Author: sherlockj
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In Virginia, Only Inova, UVa Health and VA Hospitals Mandate Vaccinations for Staff
by James C. Sherlock Among large Virginia health systems, only Inova, UVa Health and VA Medical Centers appear currently to mandate staff vaccinations. Inova is the only one of those that is private. On Monday, a Joint Statement in Support of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for All Workers in Health and Long-Term Care was issued by a long…
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What Would We Do Without Experts and “People Familiar with the Matter”?
by James C. Sherlock Headline: “The CDC is expected to recommend that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates, according to people familiar with the matter.” Einstein had it right. But, then, he went to in-person school.
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Hopewell Public Schools Blazing a Trail for At-Risk Children
by James C. Sherlock In 2015, over 2 million U.S. students attended school on year-round schedules every year in around 3,000 schools in 46 states. Half of those were in California, four-fifths in Western states. Hopewell school district joined them on Monday in the first district-wide implementation of a year-round public school schedule in Virginia.…
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What? No Amendments Permitted to a $4.3 Billion Budget Bill?
by James C. Sherlock Del. Luke Torian, D-Woodbridge, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee in the House of Delegates, has announced that there will be no member amendments allowed for the budget that the governor sends down during the upcoming special session. Three things about that: Torian is the king of budget amendments. Look at…
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The Impact of English Language Learners on Virginia Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock We will briefly discuss here English learners in Virginia schools and the enormous impact they have. They truly offer to enrich the experience of all kids in our schools, but they need a lot of help and there are a great many of them. There were 104,411 English learner students enrolled in…
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J.D. Vance, the “Childless Left” and the Commonwealth of Virginia Education Elite
by James C. Sherlock J. D. Vance, the author of the acclaimed biographical work “Hillbilly Elegy,” is a candidate for the Republican nomination in Ohio to replace retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman. I haven’t studied that Senate race, and don’t have a favorite, but Mr. Vance has raised an issue for our time. He has…
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How Bad Are Virginia Public Schools’ Personnel Shortages?
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) maintains a job board for itself and for school districts seeking personnel of all sorts. It shows about 1,6oo openings, but some of the postings are more than two years old. And the real number is somewhere around 7,000. It is useless. Apparently VDOE, in…
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The Governor, General Assembly, VDOE and the Lenin Doctrine
by James C. Sherlock “J. Out of this appropriation, $120,000 the second year from the general fund is provided for the Department of Education to develop and implement a pilot program to more comprehensively supervise school division compliance with a subset of key standards by requiring (i) the submission of more comprehensive compliance information, (ii)…
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Is DOJ’s Focus on Healthcare Monopolies Coming to Virginia?
by James C. Sherlock The Acting head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Richard A. Powers, yesterday delivered a speech that described the Justice Department’s new goals, strategies and resources for criminal antitrust enforcement. The clouds have darkened over Virginia’s healthcare monopolies. The Commonwealth. Virginia has failed in its duty to oversee its healthcare industry. The…
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Richmond Schools’ Flawed Data Threatens Federal Funds
by James C. Sherlock The massive flows of federal and state funding to local school districts are based largely on data reported by the schools to their districts, the districts to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), and VDOE to the U.S. Department of Education. In Fiscal Year 2018, the U.S. Department of Education sent…
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Only the Courts Are Protecting Virginians – Again
by James C. Sherlock Barton Swain explores a topic in the Wall Street Journal that bears examination in Virginia. He makes a profound observation: “The sheer illogic of (the Texas election laws) controversy captures something essential about culture-war progressives. They are able to embrace a cause, condemn dissenters and doubters as monsters, and experience no…
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The Left’s Plan to Drive a Huge Shortage of K-12 Teachers
by James C. Sherlock The left has designed Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) in no small part to drive current K-12 teachers with traditional values out of the profession. Leftists hope to have set in motion a five-step process: It will be clear in a couple of years that the plan has…
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Flooding the Zone at VDOE
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is absolutely relentless. Defenders in a zone defense in football are responsible for areas of the field, rather than following a specific receiver. Offenses often attack these defenses by flooding a zone — sending three receivers into an area covered by two defenders. But…
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Fellow Democrats, We Can’t Fix Stupid
by James C. Sherlock Fellow Democrats, we can’t fix stupid. News report: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded Tuesday to criticism by the United Nations’ human rights apparatus of “systemic racism” in the United States by announcing plans to issue a formal, standing invitation to dozens of U.N. rights experts to visit and investigate.” “It…
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Richmond Public Schools Show No Progress on Staff COVID Vaccinations
by James C. Sherlock Last updated Just 15 at 4:16 PM I have long taken a personal interest in the City of Richmond Public Schools (RPS). Its students have a right under the Virginia constitution to a quality education that they are systematically denied. RPS has utterly failed to educate the children under its care. The…