Month: December 2019
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Northam Spending Spree Update: $1.2 Billion More for K-12
Hoo, boy! Governor Ralph Northam has added another priority to his list of new spending initiatives: $1.2 billion in the next two-year budget for extra K-12 schools. About two-thirds of that sum will go to “rebenchmarking” the state’s Standards of Quality (SOQs), or required inputs into public schools. Another $145 million will boost teacher pay…
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Northam Spending Spree Update: $300 Million for HBCUs
by James A. Bacon In an effort to “level the playing field,” Governor Ralph Northam is proposing nearly $300 million in additional spending in the next two-year budget at Virginia’s two public historically black universities. Virginia State University would get $150 million more, and Norfolk State University would get $143 million more. “Virginia’s historically black…
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Early Budget News: Some K-12 Moderation
Well, it looks like the many forecasts of doom and budget profligacy on this blog were in vain. According to this morning’s RTD, Governor Northam will be asking for an additional $1.2 billion over two years for K-12. That is about half of the total cost of earlier projections of SOQ benchmarking costs and the…
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Is Racism a Real Problem in Loudoun Schools?
by James A. Bacon What’s going on in Loudoun County public schools? Are teachers and administrators in one of Virginia’s most affluent counties making headway in bringing about “equity” (as in equal outcomes in academic performance) between Asians, whites, blacks and Hispanics? Or is the school system hopelessly mired in racism and discrimination? One indicator…
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Yes! A Statue for Virginia’s Black Union Troops
Yes! Where can I donate? Richmond Councilwoman Kim Grey’s proposal in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch for a statute honoring the Civil War’s black Union troops from Virginia needs to be acted on promptly. It should replace the one statue that does need to disappear off Monument Avenue, the one to Jefferson Davis. In particular the…
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Welcome to the Crazy Times: Gun Control Edition
by James A. Bacon Virginia voters support gun control measures such as requiring background checks on all gun sales (86% to 13% margins), passing a “red flag” law (72% to 23%), and banning assault-style weapons (54% to 44%), according to a poll released today by the Wason Center for Public Policy. With that level of…
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Another Brain-Dead Housing Initiative
by James A. Bacon Broadly speaking, there are two ways to create a supply of affordable housing in Virginia. One is to loosen zoning restrictions so developers and home builders can build more houses and apartments, thus relieving scarcity and putting a downward pressure on prices across the board. The other is for the government…
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A Fruitful Collaboration
The $42 million AeroFarm investment (see previous post) isn’t the only cool thing happening in Danville… Amazon Web Services and Sumitomo Electric Lightwave collaborated with Danville Community College to create an innovative fiber-optic fusion splicing certificate. Approximately 30 individuals took part in the December 9-10 course. Fusion splicing, according to a statement from the Governor’s…
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The Future of Agriculture — in a Danville Industrial Park
by James A. Bacon Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms will invest $42 million to build its largest, most sophisticated indoor vertical farm to date in a joint Danville-Pittsylvania County industrial park. The project will create 92 new jobs. Virginia competed with North Carolina for the project. Subsidies include a $200,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, a…
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Northam Proposes Another $145 Million Giveaway
by James A, Bacon The spending avalanche keeps building. Governor Ralph Northam now is proposing to spend $145 million in the next two-year budget to make tuition-free community college available to “low- and middle-income” students who pursue jobs in high-demand fields. The Governor’s “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back” (G3) program would cover tuition,…
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Rethinking Afghanistan
By Peter Galuszka On Feb. 15, 1989, I was standing amid reporters and people waving red flags and holding flowers at the northern end of a metal bridge linking Uzbekistan with Afghanistan. A row of Soviet BTR armored personnel carriers streamed home as their crews waved and smiled. These were the last troops to withdraw…
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The Gas Boom Is Over
By Peter Galuszka The boom in shale natural gas is over, reports The New York Times. The trend raises more questions about billions of dollars worth of gas-related projects in Virginia, including Dominion’s plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and other firms’ efforts to place two big generating stations near Charles City. The boom…
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Watch Out, Here Comes the Transportation and Climate Initiative
by James A. Bacon A new poll from a “nonpartisan nonprofit think tank,” MassInc., has found that 60% of Virginians surveyed support the Transportation and Climate Initiative Framework while only 29% oppose it and 11% are unsure of their feelings, reports The Virginia Mercury. We know right off the bat that the findings are nonsense.…
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The Mo’ Money Mountain Grows Ever Bigger
In his latest budgetary proposal, Governor Ralph Northam has proposed returning $733 million to Virginia taxpayers… Oh, wait a minute. I guess I misread the announcement. It seems he’s proposing $733 million in new spending to protect the environment and fight climate change. That’s on top of advocating Virginia’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas…
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Northam Proposes Reorganization of Tech Programs
by James A. Bacon I’m so old that I remember when the Center for Innovative Technology, created to catalyze high-tech development in Virginia, was in charge of allocating state funds for university-based R&D. After commanding center stage in Virginia’s conversations about technology development during the 1990s and 2000s, CIT underwent successive downsizings to the point…