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What
a difference a veto makes.
Now
that the governor has vetoed estate tax repeal,
centerpiece of the Republican agenda, he has been
rehabilitated by no less a personage than R.
H. Melton of the Washington
Post. Melton
reported that Democrats now see a “more
self-assured chief executive and party leader.”
The
vote during the one-day veto session will be an
important test of Warner's leadership, but on a
purely partisan level -- and also for bigger
budgetary reasons -- he has already won. Warner has
drawn a bright line between his Democratic
administration's fiscal restraint and a Republican
majority determined to deliver a major tax cut smack
in the middle of Virginia's worst budget crisis.
Jeff
Schapiro
of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch doesn’t want Warner to take any
chances. He
urged the governor to make the case that his veto is
the patriotic thing to do during wartime.
Poor
Rhoda
Elliott, president of Bill’s Barbecue and a
first-hand observer of the estate tax in action, was
probably swimming against the tide with her op-ed in
the Times-Dispatch
supporting repeal.
Nanny
of the Highway
After
an outpouring of support for restoring funding to
VDOT’s Safety Service Patrol, James
Simpson of the Potomac
News gave the other side:
The
fact is, when government attempts to act like a
nanny there are unintended adverse consequences.
While the Virginia State government is trying
address the demands of various special interest
groups, tasks that are part of its core mission are
neglected.
Having
the state provide this type of service not only
alleviates a motorists' responsibilities, but it
discourages folks from becoming a member of AAA or
patronizing a towing company or service station,
thereby making it yet another government program
that damages the private sector.
For
good measure, Simpson also opposed funding for
wildflowers on highway medians.
College
Corner
The
Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ decision to
establish a race and gender-blind admissions policy
has spawned an enormous outcry.
A.
Barton Hinkle of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch called a Roanoke
Times editorial criticizing the new policy as
“sophomoric.” Many
arguments in favor of racial preferences rely on the
fact that “legacy” preferences exist, but Hinkle
cut the legs out from under that position by
opposing legacy preferences, too.
Meanwhile,
Virginia Tech Emeritus Professor of Chemistry John
Mason dished some dirt on the Board in the Roanoke
Times and a real sophomore at the university, Jana
Renn, asked, “When did equality become such a
bad thing?”
No
SOLs in Our Name?
Marc
Fisher
of the Washington
Post alerts us to a new phenomenon: parents
boycotting standardized testing. In some New York
State jurisdictions, up to 60 percent of parents
kept their children at home during state tests in
2001.
Why
such antagonism to tests? Most boycotters don't mind
the concept of standardized tests -- they're part of
how we measure performance in this society. What
they object to is the effect testing is having on
America's classrooms.
"Testing
is reducing the quality and quantity of the
curriculum," says Mickey VanDerwerker,
president of Parents Across Virginia United to
Reform SOLs. "It is driving spending into test
prep materials and away from high-quality
resources."
Virginia's
SOLs will become a barrier to graduation next year.
Thus far, resistance to the tests has been
"quiet, with some parents keeping their
children home on test days," VanDerwerker says.
But "as students and schools move closer to
state-mandated consequences, it is likely that
resistance will become more direct and more
focused."
If
students do show up for their tests, they
shouldn’t get to use calculators, according to
substitute teacher Robert
Terry in the Roanoke
Times.
--
March 31, 2003
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