Month: July 2021
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The Impact of English Language Learners on Virginia Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock We will briefly discuss here English learners in Virginia schools and the enormous impact they have. They truly offer to enrich the experience of all kids in our schools, but they need a lot of help and there are a great many of them. There were 104,411 English learner students enrolled in…
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How Not to Treat a Conservation Easement
The Commonwealth needs to tighten up its system for granting and overseeing conservation easements, the Virginia Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) has found. One of three conservation-easement properties visited by OSIG auditors did not meet Conservation Value Review Criteria adopted to provide for quality conservation value. The inspectors saw “trash, old tires, scrap…
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Making Money from Cultural Cleansing
by Carol J. Bova Richmond business owner Devon Henry is best known for his role as owner of NAH, LLC, for procuring a $1.8 million contract from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to take down Richmond’s Confederate statues. While Stoney’s handling of the contract outside the normal procurement process became a political liability — a special…
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Slow Service: The New Normal
by Kerry Dougherty We waited at least 20 minutes after we were seated to place our drink orders. Another 15 to get our cocktails. Another 30 for appetizers (cups of soup) and another 30 for our entrees. It was so late when we finished, we skipped dessert. Welcome to the “new normal” in dining out:…
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J.D. Vance, the “Childless Left” and the Commonwealth of Virginia Education Elite
by James C. Sherlock J. D. Vance, the author of the acclaimed biographical work “Hillbilly Elegy,” is a candidate for the Republican nomination in Ohio to replace retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman. I haven’t studied that Senate race, and don’t have a favorite, but Mr. Vance has raised an issue for our time. He has…
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Confederate Statues and Judicial Fiats
by James A. Bacon The Roanoke County Courthouse is located, oddly enough, in the independent city of Salem. Nearby, within the sight of the courthouse, there stands a statue of a Confederate soldier in front of a building owned by Roanoke College. The college would like to remove it, but the statue is situated on…
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Recidivism: The Rest of the Story, Part 1 — How Large Is It?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Recently, Governor Northam issued a press release applauding the Department of Corrections’ (DOC) most recent recidivism rate of 23.9% and noting it was one of the lowest in the country. All that is true and is highly commendable, but, as Paul Harvey used to say, “Now, for the rest of the story.”…
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How Bad Are Virginia Public Schools’ Personnel Shortages?
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) maintains a job board for itself and for school districts seeking personnel of all sorts. It shows about 1,6oo openings, but some of the postings are more than two years old. And the real number is somewhere around 7,000. It is useless. Apparently VDOE, in…
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“Let Them Die” Redux
by Asra Nomani Harry Jackson, the first Black president-elect of the PTSA at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, stood before a crowd of parents here at Luther Jackson Middle School last week to oppose the divisive ideology of critical race theory that has put forward flawed policies in K-12 schools across the…
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The Governor, General Assembly, VDOE and the Lenin Doctrine
by James C. Sherlock “J. Out of this appropriation, $120,000 the second year from the general fund is provided for the Department of Education to develop and implement a pilot program to more comprehensively supervise school division compliance with a subset of key standards by requiring (i) the submission of more comprehensive compliance information, (ii)…
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Another Bit of Nonsense in the Cost of Health Care
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I just had an experience that illustrates the bewildering complexity of the finances of the American health care system. Yesterday, I had a colonoscopy. I’m a veteran of this procedure, having had several because there is a history of colon cancer in my family. (No polyps this time, by the way.) The…
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How Hillsboro Reinvented Itself… with Government Grants
by James A. Bacon Hillsboro in western Loudoun County is a rural success story, reports The Washington Post. Over the past couple of years, the town of 120 has transformed its main street, a 0.7-mile stretch of Route 9. The addition of sidewalks made the community’s main drag inviting to pedestrians after having been rendered…
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It’s Official: Patrick Henry Has Been Canceled
by James A. Bacon Under intense pressure from the Virginia State Board of Community Colleges, the board of the Patrick Henry Community College, named after the founding father, has changed its name to Patrick & Henry Community College. The new name reflects the college’s commitment to Patrick County and Henry County, two of the localities…