Author: sherlockj
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Welcome, Secretary Guidera and Superintendent Balow
By James C. Sherlock I dedicate this as a welcome to our new Secretary of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction. Both are very accomplished and we are lucky to have them. I find it upon occasion useful to review for myself the facts on the ground when dealing with Virginia K-12 education reform. …
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What are We Doing to Ourselves with the Criminal Justice System?
by James C. Sherlock I will share a press release this week from the Justice Department. Convicted Felon Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Identity Theft, and Firearm Offenses We’ll try to figure out at what point we lost our minds about law enforcement.
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A New Virginia Charter Schools Policy – Recommendations for Success
by James C. Sherlock My articles about charter schools draw passionate comments. Proponents argue what they are trying to achieve with charters. Opponents argue what they want to avoid. Fair enough. There is wisdom in both positions. So, how does Virginia structure a program that supports successful charters and both denies and closes unsuccessful ones?…
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Biden Mounts a Direct Attack on America’s Most Successful Schools for Poor Minority Children
by James C. Sherlock This is pretty cringeworthy, even for the Biden administration. We have new rules for federal funding for new and expanded charter schools that are demonstrably racist. They uniquely disadvantage the poorest minority students because charter schools are proven to help them learn better than any other option. But the rules…
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George Orwell Call Home
by James C. Sherlock This blog, while proudly based in individual research, often offers controversial ideas. Uniform agreement is not expected. Debate is encouraged. We learn from one another and even occasionally change a few minds on both sides. Yesterday the Biden administration announced the establishment of a federal “Disinformation Governance Board” in the Department…
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Conservative-Liberal Common Ground on High Stakes K-12 End-of-Year Testing
by James C. Sherlock I have reported here often on the fierce opposition of much of the public education establishment — read graduate schools of education and the teachers unions — to what they label “high-stakes” testing. What many in those groups really object to is the visibility of standards that subjects them to public…
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Unionize Virginia’s Worst Nursing Home Chains
by James C. Sherlock If you go back to the series of articles I published here in October of 2021, you can refresh your memory on the dangers represented by Virginia’s worst nursing home chains. If you look at the complete spreadsheet of every Virginia nursing home from that data sorted by ownership, the bad…
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Fix the Virginia Department of Health
by James C. Sherlock Governor Youngkin and his new administration have an opportunity to fix crucial problems in the Department of Health that have been festering for decades. The issues: How can Virginia regulate effectively its state-created healthcare monopolies? In a directly related matter, how can we fix the failures, famously demonstrated during COVID, of…
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Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics in the Virginia Department of Education – Average Teacher Salaries Edition
by James C. Sherlock I was in the early stages of researching a column on school salaries in Virginia when I came upon yet another bad report. In 2021 Special Session I, the General Assembly directed the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide a report on the status of staff salaries, by local school division, to…
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Washington Post Editorial Board Nails a Belly Flop
by James C. Sherlock We sometimes note here that the editorial boards of the largest press outlets in Virginia can seem out of touch. Most lack philosophical balance on their editorial boards. We get that. It is their right. But that in turn can create intellectual echo chambers, denying the discipline offered by internal challenges.…
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Existing Gun Laws Get Some Help from a Perp
by James C. Sherlock This guy was better armed than the average citizen or cop. But just with a weapon. It did not seem to help him. Darwin was right. From a DOJ news release: Virginia Beach Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing a Machine Gun Used in a Shootout NORFOLK, Va. – A Virginia Beach…
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The General Assembly Adds New Requirements for Teachers that Virginia Schools Do Not Have and Cannot Hire
by James C. Sherlock A tip of the hat to Dick Hall-Sizemore for pointing out the following bills. I have written often on how Virginia is constantly loading up teachers and schools with additional reports and requirements. This General Assembly is trying to add new requirements for teachers that we do not have and have…
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CMS Finally Withdraws Dangerous Waivers of Nursing Home Patient Safety Regulations
by James C. Sherlock I published a series of articles last year on the dreadful conditions in some of Virginia’s nursing homes as reported by Medicare. Two key observations were that: bad nursing homes were traceable to specific chain operators; and the Virginia Department of Health had admitted it was desperately short of inspectors. Those…
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Exploding Requirements and Workforce Shortages – An Existential Threat to the Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock The hottest buzz around many of the public schools, including my home area of Virginia Beach, is around the very real hardships posed by unprecedented staff shortages. On return from COVID, it seems that our schools faced record shortages of personnel to deal with students that were traumatized and afflicted with…
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Virginia’s Greens Need to Change Their Strategy
by James C. Sherlock When you ask a question you have to be prepared for the answer. McKinsey Global Institute, in collaboration with McKinsey Sustainability and the Global Energy & Materials and Advanced Industries practices released in January a massive study of the costs to get the planet to net zero emissions by 2050. The study is “The Net…