Tag: James Sherlock
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Storm-Related Flood Mitigation – A Louisiana Example for Virginia
by James C. Sherlock I have worked for at least ten years — many of those with now-Attorney General Miyares when he was my delegate — to get Virginia to step up to the Louisiana model for flood control. Louisiana. The Louisiana model is a state-federal partnership in which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…
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Fix One Thing — School Physical and Electronic Security
by James C. Sherlock I offer an apolitical suggestion. We know how to begin to fix school security. Do it. Step 1. Every school division has a security instruction. How many of them monitor whether that guidance is being followed? I will let them answer that. Step 2. The more complete solution is deployment of…
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Personnel Shortages that Plague Virginia’s Health Facilities Inspection Staff in the Hands of Budget Negotiators
by James C. Sherlock One of the most important responsibilities of Virginia state government is to inspect medical facilities and home care providers to ensure we are safe when we enter their care. It continues to fail in that responsibility thanks to years of Virginia budgets that have consciously ignored the need for increased inspector…
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Progressive Takeover of Educational Institutions – Virginia PTA Edition
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Times Dispatch published an article on Sunday about a Virginia PTA (VAPTA) conference at Atlee High School in Mechanicsville. Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera spoke to the attendees about the administration’s recent education report. That report assessed that Black and Hispanic students from impoverished families had entered COVID with major…
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Two News Organizations Report on the Youngkin Administration Initiative to Improve K-12 Outcomes
by James C. Sherlock I submit for your review two articles about the report of the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction, “Our Commitment to Virginians”. The first is by Sarah Rankin of the Associated Press. The other is by Hannah Natanson of The Washington Post. Both review the same report. Both are presented as news…
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Virginia Supreme Court Gives Hope to Competitors of Regional Healthcare Monopolies
Is the Virginia Antitrust Act now in play? by James C. Sherlock There is good news this morning for those of us hoping for more competition to regional healthcare monopolies in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court (the Court) overturned the decision of the State Health Commissioner to deny the application of the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center…
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Richmond Public Schools, VSU, VUU Teacher Residency Initiative is Promising
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Public Schools RVA Men Teach program has partnered with Virginia State and Virginia Union Universities to create a HBCU (Historically Black College/University) Teacher Residency program for male minority teachers. As a long time observer and sometime critic of RPS, I congratulate it and the two universities for this initiative.…
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A Seat at the Table — State and Local Advisory Boards in Virginia Need Ideological Balance
by James C. Sherlock One of the opportunities offered by investigative journalism that is denied to the average citizen is to observe appointed government advisory boards in action. It has been enlightening, but almost always disappointing. The way the members of appointed boards are generally selected in Virginia is an artifact of a political spoils…
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Relentless Promotion of Transsexuality in Children – Fairfax County School Board Edition
by James C. Sherlock Family Life Education – Board of Education Guidelines and Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools, updated in 2020 by a famously progressive Virginia Board of Education, requires: A plan for teaching sensitive content in gender-separated classes shall be announced publicly. Current Fairfax County School Board Regulation 3204.9 Effective 09/15/2020 requires both elementary…
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Why Not Virginia for Semiconductor Manufacturing Expansion?
by James C. Sherlock Among the things that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made clear is the vulnerability of Taiwan and with it, the access of the U.S. economy to the 90% of advanced computer chips manufactured there. The national security requirement for domestic chip manufacturing brings opportunity. It is the nation’s most urgent…
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Charter School Lessons for the Youngkin Administration from the New York Times
by James C. Sherlock Probably surprising to many of my readers, one of the newspapers to which I subscribe is The New York Times. Another is The Washington Post. Of the two, the Times demonstrates far more balance in its reporting. Not opinion – reporting. Times education writers, direct witnesses to the astonishing achievements of…
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What are We Doing to Ourselves with the Criminal Justice System?
by James C. Sherlock I will share a press release this week from the Justice Department. Convicted Felon Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Identity Theft, and Firearm Offenses We’ll try to figure out at what point we lost our minds about law enforcement.
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A New Virginia Charter Schools Policy – Recommendations for Success
by James C. Sherlock My articles about charter schools draw passionate comments. Proponents argue what they are trying to achieve with charters. Opponents argue what they want to avoid. Fair enough. There is wisdom in both positions. So, how does Virginia structure a program that supports successful charters and both denies and closes unsuccessful ones?…
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Biden Mounts a Direct Attack on America’s Most Successful Schools for Poor Minority Children
by James C. Sherlock This is pretty cringeworthy, even for the Biden administration. We have new rules for federal funding for new and expanded charter schools that are demonstrably racist. They uniquely disadvantage the poorest minority students because charter schools are proven to help them learn better than any other option. But the rules…
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George Orwell Call Home
by James C. Sherlock This blog, while proudly based in individual research, often offers controversial ideas. Uniform agreement is not expected. Debate is encouraged. We learn from one another and even occasionally change a few minds on both sides. Yesterday the Biden administration announced the establishment of a federal “Disinformation Governance Board” in the Department…