Author: sherlockj
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Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? Virginia’s 211 – Service or Crapshoot?
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes the government of Virginia just makes you want to scream, cry, stay under the covers, whatever. Navigating government and private social services agencies when you need help is hard, even more so a crisis. But it is way harder in Virginia than it needs to be. To streamline the navigation…
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Virginia’s Continuing Mental Health Crisis
by James C. Sherlock I like government at every level to address only things it must. Then I want it to be world class in efficiency and effectiveness. It has been clear since the ’60’s that I am destined to be repeatedly frustrated on both counts. We come to an old issue in Virginia, the…
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Northam Asks Good Questions About Amended Medicaid Budget
by James C. Sherlock Governor Ralph Northam has raised an important issue relative to the budget negotiations. He has asked that the final bill not include an extension of a 12.5% increase in rates for Medicaid home- and community-based services for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The General Assembly put it in there anyway. …
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Coming to Virginia – a New State of Emergency?
by James C. Sherlock The Governor’s 15-month emergency powers expired June 30, and, God, does he miss them. From The Virginian-Pilot: “School districts that aren’t requiring masks, including several in Hampton Roads, are running afoul of state law, Gov. Ralph Northam said Thursday.” OK. The bigger questions are how long the governor will put up…
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Critical Theory in Education – Clarity of Purpose Is Progressives’ One Virtue
by James C. Sherlock Did you read the over 100 comments beneath The Left Is Lying: CRT Is Peddling Hate in Our Schools earlier today in this space? Quite a dogfight. Do you notice how the left tries to pretend that applied critical theory in education, which incorporates CRT but is about much more, is about only…
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The Mayor of Alexandria Anticipated my Column
by James C. Sherlock We scribblers at Bacon’s Rebellion pride ourselves on being leaders in the progressive thought process. In acknowledgment of the wisdom in my column that called out the observable inefficiency of government, I give you: The city of Alexandria, Virginia, is joining a growing number of cities across the U.S. that are sending money to…
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The Accelerating Scale of the Legislate-Regulate-Spend-and-Repeat Cycle Has Broken Government
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in Corruption and Scandals, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Long Term Care and Nursing Homes, Mental illness and substance abuse, Money in politics, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlementsby James C. Sherlock Virginians – the state and individual citizens – have received over $81 billion in COVID-related federal funding. That comes to $9,507 for every man, woman and child in the Commonwealth. Big money. That was Virginia’s share of $5.3 trillion in federal spending just on the pandemic (so far). A trillion dollars…
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VDOE’s Plan to Impose Social Reconstructionist Dogma on School Children
by James C. Sherlock The 2020 General Assembly required the Virginia Department of Education to develop and publish standards for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) that start in Kindergarten and go through 12th grade. VDOE has done so, disregarding entirely hundreds of comments on Virginia Town Hall on the draft of those standards that had a 10-to-one…
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Three More Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock There was extensive commentary on my post yesterday that recommended expanded use of stop and frisk in an attempt to reduce gun violence. Given the demonstrated interest in the subject, I offer three suggestions that go further. Increase federal prosecutions. Federal laws, penalties, detention hearings and prosecutions are a far more formidable deterrent to…
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Understaffed Police Departments, Skyrocketing Gun Violence and “Stop and Frisk”
by James C. Sherlock The print edition of The Virginian-Pilot today ran the story we commented on yesterday on the surge in gun violence killing children in Norfolk. The headline in the online version: Nearly a dozen children were shot in July in Norfolk. Communities are hurting, and activists want change. None of the nearly 2,200…
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Will Liability Insurers Drive School Mask Policies?
by James C. Sherlock California has imposed a school mask mandate for the fall. Virginia has not — yet. California shows us some of the implications. In that state, the mandate has produced varying reactions. Reporting in Education Week has illuminated some of those.
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No PAC for Disaster Preparedness and Response
by James C. Sherlock Virginia’s responses to COVID were a continuing national embarrassment. Individual Virginia department and agencies had no operational pandemic response plans. They ignored specific and prescient directions to build and exercise such plans in the dormant Virginia Pandemic Emergency Plan. VDEM then attempted a coverup. No PPE stockpiles. Last in testing. Last in…
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“Model Polices” on Transgender Students vs. Laws Guaranteeing Parental Rights
by James C. Sherlock Emilio Jaksetic wrote an excellent article this morning. Mr. Jaksetic, a lawyer, commented on the decision by Judge J. Frederick Watson of the 24th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Virginia Board of Education’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools for…
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Congrats UVa Health and Centra – the Right Kind of Healthcare Affiliation
by James C. Sherlock Now for a kind word for my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Virginia. In a press release yesterday, Lynchburg-based Centra and UVA Health announced a strategic clinical affiliation. From what we know from the announcement, that is exactly the kind of healthcare affiliation Virginians need.
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COVID School Closure Learning Losses in K-12 Students – a Generational Catastrophe
by James C. Sherlock I have written here extensively about the pre-COVID state of learning in Virginia’s public schools and my concerns about COVID school closure learning losses exacerbating the issue. Those learning losses have come to pass. McKinsey & Company just published a study of the results from Curriculum Associates testing. That in-school sample consisted…