob McDonnell, the Attorney General for whom Tewolde was working, was elected Governor, he appointed Decker as Secretary of Public Safety.  Tewolde soon followed as McDonnell appointed her to coordinate the development of his statewide re-entry initiative and she was assigned to Decker’s office.

    Toward the end of McDonnell’s term, Tewolde transferred to the Dept. of Planning and Budget (DPB) and was named the manager of the section that oversees the budget development of agencies in the public safety area. [Disclosure:  For the last several years in which I was a budget analyst in DPB’s Public Safety Section, Tewolde was the manager.]

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  • Youngkin Tackles Maternal Health Disparities the Right Way

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    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin has launched an initiative to address disparities in maternal healthcare outcomes, and he’s doing it right. Rather than presupposing what the problem is and what the solutions are, he is resurrecting the Task Force on Maternal Health Data Quality Measures to do a deep dive into the data to find out how outcomes can be improved.

    African-American, indigenous and Hispanic women, as well as women in rural and underserved communities, suffer higher mortality rates during pregnancy and in post-childbirth. The question is why. It is commonly said that “systemic racism” is to blame. If so, then part of the solution logically entails subjecting doctors and nurses to bias training, finding physicians for pregnant women who “look like them,” and pursuing other race-based remedies.

    But what if the different outcomes are more closely tied to socioeconomic status, distance from medical offices, or the patients’ own behavior?

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  • Virginia Dems Find Enemies to the Left

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    by James A. Bacon

    At Virginia’s Democratic Party convention three days ago, Senator Tim Kaine wrapped up the proceedings with a good old-fashioned bashing of the party’s political opponents.

    “Democrats like building. Republicans like to tear down,” he told the party faithful, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    “There is a battle between those who stand up and stand together and those who would tear us apart, and we are faced with the greatest teardown artist in the history of American politics,” he said, referring to former President Trump.

    The irony of Kaine’s remarks, at least as reported by the RTD, is that he had nothing to say about the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had disrupted the convention earlier in the day. A group of banner-carrying protesters had walked down the main aisle as a woman screeched — and I mean screeched — “Democrats, Democrats, can’t you see? Gen-o-cide is your legacy!”

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  • VCEA Fans and Foes Both See Failure Looming

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    By Steve Haner

    There is a growing recognition that the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) as written is going to fail. Both those who strongly believe in its goal of ending the use of hydrocarbon fuels, and those who consider that idea nothing but fool’s gold, see major problems on the horizon. 

    There is also a large middle group that would like to see less reliance on hydrocarbons, and greater reliance on wind and solar for generating needed electricity but see danger in totally abandoning reliable natural gas. Sadly, most Virginians are not paying any attention at all. They should.  

    The growing concerns of both VCEA’s fans and its detractors are the reason an effort is underway to review this law and to consider possible amendments, potentially in time for a vote by the 2025 General Assembly. The first step in this review was a series of meetings in the spring where a broad list of known problems was discussed. In reviewing those discussions, it is possible to discern what changes are most likely being considered. 

    The legislator chairing this effort, Senator David Marsden, D-Fairfax, had staff produce a 38-page summary of what was said in those meetings, with no attribution to individuals or companies. It was probably meant to stay with the participants, but it is too important not to share.   

    Land use issues dominate the discussion. Advocates for rapid expansion of solar power in Virginia are finding growing resistance to the needed permits from neighbors and local regulators as new and more extensive projects are proposed. They want to break down those barriers, and legislation to do that has already been proposed, but there is recognition that these steps would be unpopular and could spark backlash. Someone in the industry told Marsden:  (more…)

  • The Battle Over African-American History

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    “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell

    by James A. Bacon

    One version of “unwhitewashed” history.

    The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is working on revisions to an advanced-placement course on African-American history, and the forces of wokeness are agitating to preserve the ideological framework they wrote into the course description four years ago. In short, they seek to ensure that the full four centuries of the African-American experience in Virginia is interpreted through the prism of systemic racism.

    That’s not the spin on the story you’ll read in The Washington Post, of course. In an article published today the Post accuses the Youngkin administration of foisting its worldview on K-12 school students by, among other things, “striking some references to ‘white supremacy’ and ‘systemic racism.’”

    There was plenty of racism and oppression in Virginia’s past, to be sure, and the course doesn’t shy away from any of that, according to evidence in the Post’s own article. What’s at issue is the conceptual framework for thinking about race, slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, and contemporary race relations. The wokesters, who approach history as the playing out of intersecting forms of oppression, aren’t content to have teachers present their ideology as one way to think about race relations. They want the course to reflect their viewpoint throughout.

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