Category: Uncategorized
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UVa Rules Out a “Pattern” of Hate Crimes
by James A. Bacon University of Virginia executive leadership has issued a remarkable statement that lends insight into the fraught state of race relations at Virginia’s flagship university. Three recent incidents have taken place on the Grounds since the new academic year began that have “caused some to speculate that they are linked or part…
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Political Damage to Primary Instruments of Improvement in Virginia Schools
by James C. Sherlock We need all the help we can get assessing Virginia schools and producing actionable information to make them better. The Standards of Learning exams show the results of poor learning, but do not identify actionable causes. Directed to choose an additional measure of school quality by the federal ESSA (Every…
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What is a Good School, How is One Measured and How do Poor Schools Improve?
by James C. Sherlock I wrote yesterday about the dumpster fires that were Fredericksburg Public Schools during and immediately after the pandemic. They completely fell apart. It is not clear how and whether the children, with whose well being, development and education those schools and their parents were charged, will ever recover from the experience.…
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Fredericksburg Schools Need a New Superintendent
by James C Sherlock Note: I took the unprecedented step of taking a column down ten days ago. I did so out of an abundance of caution in response to an outpouring of disbelief among colleagues and the readers about the 71% chronic absentee rate posted by Fredericksburg Public Schools in 2020-21. Many insisted the number…
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Presumed Racist Until Proven Innocent
by James A. Bacon Around 11:15 p.m. last Wednesday, a White male dressed in dark clothing climbed the statue of the blind poet Homer on the grounds of the University of Virginia and hung a noose around its neck. The next day University President Jim Ryan declared the incident to be a “hate crime” and…
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Who’s “Legislating from the Bench” Now?
by Jim McCarthy “It’s not the court’s place to legislate,” the judge stated in local media after dismissing a case seeking to have two books declared obscene upon her ruling that such ban violated Virginia and federal law. “Look, the General Assembly is a citizen legislature. We’re not lawmakers. Things like this happen and a…
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The Trouble with Guaranteed Student Loans
by Dr. A Schuhart I benefitted directly from the guaranteed student loan program. Unlike most of my colleagues, I was a first-generation college student, and I took out loans for both BA and MA degrees. I would not have attended college were it not for this program, so I have always been grateful for it.…
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Budget Earmarks for Nonstate Entities
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For many years, the most interesting and fun portion of the state Appropriation Act was a section near the end entitled, “State Grants to Nonstate Entities-Nonstate Agencies.” The 2000 Appropriation Act, appropriating almost $36 million for these nonstate entities, is a good example. It included funding for historic courthouses, local museums and…
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Jeanine’s Memes
Normally, I’d say, “Last one out, turn off the lights.” But Governor Gavin Newsome beat me to it. (From The Bull Elephant)
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COVID and the Racial Achievement Gap
by James A. Bacon Two weeks ago, before I so rudely interrupted myself by taking a vacation in North Carolina, I was engaged in an analysis of the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores. As measured by pass rates, Virginia students statewide recovered much, but not all, of the ground they had lost during…
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Woke Limbo: How Low Can You Go?
by James A. Bacon The bar for triggering Virginia Democrats gets lower by the day. The latest limbo contortion is a call by the Democratic Party of Virginia and the University Democrats at the University of Virginia for the resignation of Bert Ellis, a recently appointed member of the UVa Board of Visitors, who has…
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As Anti-Jefferson Rhetoric Swells, Ryan Stands Silent
by James A. Bacon Here is what passes for logic at The Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper of the University of Virginia, a university once reputed for the excellence of its education: We reject how the University’s physical environment — one that glorifies racists, slaveholders and eugenicists with statues and buildings named in their honor…