Tag: James A. Bacon
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Home Values and School Quality
by James A. Bacon It has become commonly accepted wisdom that a leading cause of poverty in Virginia is the phenomenon in which affluent citizens use their superior buying power to move to school districts with the highest quality schools. The poor, who have little buying power, are stuck in the worst school districts and…
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RIP: Ed Risse
by James A. Bacon Readers of Bacon’s Rebellion in the early days may remember Ed Risse, a long-time contributor to the blog (and its predecessor publication, a biweekly newsletter). Ed, who was 84, passed away a week ago from injuries sustained from a fall. Ed, whose idiosyncratic byline was E M Risse (with no periods),…
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What Impact Did COVID Have on the SOLs?
by James A. Bacon Most Virginia news media duly reported the release of the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) data showing the biggest collapse in pass rates in the history of the SOLs. Most accepted the Northam administration’s spin that the decline was due mainly to COVID-19-related disruptions, and that Virginians should not read too…
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UVa as Petri Dish for COVID-Fighting Policy
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia is engaging in an interesting real-world experiment in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. UVa’s must-vaccinate rule for students is similar to policies at almost every other university in Virginia and many employers as well. But UVa’s COVID tracker, which is updated daily, provides a finer-grained insight…
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It’s Baaaack!
Hira Azher, the fourth-year student who posted a large “FUCK UVA” sign on the door of her Lawn residence last year, may have graduated, and the University of Virginia may have implemented measures to ensure that messages and displays on Lawn doors comported with the dignity of the Lawn and Rotunda as a World Heritage…
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Another Sign of the Education Apocalypse
by James A. Bacon Tom Allison, a staff analyst with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has uncovered quite the conundrum. How does the Commonwealth reverse the plummeting rate at which low-income students are completing the Free Application for Federal Student Assistance (FAFSA) form? The free-fall in applications, which are necessary to…
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Sorry, Educrats, the SOL Numbers Are Truly Dismal
by James A. Bacon The Standards of Learning pass rates for Virginia public school students were grim this year, showing declines of 20 to 25 percentage points in history, math and science from the 2018-19 school year. English reading and writing pass rates weren’t as poor, but that’s in large measure because the State Board…
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SOL Test Scores Collapsed In 2020-21 School Year
by James A. Bacon How bad are the Standards of Learning test results for the COVID-afflicted 2020-21 school year? They’re so bad that the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) press release announcing the results didn’t mention bare-bones numbers until the seventh paragraph, and even then it provided no basis for comparison to the previous year,…
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You Gets What You Pays For
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s prison system is short 1,500 correctional officers. Turnover has increased to 25% a year, much higher than the average 15% church for other state agencies. And the situation is getting worse as remaining employees work double shifts and come in on days off. The shortfall is worst in urban areas…
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Virginia Leads Nation in Distributing Rent-Relief Funds
by James A. Bacon Virginia has done a better job than any other state in distributing its share of $46.5 billion in federal COVID-relief aid to renters, according to Treasury Department data published in the Wall Street Journal. Virginia has gotten 53% of its dollars into the hands of renters and landlords compared to 10%…
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UVa’s Ideological Litmus Test — “Diversity Statements”
by James A. Bacon In the fall convocation ceremonies at the University of Virginia this week, President Jim Ryan said many things that once upon a time would have been considered unremarkable. The purpose of a UVa education, he said, is to pursue the truth. The search for truth is unending, and progress toward the…
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Uh, Oh, Now Conservation Easements Are Racist
by James A. Bacon There’s a lot of talk in the environmental community about “environmental justice,” but here in Virginia, nearly all of the $1.8 billion spent on land conservation over the past two decades mostly benefited well-to-do white people. That observation doesn’t come from me (although it sounds like something I would say). It…
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Map of the Day: College Acceptance Rates
If you’re applying to one of Virginia’s four-year colleges, you stand the best chance of being admitted if you come from a non-metropolitan area, judging by this map compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project on the basis of recently published State Council of Higher Education for Virginia data. The odds are best of all…
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Bacon Bits: Follow Ups
Facebook face plant. On more than one occasion, I have complained on Bacon’s Rebellion that Facebook had blocked advertisements promoting the blog on the social media platform. I conflated the restrictions with the de-platforming experienced by other conservative outlets. I can now report that after a brain-numbing exercise, that Bacon’s Rebellion is now qualified to…
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What’s the Best COVID Metric — Vaccinations or Antibodies?
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia has “disenrolled” 49 students who had registered for fall classes but failed to comply with the school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Another 184 temporary waivers were granted to students who have had trouble getting vaccinated, according to The Washington Post. University officials say that fewer than one percent…