Category: Education (K-12)
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Petersburg Public Schools Cheat Children of Their Futures
by James C. Sherlock We like to think of ourselves as civilized people. Virginia and America are at an advanced stage of social and cultural development. Aren’t we? For the children of Petersburg, we are not. We continue to let them quite publicly and measurably be cheated of their futures by their public schools. Queue…
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New Bad SOL Data Bring A New Youngkin Administration Plan for Mitigating Learning Losses in Virginia Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock The Governor announced today that he and the General Assembly came together on a bipartisan basis to invest $418 million to tackle student learning loss. The Virginia Department of Education recommends school divisions allocate the $418 million “to proven programs that will achieve the greatest student impact—approximately 70% for high-dose tutoring,…
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“School’s Closed Today! It’s the Law”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Now that two of my grandchildren are in public school, rather than being home-schooled, I am more attuned to what is going on in public school. Last Friday, I was in Northern Virginia visiting them because they were off from school. Although I was happy to get the extra time with them,…
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How to Save Loudoun County Public Schools from the Injustice of DEI
by A.L. Schuhart To Loudon Parents: Here is the legal strategy to stop Diversity, Equity and Inclusion regimes in your schools. DEI violates the principle of in loco parentis, which is the legal foundation of public education in Virginia and America. It is by this principle that schools and educators receive their mandates from the…
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Labor Day: A New Start
by Kerry Dougherty Labor Day. America’s most ambiguous national holiday. Think about it. On other special days – Memorial, Independence, Veterans, Thanksgiving, Presidents, Martin Luther King and Christmas – we pause, however briefly, to honor a beloved person or a historical event. We have parades, visit cemeteries, blast fireworks, give thanks, recite a famous speech…
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Last Year’s SOL Performance — Meh
by James A. Bacon The Virginia Department of Education is running two weeks late in releasing Standards of Learning (SOL) testing data for the 2022-23 school year. The reason cited by state Superintendent Lisa Coons, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is to process retake data and appeals. The SOL results, as they appeared on a Richmond…
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Secret SOLs
by John Butcher The Superintendent of Public Instruction’s May 10, 2023, memo scheduled posting of the 2022-2023 student performance results to the Build-A-Table tool on August 17. Those data have not been posted. It’s not that they don’t have the information. The SOL data, in particular, are collected as they are produced by the online…
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Fed-Up Parents Sue Loudoun County School Board
by Donny Ferguson A liberal school board in suburban Washington, D.C., is now being sued in federal court over an “Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism” that reports children to officials for any speech that deviates from approved liberal ideology – even at home or after school. Represented by the Liberty Justice Center, several Loudoun…
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Schools Shouldn’t Open Before Labor Day
by Kerry Dougherty Better sit down, youngsters. Did you know you’ll only get OUT of school two days earlier than last year? Yep, your last day of classes is June 14, 2024. Last June you finished up on June 16th. Joke’s on you. Oh, and the teachers who pushed for the new schedule believing they’d…
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Virginia Beach School Board Gives Parents the Middle Finger
by Kerry Dougherty Virginia Democrats. Has there ever been a more arrogant bunch? In 2020 they were convinced that they had turned Virginia bright blue. They believed there would never be another Republican in the Governor’s Mansion. They believed they had a license to implement a smorgasbord of far-left policies. For example, they wanted to…
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Charlottesville Schools Ban Student Cell Phones
by James A. Bacon The Charlottesville public school system has banned the students’ use of cell phones. Superintendent Royal Gurley decries students’ “addiction” to the mobile devices, and teachers have complained that the phones have become a tremendous disruption in the classroom, reports The Daily Progress. The restrictions, school officials hope, will “increase connectivity between…
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Virginia’s Schools Really Do Need More Money
by Suzanne Munson Recent General Assembly debates about state budgets open a cornucopia of questions about the future of education in Virginia — charter schools, lab schools, vouchers, funding for religious schools? Now might be a good time to examine some background about public education in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson proposed the state’s first legislation in…
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Beach School Board Votes on Parents’ Rights Tonight
by Kerry Dougherty Tonight’s the night, Virginia Beach. A chance to show the leftist school board members that parental rights matter in the Resort City. There are several ways to do it: flood school board members with emails, sign up to speak at tonight’s board meeting (you have until noon) or just go to the…
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Decency and Democracy Prevail in Roanoke County
by Scott Dreyer In recent years, much of America has been convulsed by riots, arson, looting, and mayhem to the point where basic safety and simple dialogue have become impossible. When faced with shocking headlines, many can only shudder in horror and be thankful they don’t live in such places. In what some call “the…
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The Value of an Old School Roanoke County Education
by Scott Dreyer These remarks were shared with the Roanoke County School Board by email on August 17, 2023. I share these thoughts with the Roanoke County School board as someone who grew up in the County from ages 1 to 18 and attended County Public Schools from grades 1-12 until graduating from Northside. I…