Author: sherlockj
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Government Attacks on Parental Choice in Virtual K-12 Public Education in Virginia – Chapter 1: Teacher shortages
by James C. Sherlock A great deal of the increase in demand for full-time virtual K-12 (FTVK12) education is driven by rising teacher shortages in the brick-and-mortar schools. I am not talking about COVID quarantine or other illnesses, but rather endemic shortages. Jobs that cannot be filled. And may never be. We have well-founded fears…
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Government Attacks on Parental Choice in Virtual K-12 Public Education in Virginia: A Prologue
by James C. Sherlock Very few like the concept of full-time online education for children. They do not consider it an attractive option to teachers in front of kids in brick-and-mortar school classrooms. Neither do I. They believe, and science backs, that there is considerably more value to in-person school than classroom instruction. …
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A Price of COPN — Sentara Pleads COVID Capacity Shortages
by James C. Sherlock Sentara Health, once described by The Washington Post as “playing COPN like a violin,” yesterday went statewide with an acknowledgment that its system is out of capacity for many who seek its help. On a Zoom press conference yesterday, Sentara reported seeing a huge surge in hospital admissions. Hospitalizations have more…
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Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the LCPS Board
by James C. Sherlock The Loudoun County School Board has announced that it has appointed Jeff Morse of the Dulles district as its new chairman for the 2022 calendar year. Turns out Jeff was its former Chairman in 2017-2019. He was elected with five votes for and four abstentions. But whatever works. Jeff’s home page…
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Medical Facility State Inspector Shortfalls An Urgent Matter for the Governor and General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginians are blessed to have a person running the Department of Health Office of Licensure and Inspection (OLC) who may be the best public servant in the Commonwealth. She desperately needs help to do the work she is assigned in order to protect us. Kim Beazley, the Director of that Office,…
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Another Brick in the Wall Around Sentaraland
by James C. Sherlock Which one of these doesn’t match? Story in Virginia Business Dec. 20: EVMS, ODU and Sentara sign health center agreement. Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University and Sentara Healthcare entered into a memorandum of understanding Friday to work toward a collaborative academic health center…. That’s right. EVMS and ODU are…
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Virginia State and Local Agencies Must Spend Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds by December 31
by James C. Sherlock State and local governments are awash in billions of dollars of federal funding with various federal expiration dates if not spent. The General Assembly set its own deadline. Recipients have to spend federal money allocated by the General Assembly by Dec. 31 or lose it back to the Governor for repurposing.…
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Virginia No-Limit Campaign Laws = Tax Exemptions for Partners in Venture Capital Firms
by James C. Sherlock Updated Dec 14 at 10:19 AM I just spent some spare time browsing through the Virginia tax code. (I know, get a life.) Lots of interesting items in there. Some tax exemptions make sense for the best interests of the state. Some don’t. This case benefits a very few people a…
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A Naval Officer Prepares to Repel Boarders
by James C. Sherlock Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced he has put $8 million in his new budget to transport illegal immigrants to other states and D.C. He listed Delaware and Martha’s Vineyard as potential destinations. This of course will be Florida’s response to the Biden administration flying 70 planeloads of illegals into the state…
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Protecting Stable Governance — Virginia vs. the Federal Government
by James C. Sherlock An opinion piece by Catherine Rampell in The Washington Post was headlined, “No one in their right mind would design a government that works like ours.” She meant that her preferred changes to American governance were stymied by Senate rules. The “no one in their right mind” was a tell. Anyone…
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Law Enforcement Shortages Come to Small-Town Virginia
by James C. Sherlock The Town of Leesburg had a population of 49,157 as of July 1, 2021. Its police force has an authorized strength of 90 sworn officers. Twenty-one of those positions are vacant. The Loudoun Times posted an article that headlined the town’s vaccine mandate as a potential contributor, but a close reading…
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Young Peoples’ Attitudes About America Show that the Nation is Reaping What the Left has Sown
by James C. Sherlock Updated Dec 2, 5:34 PM. Terry McAuliffe: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Clearly, parents have not done so successfully. The Left has. For a dramatic lesson in what the young have learned about America at enormous public and private expense, please see the Harvard…
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Press Misinformation on Critical Race Theory in Schools Fuels the Fight
by James C. Sherlock Americans are at one another’s throats over critical race theory in schools. The debate is skewed and the rage fueled by completely different understandings of the terms of reference — the actual objections to CRT in education. Those objections have been misstated routinely by the legacy national newspapers and the education…
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Two Virginia Health Systems In Top Five Nationally for Cost Efficiency
by James C. Sherlock Becker’s Hospital review reports: “Lynchburg, Va.-based Centra Health is the most cost-efficient health system in the U.S., according to a ranking from the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank.” Also on the list of the top 20 is Inova Health of Falls Church at number 5. No surprise there.
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The Woke Are Coming for Your Doctor
by James C. Sherlock I just finished reading a profoundly disturbing article by Robert Graboyes, a PhD. economist with deep personal and professional roots in Virginia. “The Pall of Politics Descends Upon American Medicine” is published in Discourse Magazine, a publication of Mercatus Center at George Mason University. It is subtitled: “A new guidance document for medical…