Category: Education (K-12)
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Public School Enrollments Still Declining
Virginia K-12 public school enrollment will decline by nearly 31,000 students, or about 2.9 percent, over the next four years, according to the demographic research group at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. The fall-off is expected to be sharpest among high school students, which augurs negatively for future…
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Fairfax Spends More, Teaches Less
by Arthur Purves (Editor’s note: Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, addressed the Fairfax County School Board on Feb. 13, 2024. His remarks, with updated numbers, are posted below.) At church I get to ask students and parents around Vienna about our schools. The feedback is positive, and we appreciate your dedicated teachers…
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Are Nonchalant Adults Responsible For School Shootings?
by Kerry Dougherty Finally. For instance, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News — Ebony Parker — has been indicted on eight criminal charges in connection with the shooting of first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner in January 2023. This stunning act of senseless violence put Newport News in headlines around the…
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Anarchy Visits Another School
by James A. Bacon Teachers don’t feel safe in Albemarle High School, reports The Daily Progress. Within one recent week, a student punched a teacher in the face so hard he (or she) required medical treatment, while another student issued threats against teachers and classmates via social media and email. The newspaper reports other incidents…
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The Letter
by Joe Fitzgerald “Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane.” Depending on your age, you may think of this as the opening to the Box Tops biggest and most iconic hit. If you don’t follow pop music, you may think any song that begins with “gimme” might be from a news story about a county school…
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Climate Change Wars Coming to Virginia Schools?
By Steve Haner Young Virginians are not getting enough instruction on the deadly existential threat of climate change from the news media, their favorite social media sites, Hollywood productions and President Joe Biden’s campaign stump speeches. Virginia’s General Assembly Democrats are demanding that the public schools double down with a wave of new classroom materials.…
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San Francisco’s “Algebra for None” Policy and How Virginia Avoided a Similar Fate
by Todd Truitt On March 5, 84% of San Francisco voters voted in favor of a referendum for San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to bring back Algebra for 8th graders, overturning their prior ill-fated math reform (a “no middle schooler let ahead” math policy). What does this vote have to do with Virginia? The Virginia Department…
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Added Pay Won’t Make Teachers Want to Stay in Bad Teaching Environments
by Nancy Almasi Abby Zwerner, the Newport News teacher shot by a 6-year-old student a year ago, doubts she will ever return to teaching. In addition to her lingering injuries and psychological trauma, Zwerner is suing the Newport News School District for ignoring multiple warnings that the student had a gun and was prone to violence. The…
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RVA HISTORY: Schools Are for Learning
by Jon Baliles The effort to save the old Richmond Community Hospital (RCH) from Virginia Union’s wrecking ball raises an interesting debate about recognizing history, remembering history, and benefitting by learning from history. Especially when one program is established that then becomes part of a bigger effort and very especially when it is used to…
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We Need More Teachers!
by Matt Hurt Chris Braunlich (Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money) brought up many good points about some bills that propose to increase teacher salaries. However, it seems necessary to add some additional context to help flesh out this conversation/debate. It appears that many don’t fully understand the gravity of the situation. On…
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Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money
By Chris Braunlich Some years back, I ran into a friend, a Virginia Education Association unit chair, outside the General Assembly building, there to lobby on behalf of a state-wide teacher salary increase.
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A Veto-Proof Local Tax Hike Nearly Approved
By Steve Haner A bill likely to produce $1.6 billion or more in local sales tax increases is moving through the General Assembly with enough bipartisan votes to block any veto from the Governor, but differences remain between the House of Delegates and Senate versions.
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New Admissions Policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Will Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the appeal of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson challenging the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the changes in the admissions policy for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The result is that the changes in the school’s admission policy…
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Partisan Poison: Va Dems Quash a Bill to Protect School Kids
by Kerry Dougherty How exactly is Virginia’s General Assembly celebrating Black History Month? By killing a bill to protect children in public school lavatories, introduced by Del. A.C. Cordoza of Hampton. Cordoza is an African-American. And a Republican. He was famously denied membership in the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus when he was elected in 2022.…
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Doing the Math
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I have a dilemma. I can’t decide if I am just like most old farts who think “the way I used to do it” is the right way and the modern way is all screwed up, or if I am just out of touch with the modern way. Here is the situation.…