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Fixes are Available for Nurse Shortages – Virginia Needs to Take Action in the Upcoming GA Session

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by

sherlockj
in ,

by James C. Sherlock

A future without enough nurses is unacceptable.

There is some good news.

Clinical nurses make a lot more money now than they used to.  COVID fixed that.  The travel nurse bubble is burst, but the pay raises for staff nurses appear to be sticking.

The raises for nurses across the field were very large, whether they stayed where they were or were recruited elsewhere. There was a lot of churn, but nurses deserve the extra money. We know where that money will come from. Price increases for medical care and insurance.

But COVID also caused so many nurses to retire or otherwise leave the field that it both exacerbated and exposed shortages that predated the pandemic.

The supply of new nurses is bottlenecked at the nursing schools. But the reason flips the teacher supply problem on its head.

Unlike the shortage of teachers, which begins with a severe shortage of people who want the job, the shortage of nurses is traceable in Virginia and nationally to a lack of nursing school faculty to teach them.

It is of course a money issue at most of Virginia’s 81 nursing programs, and one we have no option but to address.

Nursing school staffing is not a new problem.

In 2019-20, before the COVID-associated spike in field nurse salaries, 26% of qualified applicants were turned away from Virginia’s nursing schools. Trends were similar across the country.

During COVID, salaries for nurses in the field quickly and massively outstripped those of nursing school faculty, making it very hard for those schools to retain nurses on staff, much less to expand those faculties to meet demand.

Post-COVID, the raises in the field have proven sticky, making it much harder to retain and recruit faculty. Most of Virginia’s nursing programs don’t have the resources to raise faculty salaries to the levels required to be competitive.

Cardinal News reported at length in February on the problem.

The short version:

  • The nursing schools cannot expand to meet increased demand from both the input and output ends. They not only have vacant faculty positions, but the average age of existing faculty is quickly rising.
  • The faculty pay increases necessary to correct the imbalance are estimated to be about $30,000 per year per instructional position.
  • Virginia needs to find ways to fund both the raises for existing positions and the new ones.
  • In addition, hospitals and other nurse employers configured to teach will need to expand their ability to accept nursing student placements for internships.
  • The GA is being asked to fund a study.  

Richmond, thick with lobbyists for both the employers of nurses and the nursing schools, should be able to come up with:

  • the total number of nursing school instructors needed;
  • the raises needed to keep the existing positions filled;
  • the number and costs of nursing internships;
  • and the amount of new money — salaries and benefits — for some definable number of new positions.

The hard part is who pays.

Who pays? Obvious candidates to contribute to the financial solution are:

  1. The employers of nurses. The state is among those employers.  Lobbyists for private employers — Virginia hospitals, ASCs, nursing homes, home healthcare providers, physician groups, etc. — will want the state to pay.
  2. The state as government. Negotiators for the state will want its wealthy, COPN-protected healthcare monopolies to pick up most of the tab. That is a more than reasonable position, as they can afford it and they will be beneficiaries of the increased supply. The state will look to Medicaid first if government money is to be used. Medicaid will likely be tapped to pay for additional nurse internships;
  3. Nursing school tuition. Many will also want to consider nursing school tuition increases to help fund the faculties. On the surface that makes some sense. But economics 101 will tell us that price increases will shrink demand until there is market equilibrium. And we can’t afford to shed qualified applicants. Scholarships can be funded by employers and the state to make up the difference in affordability for students that need help. That brings us back to the first two contributors.

So, we have the outlines of a deal. There will be sharp elbows in the negotiations between employers and the state, but one can be had.

Virginians of all stripes will want the deal to be cut sooner rather than later.

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67 responses to “Fixes are Available for Nurse Shortages – Virginia Needs to Take Action in the Upcoming GA Session”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    When it comes to health care supply/demand does not work the same way as it does in markets where money comes from individual/private pockets vice coming as insurance reimbursements that are capped

    For instance, insurance, both private and govt will pay only a certain amount for a given service/procedure and that reimbursement is supposed to cover all the pieces and parts of the procedure IOW, they may not automatically increase the reimbursement just because costs have gone up whether it’s materials or labor costs.

    There may be a process where they periodically look at the costs for a given procedure and make adjustments but until they do the providers will be stuck with the older reimbursement even if they are paying more for nurses.

    What might be interesting is information about how that cost-adjustment process is done – say for Medicare since my understanding is that insurance companies use Medicare reimbursements as benchmarks.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      I remember when we used to laugh at the USSR’s Five Year Plans. Sure, they never attained any of the goals, but at least they drove looking past the hood ornament.

    2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      The state cannot affect Medicare adjustments, but it has control over Medicaid. A deal like the one I suggest is what got Medicaid expansion passed. But in that transaction, the state gave up (way too much) federal money at the negotiating table with the health systems.

      It raised payments far more than it cost the health systems for their “contributions to Medicaid expansion”, effectively making the federal government, whose 90% funding for the expanded benefits was a feature of Obamacare, reimburse the health systems far more than the health systems paid to fund the 10% state share.

      The additional profits on the deal realized by the health systems were estimated to be $1 billion dollars annually. The GA contented itself that that was federal, not state money.

      The difference in the current deal is that the GA won’t be playing with nearly so much federal taxpayer money as it was on the “one time deal” that was Obamacare. They can fiddle with Medicaid payments to teaching hospitals to pay more for nurse internships, but the state will be picking up half the costs.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        It’s complicated and I admit, I do not understand it all. So we have Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, private insurance, each with their own reimbursement policies that, as far as I know are not that sensitive to increased costs – they just do a flat reimbursement per diagnostic/treatment code that is supposed to cover all the constituent costs and I assume there is a process for updating costs every so often.

        At any rate, the reimbursement costs seem, to me, to be separate and at least somewhat removed from “shortages” – material or labor costs – at least not immediately sensitive to them.

        I’m not sure what Govt’s role should be in shortages like nursing but they surely can offer inducements like low or free tuition in exchange for becoming a nurse and/or locating to an under-served geographic area and that would seem to me to be something Youngkin could champion and probably get bipartisan GA support.

        1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          Obamacare had many features, one of which was Medicaid expansion, and another other was the healthcare “marketplaces” for those who make too much money for Medicaid and need commercial insurance. Medicaid expansion was a good thing. The exchanges proved breathtakingly expensive.

          Both involve reimbursements, Medicaid at government-set rates, the exchange policies at negotiated rates.

          The Medicaid rates that will be adjusted to help with the nursing shortage are the payments for procedures in which nursing interns participate. The state can raise those on its own.

          The insurance companies tend to pay for what benefits them and their clients. Mitigating the nurse shortages are a benefit to both. They, like Medicaid and Medicare, will raise reimbursements for procedures that include nursing interns if they see that the money is overseen by the state to increase the number of nurses.

        2. DJRippert Avatar
          DJRippert

          “It’s complicated and I admit, I do not understand it all.”

          Not letting typical citizens understand what’s going on is part of the plan.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            naw. It’s that way with many major things like education, transportation, electricity, water/sewer, cellular/internet. most folks unless they work in the field really don’t know or understand and engenders suspicion of govt and the private sector, science and institutions and even conspiracy theories.

  2. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Enact the health care profits tax. This would apply to health care provides which are classified as non-profits but make a profit anyway. For example, Inova shows an “excess of revenues over expenses” of more than $1b for 2019 and 2020. Tax it.

    https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/38555eb5-dd57-49d9-8ff6-8c026411f7ce/downloads/Inova%20Health%20System%20(VA)%202020-2019.pdf?ver=1619646707095

    1. James McCarthy Avatar
      James McCarthy

      Virtually every not for profit medical corporation, secular or religious, posts an excess of net income over expenses. Any tax on that event likely violates the deeply rooted not for profit law protecting income from taxation. Those same corporations are under mandate to provide charity health care. At the same time, they have billed for that care and referred the debt to collection agencies. Taxing NFP health care corporations will draw the fire of other NFPs like Boy Scouts, organized religion, Red Cross, United Way, to name a few. Such tax does little if anything to increase the pool of trained nurses.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        We are exceptional, but we are not unique. We gotta start looking seriously at what the 1st World countries are doing.

      2. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        “Such tax does little if anything to increase the pool of trained nurses.” Please reread Capt Sherlock’s article. His contention is that nursing schools need to pay the professors / teachers $30,000 per year more per position in order to help solve the nursing shortage problem.

        That money has to come from somewhere.

        As health care institutions have acquired other health care organizations, consolidated and vertically integrated they have become more “profitable”. This is nothing at all like the Boy Scouts.

        Taxing the “profits” of large health care conglomerates is just a method of having the employers of nurses pay to solve the problem.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          You can tax them but will it increase the reimbursements they get from insurance companies? Won’t they end up billing what is not covered to the customers, some of who can’t afford it anyhow?

          1. DJRippert Avatar
            DJRippert

            Good question. I think these mega-healthcare organizations get away with murder. COPN based anti-competition for example. And did their reimbursements decline when Medicaid expansion was implemented (and their amount of charity work declined)? They are also apparently not training nurses anymore. Ok, did their reimbursements go down?

            Healthcare in America is in a very bad position. Regulated enough to be inefficient but not sufficiently regulated to be forced to support the public good.

            Kind of like Dominion.

      3. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        One reason these BigHealth conglomerates are making so much money is because they don’t do as much charity work with the Medicaid expansion and they have stopped some of the public service work they had been doing. As Capt. Sherlock writes, “It seems that the days in which local hospitals trained nurses are gone.”

        These vertically integrated health care behemoths seem to have plenty of money for lobbyists but no money to train nurses.

      4. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        Two points:

        The Red Cross, United Way and Boy Scouts are under no illusion that they are in the same category as $10 billion per year businesses that escape taxes by claiming a public charity mission that, thanks to Medicaid expansion, no longer is the burden it may once have been. It is the highly profitable not-fo-profit businesses that are a target here.

        It is the multi-billion dollar health systems that will liken themselves to the Red Cross and other actual charities, in defense of their indefensible profit margins. If citizens believe that, they will believe anything.

        I think the numbers, the 26% of qualified nursing school applicants in Virginia turned away because of lack of teaching staff, show that the “tax”, if that is the path chosen, will do a great deal to increase the pool of trained nurses.

        1. Teddy007 Avatar
          Teddy007

          Not-for-profit hospitals fall into the same category as private universities, labor unions, think tanks, research centers that operate as non-profits. Think of Harvard University or Battelle Memorial Labs. Neither organizaion has owners and cannot hold on to large amounts of cash.

          1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            You wrote: “Cannot hold on to large amounts of cash”.

            Sentara Health, the holding company, in its latest publicly available Form 990 (2019) reported “holding on to” almost $5 billion in net assets or fund balances. That was an increase of nearly $700 million from the previous year.

            Interest payments on their bonds: less that $10 million. Investment income: $30 million

            Sentara’s CEO made over $8 million. Eight other executives made over $1 million.

            And yes, the major operating components of the holding company were each also profitable and held positive net assets/fund balances.

            So you may wish to reconsider the “can’t hold on to large amounts of cash” thing.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            so if you have two hospitals and both received the same reimbursements for given services and one of them is more profitable than the other, what does that mean? In the private sector, we’d call that a well-run company who is a significant competitor.

            In the hospital world?

          3. Teddy007 Avatar
            Teddy007

            For Reserfence https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521271901.
            And the billion in net assets are of limited use according to the auditors report along with $2 billion in physical plant.

            And how much should someone who oversees an organization with 29k employees make? The President is making less than 40 times what a nurse anesthetist makes who supervises no one and manages nothing.

    2. James McCarthy Avatar
      James McCarthy

      Virtually every not for profit medical corporation, secular or religious, posts an excess of net income over expenses. Any tax on that event likely violates the deeply rooted not for profit law protecting income from taxation. Those same corporations are under mandate to provide charity health care. At the same time, they have billed for that care and referred the debt to collection agencies. Taxing NFP health care corporations will draw the fire of other NFPs like Boy Scouts, organized religion, Red Cross, United Way, to name a few. Such tax does little if anything to increase the pool of trained nurses.

    3. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Only if they reinvest in personnel.

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        Fungibility of money is a realistic concern. That is why I favor tuition raises linked directly to faculty raises and to facility capacity increases as may be proven necessary with the additional tuition burden being offset with scholarships.

        Same with any Medicaid reimbursement increases for nursing internships.

        With state money involved, the expenditures need to be overseen by the state. So that we don’t get swimming pools and soccer stadiums from the money.

      2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        Fungibility of money is a realistic concern. That is why I favor tuition raises linked directly to faculty raises and to facility capacity increases as may be proven necessary with the additional tuition burden being offset with scholarships.

        Same with any Medicaid reimbursement increases for nursing internships.

        With state money involved, the expenditures need to be overseen by the state. So that we don’t get swimming pools and soccer stadiums from the money.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Tuition? Why? State schools shouldn’t even HAVE tuition. Let’s plant trees in whose shade we may never rest.

          BTW, that money was Fed money, overseen by the State.

          1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            You wrote: “State schools should not even have tuition”. I don’t agree, because that would shutter private colleges and universities, so it will never happen. I have chosen to deal with the world as it is.

            Most of the 81 Virginia nursing education programs, including by far the largest one, at Liberty University, are not at state schools. The scholarships not only can, but must be structured so that they can be used at any accredited Virginia nurse education program.

            For the same reason we can’t make state universities free.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            re: ” For the same reason we can’t make state universities free.”

            Interesting comment. Not sure I’ve heard it before from you.

            Do you have a view on how low public college tuition ought to be relative to the impact on private college tuition?

            Is there some balance? Maybe save it for the next college tution blog post.

          3. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            In fall 2020, U.S. degree-granting postsecondary institutions enrolled 9.8 million full-time and 6.0 million part-time undergraduate students.

            I can’t put a number on how low tuition must be in state colleges and universities to drive the private ones out of business.

            But “free” will do it.

            The Ivies and places like Stanford and Cal Tech would survive, but most of the rest would not.

            According to U.S. News, there are nearly 4,000 degree-granting academic institutions in the United States. Currently, 2,357 of them are private — 1,660 of which are “nonprofit” and 697 of which are for-profit.

            The average tuition and fees in US News’ ranked colleges in 2022-23 were $39,723 for private colleges, $22,953 for public out-of-state and $10,423 for public in-state.

            Public in-state students are already heavily taxpayer subsidized (in addition to operating subsidies, the state owns the infrastructure), as to a lesser degree are public out-of-state.

            The state colleges and universities would need to expand to cover the private ones that would close under Nancy’s new model. I cannot assess those costs.

            But the taxpayer impact of free public post-secondary education would be breathtaking. And the private schools have phenomenal lobbies and vast networks of alums on both sides of the political divide.

            So not going to happen.

            So yes, you never heard that from me before. Because it is not a subject that I thought would be raised in my lifetime. Until today.

          4. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            “$10,423 for public in-state.”

            For every person who chooses not to attend college because $42,000 tuition deters them, the State will lose $86,000.

          5. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            “$10,423 for public in-state.”

            For every person who chooses not to attend college because $42,000 tuition deters them, the State will lose $86,000.

          6. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            JMU was established as a nursing school.

            No private schools? What evidence do you have to support such a preposterous claim, especially in the face of the fact that there are private K-12?

    4. Teddy007 Avatar
      Teddy007

      The excess reveue goes into bonds and other investments to make up for the years when the system loses money. Look it up.

  3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Good summary of a major problem that does not get a lot of headlines. There is one issue that I think has been overlooked. Several years ago, I began to hear that the pressure was on for nurses to have bachelor’s degrees. It is recommended that even LPNs should have 50-55 credit hours. It seems that the days in which local hospitals trained nurses are gone. Those kinds of requirements will increase the time needed to train a nurse as well as the cost.

    The Governor is looking for ways to increase the role of community colleges in workforce development. This would be one excellent opportunity to do so. Most of the VCCS campuses have nursing programs. Provide the funding to expand the teaching staffs and to increase the pay of the staff. Maybe Bon Secours, INOVA, and Sentara would be willing to kick in some funding. There is financial aid money available for low- to middle-inome students that would make these courses either free or easily affordable.

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      This is a more complex issue than I chose to write about here, just for space. I linked to a far more definitive version of the story at https://cardinalnews.org/2022/02/18/national-nursing-shortage-highlights-challenges-of-expanding-nursing-programs/

      I chose to tell this story and my version of how it can be settled in order, hopefully, to get the attention of the administration and the GA in time to prepare legislation.

      Some things are easy, like elimination some of the relatively nonsensical regulations like the clinical internship must be within 25 miles of the school and 80% of that internship (500 hours of clinical experience) must be inside the state.

      With 81 programs in Virginia, those are hard rows to hoe for some of them. They can get waivers, but they should not have to. Those kinds of regulations need to disappear.

      I hope they choose to solve the funding problem at the source, raising tuition but offering various levels of scholarships funded by some combination of the state and the medical services providers that need more nurses.

      The Governor and the GA don’t have to get it perfect in one session. They can do things that are obvious and smooth the corners in future years.

      Finally, the nursing schools need to hire faculty that have successful experience and are good teachers. That is a tough prescription to fill.

      What the schools are offering to staff they recruit are two things 1. better life styles than bedside nurses experience and; 2. a chance to raise the next generation.

      That is a tempting offer, but it cannot represent a huge pay cut. The numbers of faculty positions are not so large that the financial commitments are unaffordable.

    2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      This is a more complex issue than I chose to write about here, just for space. I linked to a far more definitive version of the story at https://cardinalnews.org/2022/02/18/national-nursing-shortage-highlights-challenges-of-expanding-nursing-programs/

      I chose to tell this story and my version of how it can be settled in order, hopefully, to get the attention of the administration and the GA in time to prepare legislation.

      Some things are easy, like elimination some of the relatively nonsensical regulations like the clinical internship must be within 25 miles of the school and 80% of that internship (500 hours of clinical experience) must be inside the state.

      With 81 programs in Virginia, those are hard rows to hoe for some of them. They can get waivers, but they should not have to. Those kinds of regulations need to disappear.

      I hope they choose to solve the funding problem at the source, raising tuition but offering various levels of scholarships funded by some combination of the state and the medical services providers that need more nurses.

      The Governor and the GA don’t have to get it perfect in one session. They can do things that are obvious and smooth the corners in future years.

      Finally, the nursing schools need to hire faculty that have successful experience and are good teachers. That is a tough prescription to fill.

      What the schools are offering to staff they recruit are two things 1. better life styles than bedside nurses experience and; 2. a chance to raise the next generation.

      That is a tempting offer, but it cannot represent a huge pay cut. The numbers of faculty positions are not so large that the financial commitments are unaffordable.

    3. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      This is a more complex issue than I chose to write about here, just for space. I linked to a far more definitive version of the story at https://cardinalnews.org/2022/02/18/national-nursing-shortage-highlights-challenges-of-expanding-nursing-programs/

      I chose to tell this story and my version of how it can be settled in order, hopefully, to get the attention of the administration and the GA in time to prepare legislation.

      Some things are easy, like elimination some of the relatively nonsensical regulations like the clinical internship must be within 25 miles of the school and 80% of that internship (500 hours of clinical experience) must be inside the state.

      With 81 programs in Virginia, those are hard rows to hoe for some of them. They can get waivers, but they should not have to. Those kinds of regulations need to disappear.

      I hope they choose to solve the funding problem at the source, raising tuition but offering various levels of scholarships funded by some combination of the state and the medical services providers that need more nurses.

      The Governor and the GA don’t have to get it perfect in one session. They can do things that are obvious and smooth the corners in future years.

      Finally, the nursing schools need to hire faculty that have successful experience and are good teachers. That is a tough prescription to fill.

      What the schools are offering to staff they recruit are two things 1. better life styles than bedside nurses experience and; 2. a chance to raise the next generation.

      That is a tempting offer, but it cannot represent a huge pay cut. The numbers of faculty positions are not so large that the financial commitments are unaffordable.

    4. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20021016-2002-10-16-0210160235-story.html

      What this GA gives, another will take away, and so on, and so on…

      “Big whirls have little whirls,
      That feed on their velocity;
      And little whirls have lesser whirls,
      And so on to viscosity.” ― Lewis Fry Richardson

    5. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      It seems that the days in which local hospitals trained nurses are gone.

      And that is a shame. There is nothing like practical experience to educate a person quickly. Perhaps this loss could be mitigated if Virginia’s nursing schools and Virginia’s health care industry could develop a cooperative education program in which nursing students alternate one semester in school and one semester working (for pay) at a hospital/medical facility under the tutelage of practicing nurses.

      Such a program would extend the time needed to earn a nursing degree, but the time spent working at hospitals could be counted towards required internship hours. It would also give financially strapped students an opportunity to earn a bit of money to help offset their school tuition.

      Perhaps the health care providers and nursing schools could also agree to supplement the schools’ teaching faculty by having willing, and teaching-qualified, practicing nurses spend one semester a year teaching at a nursing school (at their full pay).

      Maybe there is already such a program, but I have not heard or read anything about it if there is.

    6. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      It seems that the days in which local hospitals trained nurses are gone.

      And that is a shame. There is nothing like practical experience to educate a person quickly. Perhaps this loss would be mitigated if Virginia’s nursing schools and Virginia’s health care industry could develop a cooperative education program in which nursing students alternate one semester in school and one semester working (for pay) at a hospital/medical facility under the tutelage of practicing nurses.

      Such a program would extend the time needed to earn a nursing degree, but the time spent working at hospitals could be counted towards required internship hours. It would also give financially strapped students an opportunity to earn a bit of money to help offset their school tuition.

      Perhaps the health care providers and nursing schools could also agree to supplement the schools’ teaching faculty by having willing, and teaching-qualified, practicing nurses spend one semester a year teaching at a nursing school (at their full pay).

      I think the future ‘payoff’ of such a program would be very beneficial to both the field of nursing and the health care industry – and patients, too.

      Maybe there is already such a program, but I have not heard or read anything about it if there is.

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Education was the gift we would give ourselves to be unwrapped twenty years hence, but we pawned it.

    In the 1980s and 90s, CNU had a nursing program in conjunction with Riverside Hospital. Trible killed it. Not part of his vision. Not a money-maker.

    “NEWPORT NEWS — Christopher Newport University is eliminating its nursing department and laying off 10 percent of its work force to help offset the state’s budget crisis. Oct 15, 2002”

    We are reaping the seeds of decisions made decades ago.
    https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20021016-2002-10-16-0210160235-story.html

    Hey! But the good news is they have a football team.

    1. Teddy007 Avatar
      Teddy007

      Nursing schools bring in no grants, are expensive because they require lab space and coordination of rotations at hospitals. Better to open a law school with nothing but part time faculty.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        And create more lawyers… win-LOSE

        1. Teddy007 Avatar
          Teddy007

          Nurses generally do not work as adjuncts. Lawyers do.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Hey! But the good news is they have a football team.

      CNU has a football team? I sure hope Virginia Tech doesn’t put them on their schedule…

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Fodderball team.

  5. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    JAB! JAB! Are you really, actually, gonna meltdown?

    “Simply desecrating American history just for the sake of it,” wrote right-wing pundit Matt Walsh, adding that letting Lizzo play the flute sends a “message that our heritage and history are meaningless and that nothing we love or care about has any value.”

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/lizzo-james-madison-crystal-flute-conservative-tears-1234602261/

    Maybe if it had been Ian Andersen?

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      I have no idea what your comment has to do with Virginia in general or the shortage of nurses in Virginia in particular. However, I agree with you on your off-topic complaint. What good is a flute unless somebody plays it?

      At least she didn’t accidentally drop the damn thing.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Keep it close to the top of the stack so when the inevitable “it’s our history/heritage” article pops up.

    2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      https://babylonbee.com/news/not-to-be-outdone-by-lizzo-beyonce-performs-concert-wearing-george-washingtons-teeth?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email

      1. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Nice. The Babylon Bee can be very funny.

    3. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Matt Walsh needs to calm down.

      Before this morning I did not know who Lizzo is, but from what I just read about her she is a talented, classically trained flautist who has a very successful music career in a different genre of music.

      Would Mr. Walsh be flipping out like this if, say, Billy Joel, was permitted to play the Smithsonian’s 1770 Zumpe and Buntebart Square Piano? I doubt it.

    4. Teddy007 Avatar
      Teddy007

      If one goes back through the tweets and posts of Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and the rest of the writers at the Dailywire and one will find that that insult every black or female person who comes up in politics, culture, etc except for their pets that are employed by the Dailywire.

  6. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Ouch! That stings!

    “In conclusion, the 2022 Model Policies are contrary to state law. They at best invite and at worst require discrimination that violates state and federal law. Most troublingly, they will lead to school environments that harm transgender and nonbinary students. All students should be safe, welcomed, and included in Virginia’s public schools. ACLUVA opposes the 2022 Model Policies in their entirety and demands that the VDOE rescind them, leaving the existing 2021 Model Policies in place.”

    https://townhall.virginia.gov/L/viewcomments.cfm?commentid=180425

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      Wow, the ACLUVA’s comment in its entirety needs to be posted here on BR over and over again so it really sinks in…

    2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      Wow, the ACLUVA’s comment in its entirety needs to be posted here on BR over and over again so it really sinks in…

      1. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Why don’t you ask Mr. Bacon to see if he can get permission to post the letter here as an article. I know I can look it up elsewhere (and I have) but I’d like to see the comments/discussion it would generate here.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Well, I know a “Sea Lawyer” who will go on and on complete with PPT presentation with bullet points.

      2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        It is “posted” in every newspaper in the state disguised as news.

        1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          Apparently not sinking in… yet…

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            See “sea lawyer” definition.

          2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            See troll definition.
            https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll

          3. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd69b566a49415177d87dae1e42a600553e978b4c3212ff33147415e560983f3.jpg

            Sjøtrollet (Sea Troll)- 1887 – by Theodor Kittelsen

          4. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            See “sea lawyer” definition.

            The folks at ‘Wiktionary’ should do that as well.

          5. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2e795f485eacd17aa05e9f89a297e92fd5222747628ee0e9868969170011aad.jpg

            Sea Lawyer – Artist Unknown

          6. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            That’s British Navy. Grog tankards. Splice the main brace!

            That’s a really nice illustration, tho.

          7. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            It is a nice illustration, and I wish I could credit the artist.

  7. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    The year was 1908 and aside from an overwhelming need to erect Confederate monuments and statues, someone in the GA declared, “We need teachers, nurses, and secretaries!”

    Longwood, James Madison, and Mary Washington State Schools for Women resulted.

    Well, the statues and monuments are going, but the other needs remain.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      As far as I know, there is not a single Confederate statue at Mary Washington. Wonder why that is?

      Do women’s colleges not have them?

      What about those UDC women? Didn’t they put up statues at women’s colleges?

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