Category: Governance
-
Why Is UVa Hiding Its Campus Climate Survey Results?
by Walter Smith Jim Bacon recently posted an article urging Governor-elect Youngkin to take full advantage of his higher-ed Board of Visitors appointments if he wishes to remain true to the education reform momentum that played a big part in his election. Bacon’s bits (pun intentional!) on the Boards as political plums with a go-along-to-get-along…
-
Mr. Youngkin, Pay Heed to Your University-Board Appointments
by James A. Bacon Glenn Youngkin’s winning campaign issue in the 2020 gubernatorial election was expunging Critical Race Theory from Virginia’s public school system. An endlessly repeated trope of the Left is that CRT is an academic legal theory not taught in schools. I (and others) have explained that “CRT” is short-hand for policies based…
-
Key Fiduciary Duties of School Boards and Superintendents
by James C. Sherlock My frequent columns on Virginia schools bring up the same lines of arguments and agreements every time. I hope it will help if I explain what I expect of school boards and superintendents. I try to align my writing with those expectations. School boards and superintendents hold their positions first as…
-
Candidates Matter
by James C. Sherlock Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe proved that candidates matter, even in blue states like Virginia. Jack Ciattarelli and Phil Murphy in yet bluer New Jersey have proven it again, no matter how that dead even race turns out. I wrote here in early May that Glenn Youngkin and Jason Miyares would…
-
Biden and McAuliffe to Complete the Roundup of Toddlers by the State
by James C. Sherlock Updated 26 October 1:48 PM The progressive dream of government control of children from birth is approaching reality in Virginia. Terry McAuliffe shares that dream and wants to lead Virginia to that promised land. Governor Ralph Northam and the Democratic General Assembly have established state control of our youngest children, but…
-
Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI+) Pilot – Hidden Data, Disappearing Value — Thanks for Nothing
by James C. Sherlock This is a follow-up to my Monday report on VPI+, a federally funded four-year pilot program to assess the value of the Virginia Preschool Initiative. Today we will discuss what was not reported to the public. We will also assess the dreadful results of the pilot participants after those kids graduated…
-
Virginia Preschool Initiative Pilot – Political Conclusions Belied by the Data
by James C. Sherlock. Updated Oct 18 at 5:38 PM Those who have followed my reporting know that I am passionate on the subject of helping poor children do better in Virginia’s schools. They also know of my disdain for Virginia’s hyper-political education establishment. Well, the Northam administration has turned the Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus…
-
McAuliffe Lets the Cat out of the Bag
by James C. Sherlock Current Virginia law and Terry McAuliffe cannot coexist. “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.” Code of Virginia § 1-240.1. Rights of parents. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Terry McAuliffe, Sept 28,…
-
How Does Virginia Budget Early-Childhood-Education Money Wind Up in a Park in Detroit?
by James C. Sherlock – updated Oct 15 I’d like to report an organized crime. It’s just not illegal in Virginia. The political Left, fully in control of Virginia government, sends taxpayer money to leftist non-profits, who take their cuts and then send it on to local government entities and yet more nonprofits. It is unethical,…
-
Nursing Home Ads Pose As Official State Advice
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia state government has a Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. Who wouldn’t want one of those? But in the case of recommending nursing homes, it would be better if it would either stop or fix its broken system. Which it pays a nonprofit, VirginiaNavigator, to run. It is…
-
More Proof Virginia Disclosure Laws are Crap
by Steve Haner In 2020, according to documents filed with the State Corporation Commission, Dominion Energy Virginia paid former state Senator John Watkins $92,297 for lobbying services. At the end of the reporting period, it officially claimed spending only $1,641 for him to influence the legislative process. In a similar manner, former Fairfax Delegate John…
-
Virginia’s Self-Inflicted Nursing Home Crisis – Part 3 – McAuliffe & Herring
by James C. Sherlock In the first two parts of this series, I wrote about the shortage of state inspectors for nursing homes in the Virginia Department of Health Office of Licensure and Certification (OLC) and the continuing danger it poses to Virginia patients. The problem, unfortunately, is much wider than just nursing homes. So…
-
Virginia’s Self-Inflicted Nursing Home Crisis — Part 2, the Business
by James C. Sherlock Nursing homes are businesses. Seventy percent of those in Virginia are for profit. They are run not by doctors but registered nurses with physicians on call. Nursing facilities very widely in size in Virginia, from the 300-bed Mulberry Creek Nursing and Rehab center in Martinsville to facilities of less than 30…
-
Virginia’s Self-Inflicted Nursing Home Crisis – Part 1
by James C. Sherlock None of us ever knows when we will need a nursing home for ourselves, our parents or our kids. Yes, kids. While long-term nursing care is mostly for older patients, skilled nursing facilities are needed for patients of all ages, including children, for shorter term post-op treatment and recovery. The patients…
-
Richmond Wants to Kill Its Gas Utility, Also Ending Service in Henrico, Chesterfield
by Steve Haner BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the (Richmond) Council hereby commits to working with the City’s Administration on an equitable plan to phase out reliance on gas and shift to accelerated investment in City-owned renewable energy and hereby recognizes that the continued operation of the City’s gas utility is an obstacle to the…