Tag: James A. Bacon
-
Not a Lost Decade, Perhaps, But a Lagging Decade
Old Dominion University’s “2021 State of the Commonwealth Report” provides an unwelcome, but necessary, reminder that Virginia’s economy has been lagging since 2010. While the U.S. gross domestic product grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 1.6% between 2010 and 2020 (hardly a robust performance), Virginia’s economy grew at a mere 0.7% rate. Of…
-
Virginia Migration Trends
by James A. Bacon Over the decade between 2010 and 2020, Virginia lost more than 80,000 inhabitants through domestic out-migration (a figure that captures the number of people moving across state lines within the United States). But it more than offset that loss through an international in-migration of roughly 300,000, according to data published in…
-
Youngkin’s Education Pick Signals Support for Data-Driven Reform
by James A. Bacon Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin has announced the first major appointment of his incoming administration: Aimee Rogstad Guidera as Secretary of Education. As founder and former CEO of the Data Quality Campaign, Guidera brings to the table an extensive background in the use of data to inform K-12 educational policy. In making the…
-
“Equity and Identity” Now at the Core of a Virginia Tech Education
by James A. Bacon A Blacksburg correspondent has forwarded to me a copy of the “Indigenous Peoples’ Day Resolution,” in which the Office for Inclusion and Diversity at Virginia Tech calls for replacing Columbus Day as a state holiday with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The resolution honors the Monacan-Tutelo people as the “historical stewards and traditional…
-
Incompetence and Lawlessness Alleged in the Peoples’ Republic
by James A. Bacon A bid-protest letter from the Ratcliffe Foundation and the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation to Charlottesville City Council represents more than a bid to block the melting down of Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue. It delivers a devastating indictment of a dysfunctional city government. The city removed the statue in July. In…
-
Things Fall Apart: Menchville High School Edition
by James A. Bacon Last week 17-year-old Justice Dunham was shot to death during an altercation in the parking lot outside Menchville High School in Newport News. The incident took place after a basketball game. In the version of the story given by 18-year-old Demari Batten, who was charged with the shooting, he saw a…
-
UVa’s Thought Police Have Taken Control
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia is becoming a modern-day reeducation camp where the views of faculty and staff must conform to the dictates of Leftist ideology regarding social justice issues. Not only must employees adopt the Woke rhetoric of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), they must engage in activist behavior. Between the…
-
Enforcing the New Diversity Dogma
by James A. Bacon This month University of Virginia departments embark upon a four- to five-month “peer review” of faculty members. The stakes are high. Scores from the review will affect merit raises and prospects for promotion. New this year: twenty percent of the scores will be awarded on the basis of the faculty member’s…
-
Operation Shoe Drop
Operation Shoedrop, profiled in The Daily Caller, is a brilliant protest. The sign in the picture above speaks for itself and needs no commentary. Hopefully, the U.S. Department of Justice won’t feel triggered enough to investigate. But the demonstration is not without risk. Uber-woke Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj may have grounds for prosecuting…
-
Now EMT Workers Are in Short Supply
by James A. Bacon Bedford County, an 800-square-mile county in Central Virginia, is theoretically staffed to operate six medic units. Based on call volume, the county could justify maintaining eight units, reports the News & Advance. But on most days one or two of the six are out of service because of insufficient staff to…
-
The Woke Never Rest: Public Health Edition
by James A. Bacon The forces of Wokeness are like a zombie horde. They keep coming, and coming… and coming. You might have thought that the November election that turned Virginia from Blue to Red, driven in large measure by voter revulsion to “social justice” initiatives seeping into schools, universities and every nook and cranny…
-
The Lord-of-the-Flies Generation
by James A. Bacon School districts across the country are reporting a surge of student “misbehavior” this fall as schools return to in-person learning, reports the Wall Street Journal. Educators attribute increasing disorder in classrooms and hallways to the isolation resulting from prolonged distance learning during the previous two school years. Some time ago, I…
-
A Sociological Mystery: Why Are Black Women Dropping Out of the Workforce?
by James A. Bacon Ever-alert to unexplained sociological phenomena, Bacon’s Rebellion has taken note of a just-published Brookings Institution article based on the November 2021 jobs report. Unemployment is declining for most major demographic groups — Whites, Asians and Hispanics, both men and women, and even for Black men. But the unemployment rate increased in November…
-
Add Affordability to List of Higher-Ed Priorities
by James A. Bacon Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has an opportunity to restore Virginia’s public universities as beacons of free speech, free inquiry and intellectual diversity by making strategic appointments to Boards of Visitors over the next four years. As he refines his vision for higher education, he should also prioritize making Virginia colleges and universities…