Author: James A. Bacon
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Act 9: Free Toby Cole
by Philip Shucet Toby Cole had something to say. In early April 1970, you had to push tension out of your way when you walked across the drill field at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. Tucked between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, Blacksburg was slow to experience the unrest of the 1960s. In…
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Qarni’s War on Meritocracy Gets Personal
by James A. Bacon Wading deeper into the controversy over admissions policies at the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Secretary of Education Atif Qarni is now at odds with the school’s PTA and one of its more outspoken members, Asra Nomani. According to the PTA, Qarni has falsely…
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The Homeschool Surge
by James A. Bacon Home schooling has been on the rise in Virginia for many years. The number of homeschooled students reached nearly 45,000 in 2019; if homeschoolers were a school division, they would have comprised the seventh largest of Virginia’s 133 school divisions. Demographer Hamilton Lombard at the Demographics Research Group at the University…
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Economic Inequality in Virginia
Two Virginias that live side-by-side. On one side, white-collar workers who have adjusted to the pandemic with Zoom meetings and social distancing; on the other, blue-collar workers who have faced losses of their jobs, healthcare, housing, and economic stability in the face of a global pandemic. But COVID-19 has only exacerbated trends that have plagued…
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Virginia SAT Scores Barely Budge in 2020
by James A. Bacon In the absence of Standards of Learning (SOL) exams last year, there’s no way to tell if the education policies enacted by the Northam administration are working or failing for the vast majority of Virginia school students. But Virginia schools did administer the SAT college-preparatory exams, so we can get a…
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Keep California on the West Coast
by Bill O’Keefe Virginia has passed a law — SB 851 — requiring Dominion Energy to supply 30% percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030 and to close all carbon-emitting power plants by 2045. According to the Energy Information Administration, natural gas fueled 53% of Virginia’s electricity net generation in 2018, nuclear…
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Is a COVID Surge Coming in October?
by Carol J. Bova Statewide, the R0 (R-naught) value for COVID-19 moved up to 1.004 because of surges in the Near Southwest and Northwest for the week ending August 22, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s latest COVID-19 Model Weekly Update. If the RO is above 1, it indicates the potential for exponential increases…
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Update: McEachin Calls for Special Prosecutor
Colette McEachin, Richmond Commonwealth’s attorney, has asked the Richmond Circuit Court to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether Mayor Levar Stoney broke any laws when using emergency powers to assign a $1.8 million statue-removal contract to Devon Henry, a campaign contributor. Councilwoman Kim Gray, who is running against Stoney for mayor, requested McEachin to…
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When Online Learning Works
by James A. Bacon Trenell “Tre” Milana, a Richmond-area teen, has a number of learning disabilities including autism. His local school system tried mainstreaming him, but he couldn’t keep up with other students. Despite low grades, the system socially promoted him through the 6th grade. “With the processing delay, you would tell him something and…
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Vitamin D and COVID-19
by Carol J. Bova Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher likelihood of contracting the coronavirus. In combination with other Vitamin D research, the results may point the way to a quick and inexpensive way to reduce COVID-19 deaths among African-Americans and Hispanics. David Meltzer,…
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Institutionalizing the Leftist Dogma on Race
by James A. Bacon Last month Governor Ralph Northam announced the roll-out of a high school elective course on African American history. Sixteen school divisions are offering the course this fall. Last year, the governor had directed the Virginia Department of Education, Virtual Virginia, WHRO Public Media, and a committee of historians to develop the course.…
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Defund the Police? Heck No.
by Kerry Dougherty It was easy to miss. Buried near the bottom of page 2 in Monday’s Virginian-Pilot was a five-paragraph story headlined, “Officials: Va Beach police fatally shoot man during domestic dispute.” Pay attention, because the volatile situation at the heart of this news report is repeated night after night in big cities and…
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Race Still Unknown in One of Five COVID Cases
by Carol J. Bova On July 27th, Bacon’s Rebellion asked the question, “Why is VDH Stockpiling Cases as Unknown Race”? The Northam administration had expressed concerns since March about the disparity of racial impacts from COVID-19. Yet 24% of confirmed cases at that time still had not been classified by race or ethnicity. More than…
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A Betrayal of Representative Democracy
by Emilio Jaksetic Citing the public health danger of COVID-19, the House of Representatives on May 15 passed H. Res. 965, a rule allowing Members of the House to vote by proxy. Passage of that rule was a blow to representative government in the United States and an affront to the right of Americans to…
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The Democratic Party-Public Union Symbiosis
by James A. Bacon It’s Labor Day today, so I suppose it’s appropriate that Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has disseminated a fund-raising email calling for recipients to join him in “fighting for working people.” By that, he means giving a “voice” and a “seat at the able” to Virginia teachers, firefighters, and other public-sector workers.…