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A Day Which Will Live In Infamy
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Dem Shrouded in Controversy Announces Gubernatorial Run
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney from The Republican Standard
It’s official.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) is running for governor of Virginia in what’s set to become a free-for-all primary.
Stoney has courted controversy in the past as former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s chief strategist. Critics, including former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D), accuse the ambitious politician of being a hatchetman. (more…)
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Hardest Job in Virginia: Making Aaron Spence Look Good.
by Kerry Dougherty
We tried to warn you, Loudoun County.
We told you that Virginia Beach School Superintendent Aaron Spence was trouble. That he was one vote away from being sacked by the newly elected Beach school board when he decided to bolt for greener pastures. That he was a devoted wokester.
Spence was pressured to apologize. And he did, twice.The Fun Couple is your problem now, Loudoun.
Shoot, the new school year was barely underway before news broke that Spence failed to inform parents – FOR 20 DAYS – that kids were overdosing on fentanyl in one Loudoun high school. He dodged pesky reporters and television cameras with the nerve to ask why he delayed.
In short, Spence is a public relations nightmare.
So it should come as no surprise that the superintendent’s brought one of his old mouthpieces up from Virginia Beach to run interference for him.
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Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part Three – Vital New State Roles
By James C. Sherlock
A compilation from https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/data-collection/special-education I have found in 18 years of reporting on education in the Commonwealth that each school, each school division and each region is to some degree its own ecosystem.
Taking the example of chronic absenteeism, an individualized assessment of causes could be attempted:
- if a single school‘s chronic absenteeism can be adjusted statistically for differences in its demographics (race, ethnicity, economic status, English learners, IEPs, etc.) to its division norms, and
- if that school is a statistical outlier from its division good or bad.
But those are very big if’s because of the complex algorithm that would be required for comparing. And the results would apply only to that specific school.
I have sometimes compared divisions‘ statistical performances on absenteeism and SOL pass rates against state norms, but usually at the extremes. There are too many variables to sort among the bulk of them. At the division level, the variables are as great as at the school level.
Regional differences are there, but causes are hard to pin down beyond differences in demographics and cultures.
That said, and to some degree for that reason, I offer two new state roles for improving school attendance:
- marketing, which is either not now done at all or done ineffectively, to increase parents understanding of the value of school; and
- investigations and enforcement, which are done sporadically across the state. That is because of both the time and expertise investigations take and current laws that require schools to involve the court system in enforcement.
Those recommendations are not budget neutral. This is a budget year. They are tailored to draw Democratic support. The time for them is now.
Given the time necessary to prepare proposals, it will likely take a special session to address them.
The chronic absenteeism crisis, appropriately designated by the Governor, rates one.
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Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part Two – Restructure for Balanced Debates
By James C. Sherlock
Lisa Coons, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction I have watched the public sessions of the Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force.
The structure of the task force, and its proceedings, have been fatally flawed.
That panel has been dominated by the progressive worldviews of Attendance Works and FutureEd.
I offer as evidence the “resources” for the first meeting on October 24th. Every single one uses Attendance Works or FutureEd for its expert assessment.
Then consider the agenda, discussion guide and this slide deck used on November 7th to set the stage for deliberations.
Such meetings have not encouraged debate, but rather have seemed to suffocate it. The process as it exists seems destined to coronate failed progressive ideas.
Progressive pressure reached the point that a member of the panel, Dr. Keith Perrigan, Washington County Public Schools Superintendent and President of the Coalition of Small and Rural Schools of Virginia, on November 7th felt it necessary to apologize in advance for seeming to be an “ogre” to the rest of the panel.
Because he spoke in favor of enforcement of truancy laws.
The Task Force needs to change that environment and the makeup of the task force or they will get more of what Virginia has already experienced using progressive approaches: chronic absenteeism.
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Norfolk Hipsters & Lefties Try to Block a Military-Themed Brewery
by Kerry DoughertyNow is the time. If you believe that cities ought to be open for business, regardless of the viewpoints of the business owners, if you support the military and don’t consider flag-waving a provocative act, you might want to let Norfolk’s City Council hear from you.
On December 12th it is scheduled to vote on the application of Armed Forces Brewery to open its doors on the same premises that housed O’Connor Brewing in the so-called Railroad District of Norfolk.
The business was lured to Virginia by Gov. Glenn Yougnkin who helped the founders secure tax incentives to open their craft brewery in Norfolk rather than in Florida. The owners have pledged that 70% of their employees will be veterans.
Normally, that would be seen as good news in this military town. (more…)
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VCU Undergoes Intensive Self-Examination
Image from the One VCU Academic Repositioning Task Force website. by James A. Bacon
As students gravitate to degree programs in business, engineering, and health professions with better defined career paths, Virginia Commonwealth University is asking some fundamental questions. The intensive self-analysis could result in the merger of struggling departments or the creation of entirely new ones.
“The question is, are we positioned to serve the needs of our students, the needs of our faculty and the needs of our community?” Provost Fotis Sotiropolous told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The cost of attending college is up, the traditional college-age population is shrinking, and businesses are increasingly questioning the value of college degrees as employment credentials. (more…)
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Daughter of Heroines
Roanoke College women’s swim team (front row) and supporters at press conference at Hotel Roanoke, Oct. 5. (photo/Scott Dreyer) by Margot Heffernan
The year is 2023 but it feels as if the calendar has rolled back a hundred years for women and girls in Virginia, and just about anywhere else in the Western world. Hyperbolic? Over the top?
Sadly, no.
Each day women are censored, denigrated, and erased; called bigots for speaking biological fact; losing to men in female sports; redefined with terms like “chest feeders” and “uterus havers.” Violent male felons are routinely housed in women’s prisons in at least four states because they “identify” as women. And private female spaces are ceded to biological men in schools and other public places.
Virginia is a microcosm of the problem writ large. Remember the scandalous sexual assault of two Loudoun County girls over two years ago that were perpetrated by a male who gained access to girls’ restrooms. Recall the recent Roanoke College attempt to hijack the women’s swim team by allowing a man to join. Then, on September 27th, at a Turner Ashby High cheerleading event in Rockingham County, several males entered the female locker room without consent from the girls. Some cheerleaders felt compelled to change in the shower stalls or bathrooms of their female-only locker room. (more…)
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Virginia’s News Deserts
Virginia has lost 23 local newspapers since 2005 — a decline of 23%, according to a report by Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Seven counties have no local newspaper; 93 have just one, and most of those are weeklies, reports Axios-Richmond in summarizing the report. Gannett and Lee Enterprises own 36 newspapers that don’t employ any local staff at all, publishing “ghost newspapers,” publications compiled by off-site corporate staffers, says Axios. — JAB
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Stuck in the Secretary’s Office
Andrew Wheeler, Director, Office of Regulatory Management by Dick Hall-Sizemore
The Youngkin administration is sitting on regulations needed to implement important legislation enacted by the General Assembly in 2020. The delay constitutes a violation of that law.
In its 2020 Special Session, the General Assembly expanded the grounds for decertifying law-enforcement and jail officers. The background of this legislation was described in detail on this blog in a previous article, so there is no need to repeat that information here.
The legislation required the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), under the direction of the Criminal Justice Services Board (CJSB), to adopt statewide professional standards of conduct for law-enforcement and jail officers. The timeline set out in the legislation would have required the standards of conduct to go into effect by mid-December 2021, two years ago. DCJS missed the deadline. The CJSB approved the regulations on June 16, 2022. The Attorney General certified the regulations on Aug. 2, 2022. The Department of Planning and Budget completed its review of the economic impact of the regulations on Aug. 22, 2022. The regulations have been under review in the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security’s office since then—470 days, more than a year and a quarter. (more…)
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The Governor’s Chronic Absenteeism Task Force – Part One – Failed Advice
Lisa Coons, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction by James C. Sherlock
Governor Youngkin, in response to the real crisis in our schools, has established a Chronic Absenteeism Task Force led by the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Task Force is supported by the non-profit Attendance Works.
Attendance Works so dominates VDOE’s Attendance & School Engagement page that it can be deemed a key component of the home team.
That organization has teamed with FutureEd to write an updated Attendance Playbook (Playbook). The version at the link is a post-Covid update of an earlier edition that has been followed by VDOE in policy development since at least 2015.
The resulting complex and school-resource-heavy multi-tiered approach to improving attendance has proven inadequate to the task.
- Using a baseline year of 2015-16, chronic absenteeism among all students statewide did not decline in a statistically significant way under the new program;
- Group-to-group ratios and gaps in absenteeism statistics remained the same; and
- Absenteeism rates doubled together for all groups after COVID.
A compilation from https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/data-collection/special-education Home team policies have failed.
That is possibly because no Playbook policies provide evidence for improving attendance that has met the standards of the federal Department of Education’s (DOE) Institute of Education Sciences (IES) What Works Clearinghouse (WWC).
Which is DOE’s home team.
The rigorous standards of WWC are required by DOE guidance Using Evidence to Strengthen Education Investments (Using Evidence) for a reason.
“The Department emphasizes the use of evidence-based activities, strategies, and interventions (collectively referred to as “project components”) in the design of education programs from pre-kindergarten through adult education.”
“The Department’s WWC uses rigorous standards to review education research, offering evidence of effectiveness on a wide range of project components.”
“Organizations should select project components that are supported by the most rigorous evidence
available, consider the needs of the learner population being served, and consider the ability and
capacity of the organization to implement.”They work.
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Musical Chairs
Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), Speaker-designate by Dick Hall-Sizemore
One of the most potent powers of the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates is the assigning of members to committees and designating the chair of each committee. He has sole prerogative over this important function.
Speaker-designate Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) has broken a little with tradition (in addition to the other ways he is a “first”). In the past, a Speaker would wait until a day or two after the Session had convened to release the committee appointments list. In recent days, Scott has been releasing the names of committee chairs, one by one. Perhaps he is hoping to get some publicity for the new chairs, but, so far, the press has taken notice of only one, Sam Rasoul of Roanoke.
These are the chairs named so far:
- Sam Rasoul (Roanoke)–Education
- Vivian Watts (Fairfax)–Finance
- Patrick Hope (Arlington)–Courts of Justice
- Jeion Ward (Hampton)–Labor and Commerce
- Mark Sickles (Fairfax)–Health and Human Services
- Luke Torian (Prince William)–Appropriations
With one exception, none of these appointments is a surprise. (more…)
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Williamsburg Street Festival Engages in Ugly Antisemitism
by Kerry DoughertyA monthly street fair in Williamsburg is making national headlines for all the wrong reasons: over the weekend news broke that the organizers banned a rabbi from a menorah-lighting ceremony. Unless the rabbi would light the candles under a banner demanding a ceasefire in Israel, that is.
Which raises the question, what is WRONG with the organizers of 2nd Sunday Art and Music Festival in Williamsburg?
These fairs feature about 150 musicians, artisans and entertainers and until now appeared to steer clear of controversy.
Rabbi Mendy Heber of Chabad Williamsburg said he had already been a part of the festival, offering loaves of challah as a vendor, and that plans for the menorah lighting were suddenly scrapped last month.
According to Heber, the planning for the original event to be held Dec. 10 was well underway when organizers abruptly reversed course in November, informing him that they would not move forward.
“We had started the discussion and they showed extreme interest and excitement in moving forward with it” until they pulled back, he said. (more…)
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Slasher Ordered to Reimburse Medical Bills of his Victim
by Kerry DoughertySeveral things strike me about this crime and restitution story out of Patrick County.
First, after Larry Puckett nearly stabbed Justin Hawkes to death in the fall of 2019, Mr. Hawkes incurred about $120,000 in medical bills.
Because the injured man was indigent, Medicaid stepped in and negotiated the price down to $22,000.
If this former English major’s math is correct that’s just under 20% of the original bill.
Does this suggest there’s some padding in medical bills? You bet it does. In fact, receiving any medical procedure is a lot like buying an airline ticket. Everyone on the flight pays a different amount for the privilege of squeezing into a tiny seat and arriving at the exact time. Some folks spent a fortune for their tickets. Others got a cut-rate price.
Same goes for medical bills, although many of those are accompanied by an emergency that leaves no time to shop around for a better price.
Face it, medical care is a racket. Dare to ask why that Tylenol they gave you in the hospital cost 15 bucks and you’ll get a verbal tsunami of indignation and gibberish. Just pay it, they say. You have insurance.
In this case, according to the Virginia Mercury, the judge ordered Larry Puckett to repay Medicaid for the injuries he inflicted on Mr. Hawkes once he completed his prison sentence:
Puckett was convicted by Patrick Circuit Court of malicious wounding. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with eight years suspended, and ordered to complete five years of probation and pay … the cost of the medical services as restitution. The restitution was to be paid in $50 increments each month following his release from prison.
I like it! (more…)
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While Harrisonburg Slept, a Gadfly Arose
by Joe Fitzgerald
Laura Dent is not a stupid person. She’s probably an honest person. But those aren’t qualifications enough to help run a city. You also have to know what’s going on. Frankly, she’s missed that boat a couple of times.
Two issues I’ve written about repeatedly are uncontained school growth, which the Harrisonburg City Council has ignored, and Bluestone Town Center, where a majority of council members, including Dent, believed every flimsy rationalization from the Mississippi developers while dismissing without comment the measured, statistical, scientific objection by the citizens of Harrisonburg.
That last part is not surprising. Dent may live in the city, but too often she seems to be representing ideas and ideologies that are out of sync with the city. If the good of the city or the good of her ideology are at odds, it’s fair to ask which she’d choose, and it’s obvious which she chose in her votes in favor of Bluestone Town Center.
There’s one thing ideological leftists have in common with the MAGA people, the Tea Party people, or whatever we’re calling them this year. They’re so certain of their positions that they meet any opposing ideas with dismissiveness, hostility, or bafflement. To Dent’s credit, she usually goes with the latter. (more…)
