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Recent Posts
- Greedy Cities and Speeding Ticket Chicanery
- TJ High School Falls From 1st to 14th Place
- Freebees Aren’t Free
- Extensive Plagiarism Alleged for UVA PhD Dissertation
- Some Rural Localities Hit With Big Jump in Local Composite Index
- The Budget Do-Over: A Game of Chicken?
- Jason Miyares–Judicial Activist?
- State Legislatures Control Budgets — Virginia’s More Than Most
- Jeanine’s Memes
- Bacon Meme of the Week
- Ready for Taxes on Netflix, NFL Sunday Ticket?
- Keffiyehs, Yarmulkes and “Belonging” at UVA
- Public School Enrollments Still Declining
- The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper
- Diamonds Aren’t Forever
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper
A story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch sums up the state of media coverage in the state’s capital city. The city of Richmond is considering entering into an agreement to move the city’s Department of Social Services into the Richmond Times-Dispatch building. The agency will occupy three floors of the four-story building. The newspaper staff will occupy the other floor. A newspaper operation that needed four floors at one time to house its staff now needs only one floor. The newspaper does not even own the building that has its name on the front. It was sold to a private investor four years ago.
What the School-Discipline Meltdown Looked like in Newport News
A special grand jury investigating a six-year-old’s shooting of a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News has released its report, and the findings are almost as horrifying as the shooting itself.
The grand jury indicted Richneck’s assistant principal Ebony Parker on eight counts of child abuse. It is the first time, suggests The Washington Post, that an administrator has been charged in connection with a school shooting.
While Parker’s inaction was surely inexcusable, the breakdown in safety runs far deeper than the negligence of a single school official. The behavior of Parker and other individuals reflects institutional dysfunction, which in turn reflects deep-rooted attitudes in the educational profession and society at large.
These dysfunctions and attitudes, I suggest, are endemic throughout most of Virginia’s public education system. They are reflected in widespread reports of violence against teachers all around Virginia, especially in school districts where “progressive” ideology is dominant. Abigail Zwerner, victim of the six-year-old’s attack, may be the only Virginia school teacher to have been shot in recent years, but hers is no isolated instance of violence. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
A Flood of Budget Amendments
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Well, Gov. Youngkin has not carried through on his veiled threat to veto the entire budget–yet.
Instead, he has proposed more than 230 amendments that would get rid of the expansion of the sales tax to digital services that the General Assembly passed, along with an extra $1 billion in expenditures that would have been funded with that additional revenue. (Source: Cardinal News.)
To really get a sense of what new spending he is proposing to reduce or eliminate, one would need to laboriously construct a detailed spreadsheet or database. I will wait for the analysis that the staff of the money committees produce. They are likely working on it now.
Two quick observations:
1. Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax), the Senate Majority leader, in responding to the governor’s actions, relied on a common misconception regarding the Virginia budget. Worrying about packaging amendments that cut revenue with amendments that change spending, he speculated, “You’ll end up having a constitutionally unbalanced budget, which would be illegal.”
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing in the state constitution that requires the General Assembly to pass a balanced budget. What the constitution does is put the responsibility on the governor to execute a balanced budget. Article 10, Section 7 requires that the “Governor, subject to such criteria as may be established by the General Assembly, shall ensure that no expenses of the Commonwealth be incurred which exceed total revenues on hand and anticipated during a period not to exceed the two years and six months period established by this section of the Constitution.”
It would politically irresponsible and risky for the General Assembly to pass a budget bill that was purposely unbalanced, but there is no constitutional prohibition on its doing so. The constitution does require, however, that the governor clean up whatever mess the legislature may create by doing so. (This is one of the many things that Ric Brown, the long-time deputy director and director of the Dept. of Planning and Budget and Secretary of Finance, taught me.)
2. I am so glad that I am retired and did not have to experience the grueling hours that the DPB staff had to put in over the last few weeks to develop these amendments.
Prison Population Down, Crime Up in 2022. Coincidence?
The population of Virginia’s state and federal prisons posted a 10.5% decline between 2021 and 2022 — the largest drop of any state, according to new Department of Justice data. Oregon saw the second largest decline at 5.2%. Many states saw increases in their prison populations, as reported by WRIC news.
The total prison population for Virginia in 2022 was 27,162. The numbers do not include inmates of local jails.
The fall-off in prison population was especially marked among females — 18%. The DOJ report did not break down state-by-state prison populations by race.
With the exception of drug offenses, which declined, the crime rate per 100,000 population increased in almost all categories in 2022, according to the Virginia State Police “2022 Crime in Virginia” report.
— JAB
Another City Hall Fiasco in RVA
by Jon Baliles
City Hall suffered another self-inflicted artillery wound last week when within a span of four days they were sued for allegedly violating state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, pledged a stout defense against the claims, and then announced they would be changing the way City Hall handles FOIA requests.
Translated, the city will pivot back towards the old FOIA system they replaced just last year with their new “centralized” system that has been so successful it has led to numerous violations (or just ignoring) FOIA requests, multiple media stories detailing the failures, and several lawsuits that had to be filed in order to get information that should be easily available.
Call it Meals Tax Fiasco, Part Deux. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
New Admissions Policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Will Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the appeal of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson challenging the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the changes in the admissions policy for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The result is that the changes in the school’s admission policy adopted by the Fairfax County School Board in 2020 will stand. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented from the decision not to grant certiorari. (Their dissents begin on page 30 of the linked document.)
This issue has been discussed extensively on this blog. For some background, see here.
Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12), Uncategorized