Category: Governance
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Melting Metrics
The General Assembly enacted the 2005 Restructuring Act with the idea of holding public universities accountable to a set of performance metrics. Many measures have fallen by the wayside. This is the third of four articles exploring higher-education accountability in Virginia since enactment of the 2005 “Restructuring Higher Education Financial and Administrative Services Act.” Upon…
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Cutting the Strings
The 2005 covenant between the state and higher-ed has given public institutions more autonomy, flexibility, and, above all, control over tuition. This is the second of four articles exploring higher-education accountability in Virginia since enactment of the 2005 “Restructuring Higher Education Financial and Administrative Services Act.” In 2005, when leaders of Virginia’s most prestigious universities…
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Autonomy and Accountability
Under the 2005 Restructuring Act, Virginia universities got more autonomy in exchange for more accountability. Today, they still have autonomy but there’s less accountability. This is the first of four articles exploring higher-education accountability in Virginia since enactment of the 2005 “Restructuring Higher Education Financial and Administrative Services Act.” The year 2005 was a watershed…
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Sixty Percent of Slover Foundation Budget Goes Toward Administration
The Slover Literary Foundation, a tax-exempt charity set up to support Norfolk’s flagship Slover Library, plans to spend more on salaries next year than on direct aid to the library, the Virginian-Pilot reports today. The Slover foundation will spend almost 60% of its fiscal 2018 budget on administrative costs including a $150,000 salary for former…
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Failing to Fix the Unfixable
Cranky (aka John Butcher) is on a tear these days, most recently exposing the Virginia Board of Education’s ineffectual effort to fix the City of Richmond’s broken school systems. The Richmond’s schools are in turmoil. According to the state board, 27 of the city’s 44 schools are not fully accredited. The school board has booted…
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Business Leaders Demand WMATA Governance Reform
An alliance of Washington-region business groups is calling for a fix for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) that would create dedicated funding streams for the Metro rail system and a restructuring of the authority’s board. Twenty-one chambers of commerce and employers groups outlined the proposal in a letter to the region’s political leaders,…
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Virginia Needs a New Constitution, Part 2
by Donald J. Rippert The Commonwealth’s Cornucopia of Constitutions. Virginia has written, scrapped and rewritten its state constitution many times. Virginia is presently operating under its seventh constitution. While that seems striking compared to the U.S. Constitution, it’s not that unusual for a state constitution. Florida and Pennsylvania have had five constitutions, South Carolina six,…
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Ralph Northam’s Plan to Empower Virginia’s Political Class
Under pressure from his rival for accepting money from Dominion, Democratic Party candidate for governor Ralph Northam has called for a cap on campaign donations and a ban on corporate contributions. “Virginia’s campaign finance system is a boondoggle that alienates its citizens and makes them lose faith in government,” Northam said in a statement. “Virginians…
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GMU Should Cough up Terms of Charles Koch Donations
Unlike my friends of a leftish persuasion, I don’t have a problem with Charles and David Koch. I largely agree with their libertarian political philosophy. In a nation awash in foundations that underwrite liberal and progressive causes on college campuses, I am happy to see at least one organization backing free-market/limited government principles. In particular,…
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Probing the Political Economy of Higher Ed
Growing administrative overhead is a major force driving up the cost of higher education. While there is no simple, uni-causal explanation for bureaucratic bloat, George Mason University law professors Todd Zywicki and Christopher Koopman observe that growing higher-ed bureaucracy coincides with a long-brewing power shift in academe from faculties to administrators. “Of particular concern and importance appears to…
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McAuliffe Orders WMATA Review
Governor Terry McAuliffe has announced an independent review of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (MWATA), the troubled organization that runs rail and bus systems in the Washington metropolitan area. Hampered by massive maintenance backlogs, high labor costs, safety issues and declining ridership, the authority requires billions of dollars in capital funds and hundreds of millions…
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More Great Moments in Virginia Governance: Election Fraud File
Election irregularities in Virginia? No way. They never happen. Except when they do. A grand jury has indicted Walter Mason, mayor of the town of Waverly in Sussex County of a dozen felony charges of election fraud. Virginia Lawyers Weekly reports that Mason was accused of making false statements on absentee ballots and trying to help…
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Reform Redistricting, Dampen Toxic Politics
Given a choice between a House District 72 configured as it is today or the community-based district like the alternative displayed above, who, besides the political party that drew the district to its advantage, would not prefer the latter? Imagine a country where the voters selected their representatives, not one in which representatives selected their voters. Is there any doubt that…
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Newly Scrupulous Legislators Reporting Fewer Gifts
The giving of gifts to members of the General Assembly — or perhaps I should say the acceptance of them — has declined precipitously since 2013 when former Governor Bob McDonnell was indicted in a scandal best remembered by favor-seeker Jonnie Williams paying for his daughter’s wedding reception. Although McDonnell was ultimately cleared by U.S.…
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Tommy Norment: W&M’s Man in the State Senate
Does Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, have a conflict of interest regarding legislation affecting William & Mary? Like many Virginia lawmakers, the Senate Majority Leader attended two Virginia institutions of higher education – the Virginia Military Institute and the College of William & Mary school of law. Unlike his colleagues, he is employed by a Virginia…