Author: sherlockj
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VDOE Transgender Policies Dangerous to Both Children and School Personnel
by James C. Sherlock Virginia’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools is a bigger mess the more I study it. It is as far as I can tell unprecedented in scope. I checked parallel California, D.C. and Arlington County policies. None of them comes close to the dangerous nonsense…
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Good News for Virginia in Best-Places-to-Work Rankings
by James C. Sherlock The new Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For has been released. Good news Four Virginia-headquartered companies made the list. Hilton, McLean #3 Capital One Financial, McLean #9 CarMax, Richmond #36 Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna #59 Other News There are nine health systems on the list. Not only are none of…
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A Cautionary Tale of Rural Healthcare and a Peek Inside a Health System Board Meeting
by James C. Sherlock Revised 12 April at 1:34 PM I ran across a fascinating story buried deep in a massive Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) database on Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) inspection reports. The report I will share with you is a cautionary tale both of rural healthcare and of the way hospitals view…
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COPN Drives Richmond’s Tuckahoe Orthopedics to Be Acquired to Survive
by James C. Sherlock This is pretty straightforward. COPN is driving a physician shortage in Virginia because doctors are not granted the independence to practice the way they want to with the facilities and equipment they need and that in turn is depressing their incomes. Reversing Robin Hood, COPN takes from the physicians and gives to…
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Sentara CEO Kern Among 10 Highest Paid Nonprofit Executives in America
by James C. Sherlock Sentara CEO Howard Kern is well paid. We will compare his compensation to those of the highest paid non-profit CEOs in the nation and to the CEO of the largest for-profit healthcare system in the country. Turns out he is extremely well paid. We should all have his agent. …
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Virginia Board of Education – In Loco Parentis and Headed to Court
by James C. Sherlock Is your child yours or does he or she belong body and soul to the state in the person of the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE)? That is a question that is not only reasonable, but absolutely necessary after reading its new transgender student regulation. That regulation represents a straight-up, in-your-face…
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COPN Monopolies Depress Income for Virginia Healthcare Professionals Without Lowering Costs
by James C. Sherlock Virginia is among the richest states in the country. We are ranked ninth among states with the highest median household income in the 2019 (latest) Census Bureau American Community Survey. Virginia median household income was $74,222 and the U.S. as a whole was $62,843. But Virginia has a Certificate of…
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Virginia Democrats Govern in the Service of Dogma and Power
by James C. Sherlock Socialism and communism are so 19th and 20th centuries. Under socialism, individuals would still own property. But industrial production, which was the chief means of generating wealth, was to be communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government. Socialists sought change and reform, but sought to make those changes…
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Board of Education Changes to Virginia Teacher Evaluation Guidelines Are an Embarrassment
by James C. Sherlock Education schools have a lot to be proud of, primarily their production of teachers. They also have a lot to answer for, including most of what passes for research and every bit of their practice of constantly changing the language of education to cover the lack of new and contributory ideas.…
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Board of Education Downgrades Qualifications for Science Teachers
by James C. Sherlock “Every student succeeds” is the motto of the state education plan. Let’s take a look and see how this focus on “student success” is playing out in the day-to-day policy judgments of the Board of Education. This column has reported that the Board of Education, in pursuit of “equity,” is actively…
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In 2019, 34% of Virginia’s Black 4th graders Could Not Read – Mississippi Offers Hope
by James C. Sherlock Since 2013, Mississippi has made unprecedented, best-in-the-nation improvement in the academic achievements of its children starting as measured in nationwide testing. The improvements were especially pronounced in 4th graders who benefited directly from its 2013 literacy law. I have done a deep dive into those results and traced them back to…
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The UVa School of Education Provides Exclusive Analysis for State Early Childhood Education Policy
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes thumbing through the state Budget Bill, HB1800 (Enrolled), one finds something other than what one is looking for. I was examining the Education budget, and specifically the Department of Education, Central Office Operations, Item 137, Instructional Services (18100). That is where the massive infusion of federal COVID education dollars are found. The instructional…
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Virginia to Teach Critical Race Theory to Newborns
by James C. Sherlock George Orwell, call your office. A copy of “Virginia’s (New) Birth-to-Five Early Learning and Development Standards” is on your desk. For our readers, go here and click the March 19 VDOE press release to download. The Commonwealth has published “Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning” since at least 2013. They were…
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Recommendations for “Equity” in Virginia Public Schools Will Destroy Them
by James C. Sherlock I just received my March edition of “EdEquityVA Monthly Newsletter” from Governor Northam’s Department of Education. Here are the opening paragraphs: The Office of Equity and Community Engagement is pleased to share that the Virginia Board of Education has revised its teacher performance standards and evaluation criteria to add a standard…
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Contract for Experienced STEM Professionals to Teach in Virginia Schools
by James C. Sherlock Every time the shortage of STEM teachers is taken seriously, as it was in William C. Lyons’ terrific article yesterday, the Departments of Education and local school boards come up with what they consider to be a cool name for a program to entice retired military officers, most of whom have…