Bacon's Rebellion

  • Everyone Loves Free Speech… In Theory

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin at the higher-ed summit at the University of Virginia. Photo credit: The Daily Progress

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin outlined yesterday his vision for colleges and universities in Virginia as bastions of free speech and intellectual diversity where people come together to devise solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

    “How do we ask serious questions and foster informed debate so we can get to answers?” he asked in a pragmatic defense of free speech in a keynote speech at a statewide higher-ed conclave held at the University of Virginia. The answer was implicit in the title of the event: the Higher Education Summit on Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity.

    The summit was attended by representatives, including many presidents, of every public university in Virginia and more than half of the state’s private higher-ed institutions. The end goal of the event, said Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera in introductory remarks, was for every institution to create an “action plan” to advance the goals of free speech and intellectual diversity.

    Youngkin began laying the groundwork a year ago when he addressed the Council of Presidents and pushed them toward the same goals. The Council, comprised of Virginia college and university presidents, adopted a statement endorsing free speech and intellectual diversity in the abstract. But as discussions at Wednesday’s summit made clear, there is considerable gray area in applying free speech principles in the real world. The next step is to move beyond the expression of abstract principles to putting those principles into action. (more…)

  • How Youngkin Can Avoid Lame Duck Status

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Scott Lingamfelter

    Elections produce clarity. One thing is noticeably clear after Republicans failed to achieve majorities in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly. For the next two years, the prospects for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s legislative agenda are bleak.

    That’s the bad news.

    Here is the good news: it doesn’t have to be that way.

    The inclination of those defeated in elections is to engage in “blamestorming,” seeking to find fault with this or that election strategy. We’re seeing that now as some Republican legislators grouse about the governor’s decision to emphasize abortion restrictions that played badly in some swing districts. That messaging debate should occur. But it’s imperative that the governor and the GOP in Virginia do some serious brainstorming on how to win back the hearts and minds of voters. Serious-minded governance can do that. (more…)

  • Around the Commonwealth: Local Unions and Housing Help

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Some interesting recent actions by local governments:

    Local employee unions–Many on this blog predicted that local government bodies, especially those in “progressive” urban areas would not be able to resist attempts by local employee unions to enter into collective bargaining. The City of Norfolk has demonstrated that it can and will resist. As reported by The Virginian Pilot, the Norfolk City Council this week voted 5-3 against a request by the Police Benevolent Association to enter into collective bargaining. The city council did create four “employee committees” that are to meet with the city manager. Input from those committees will be factored into council’s budget decisions.

    Helping employees buy a house–Henrico County will pay up to $25,000 for a down payment on a house for qualified county or school employees. The county has designated $2 million for this initiative. Therefore, at least 80 employees will be able to benefit.

    To benefit fully from this offer, the employee must work five years for the county. According to the county administrator, the county views this as a tool to retain employees.

    As reported by the Henrico Citizen, the program is available to first-time home buyers who have worked for the county or school system for at least year on a full-time basis.  The home to be purchased must be located in Henrico County and cost no more than $425,ooo. Furthermore, eligibility for the program is limited to employees who live in a household with income not exceeding $98,400 for two or fewer persons or $114,900 for three or more persons. The down payment provided by the county will be treated as an “interest-free, forgivable loan, and 1/60th of the balance will be forgiven each month that the employee lives in the house and remains employed by Henrico. If the employee stops working for the county or sells the house before the five-year window has ended, he or she will be required to repay the remaining balance.”

  • ‘Defund the Police’ and Other Nonsense

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    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    “Defund the police” is a stupid slogan.

    Give its proponents the benefit of the doubt, however. Maybe what they meant was return police to their core mission of protecting life and property, remove their frequent role as social worker or mental health counselor, demilitarize their responses to all but the most dangerous situations, and soften the qualified immunity defense. It’s still a stupid slogan, especially at the local level.

    “Let cops be cops” might have been a better slogan if the murder of George Floyd hadn’t stoked anti-police sentiment in so many. The more rational response might have been reforms to the concept of qualified immunity, which is roughly the idea that a police officer can’t be prosecuted for a harmful or destructive reaction if he thought he was doing the right thing. “Defund the police” seems predicated more on the idea that all police are bad or that paying them less will improve policing or that having fewer of them will reduce crime.

    The attitude behind the slogan on the left is half of a symbol of the polarization that keeps government from accomplishing anything. The other half is the anti-teacher sentiment on the right. Public safety and education are the two largest segments of any local budget. Someone once observed that a local government is a school system with a police force. In Harrisonburg, those two segments of the city budget consume 57 percent of local funding. (more…)

  • Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part Two – Black Students

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    What drew me to this story is the fact that Black students in Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) have suffered to a degree unequaled elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

    Keeping in mind the domination of Charlottesville and its schools by the University of Virginia and its School of Education and Human Development discussed in Part One, we will move ahead from there.

    CCS is a school system designed unusually with six schools for Pre-K-4, one for grades 5 and 6, another for 7 and 8, and a single high school with a couple of alternative programs.

    Map of elementary school boundaries courtesy of Charlottesville City Schools.  Author’s annotations in overlays reflect Virginia School Quality data

     

    The map above shows that the Pre-K-4 school boundaries roughly follow the city’s neighborhoods.

    Now look at the elementary school performance and attendance annotations.

    The biggest anomaly is that the gap between White and Black academic performance in CCS is an ocean. Worse than Richmond both in absolute performance by the Black students and relative to White students.

    I can find nowhere in the Commonwealth, including other college towns (and I looked), in which White and Black public-school students exist in academic disparity to the extent they do in Charlottesville.

    The Charlottesville High School riots reflect that gulf.  Buford Middle is worse.

    CCS has managed to fail those Black children in a relatively balanced student demographic of 42% White, 29% Black, 14% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 10% multiple races.

    The teachers have far more advanced degrees, most from UVa’s ed school, than the average school division.

    It just doesn’t work.

    (more…)

  • Most ‘Diverse’ General Assembly in Virginia History Takes Over in January

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    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Ken Reid

    The new post-redistricting Virginia General Assembly that will take control in January, probably with a Democrat majority, will be the most ethnically, racially and religiously diverse group of legislators in Richmond in history, and about ¼ will be female.

    In addition, some 52 of the 140 members of the General Assembly will be totally new to the State Capitol – most never having served in any elected office before.

    This make-up is largely due to the huge number of retirements from the last GA, which was primarily forced by bipartisan redistricting in 2021, where a number of incumbents were placed in the same district and chose not to run against each other for re-election.  

    Whites will be the minority in the  Democrat Caucus in each house, which also could be a first.  The House of Delegates as a whole will be 67% white,  down from 78% after the 2017 “Blue wave” elections,  when Republicans maintained control by a coin toss – and that’s because the overwhelming number of Republicans are white.

    In the State Senate, 30 of the 40 senators will be white in 2024, largely due to the Republican presence.

    This analysis, based on examining the biographies of the new GA members on Ballotpedia, shows the following breakdown, though one race (the 82nd house race between incumbent Republican Kim Taylor and Democrat challenger Kim Adams) is headed to a recount with Taylor ahead by 78 votes   (more…)

  • “Who Exactly Is the University of Virginia Protecting?”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Rector Robert D. Hardie

    by James A. Bacon

    A week ago The Jefferson Council publicly questioned the decision to withhold publication of the investigation into the University’s failure to prevent the Nov. 13, 2022, mass shooting. We were particularly perplexed by who made the decision to delay release of the report until after the trial of the defendant, Christopher Jones. The decision, announced by Rector Robert D. Hardie and President Jim Ryan, apparently was made without the approval of the Board of Visitors. (See “Will the Public Ever Get to See the Mass Shooting Report?”)

    Now, as reported by The Daily Progress, others are asking questions.

    The Daily Progress leads with the question, “Who exactly is the University of Virginia protecting?” (more…)

  • The Problem with Local Elections

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    Bob Rayner

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    I once told a candidate for Harrisonburg City Council that ten thousand people would show up to vote and more than half would never have heard of him. Referring to the expense and effort of campaigning, he asked, “Why the Hell am I doing this then?”

    The answer might be to give the voters a fighting chance. City Council actions affect day-to-day lives more than decisions made in Richmond or D.C., but the elections themselves are, if not hidden, at least subsumed into races that get more attention.

    State and federal Democratic campaigns in one three-year period, 2012-14, hired at least eight people full-time and paid 30-plus months of office rental. Even allowing for the relatively low pay (and brutally long hours) for campaign organizers, that’s somewhere north of $200,000 over that period, just on one side of the political aisle. The Republican side would be close to the same. That rough guess of $400K over three years doesn’t include state senate and delegate races at a quarter million a pop for strongly-contested races.

    City Council races bring in and spend much less money and are harder to analyze. For instance, one council candidate had the Planning Commission chair design a website for him and claimed it was a $4,000 donation. The astonishing thing about campaign finance in Virginia is how much is actually legal, not just in what is raised but in how it’s reported. (more…)

  • Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part One – Bad things Happen

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Charlottesville neighborhoods.  Courtesy Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition

    by James C. Sherlock

    In the relationship between Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, very bad things have happened to Charlottesville and continue to do so.

    I have developed a working thesis on that relationship.

    The city is at the mercy of the University by virtue of the latter’s wealth, influence, and power in Charlottesville elections.

    It is, driven by University community voters, the bluest voting district in the Commonwealth.

    Unfailingly progressive Charlottesville city council, school board and Commonwealth’s Attorney candidates are elected by the dominant votes of the University, its employees and its students.

    Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) are to a large degree creatures of the University.

    Many CCS teachers have their bachelors and/or advanced degrees from UVa’s School of Education and Human Development. Many University ed school students do their student teaching in Charlottesville.

    Every progressive educational policy and virtually every experiment the University’s ed school can dream up are visited on those students.  The University’s ed school Research Centers and Labs find the proximity convenient and a pliant school board welcoming.

    The University can’t bear to leave anything in CCS alone.

    As Charlottesville High School faces the aftermath of rising rates of violence at the school and three canceled days of school due to alack of personnel, teachers at the University and other community groups have assisted in the school’s response. Faculty from the University’s School of Education and Human Development were present at development sessions with Charlottesville High School teachers aiming to address underlying issues….

    “Dr. Stephanie Rowley, dean of the University’s Education School, said faculty from Education’s counselor education and educational psychology programs were particularly involved with the efforts because of the relevance of their expertise.”

    There is no record of their being invited.

    “Lack of personnel”.  The teachers walked out because of runaway violence.

    The University “lent a hand”.

    “In light of the University’s recent push to bolster its impact in Charlottesville, some members of the University who specialize in education attended the teacher work day meetings at Charlottesville High School.”

    Seriously.  To “bolster (the University’s) impact in Charlottesville”.

    For Black children in CCS schools, that influence, long-running and well-meaning though it has been, has turned out to have been a disaster unparalleled in the Commonwealth.

    (more…)

  • Democrats Introduce Gun-Grabbing Bill

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    from The Republican Standard 

    Along with the attempt to codify abortion, there is another radical bill being proposed by Democrats in Virginia.

    An assault-weapons ban has been filed by Fairfax-area Delegate Dan Helmer in the House and Charlotteville-area Senator Craig Deeds.

    HB 2 seeks to “make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone to import, sell, manufacture, purchase, possess, transport or transfer an assault firearm.”

    The Bill’s text defines an assault weapons ban as “a semi-automatic center-fire rifle or pistol that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material with anfixed magazine capacity in excess of 10 rounds.”

    Helmer also carried a similar bill in the 2023 legislative session.

    Republished with permission from The Republican Standard.

  • Misleading Certitude on Climate Change

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Bill O’Keefe

    The Richmond Times-Dispatch meteorologist, Sean Sublett, recently wrote an article, “What to make of the National Climate Assessment.” He makes little of it in terms of analysis, and he reposts as if the assessment is primarily fact and not scientific speculation.

    He provides almost nothing on the uncertainties that drive the National Assessment. The report treats uncertainties as scientific facts, and substantive information about the climate system is limited because uncertainties are not explicit. The long-range projections about temperature, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events are all the result of assumed emission scenarios and climate models that have proven to be too pessimistic. Since the climate is accepted as a chaotic system, it is virtually impossible to make accurate predictions absent actual knowledge of “initial conditions” which are unknown. (more…)

  • Virginia Democrats’ Minimum Wage Bill Would Wipe Out Jobs, Especially During Recessions

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    from Liberty Unyielding 

    The Democratic leaders in both houses of Virginia’s legislature have just introduced legislation that would raise the Virginia minimum wage from $12 to $15. The bill also retains provisions that make the minimum wage rise with inflation, while preventing it from ever falling due to deflation. As a result, it could rise further in real terms in the future. This minimum wage increase and further increases in the future could lead to a big spike in unemployment in the next recession.

    In a deep recession, prices may fall due to deflation, resulting in a dollar of wages being worth more than it was before. If employers can’t adjust wages to match those falling prices, they may have to lay off many more of their employees, because employers cannot afford to pay rising real wages at a time when the demand for their product is shrinking due to the recession. As Jason Lennard noted in the European Review of Economic History, “In the ‘deflationary vortex’ of the 1930s… sticky nominal wages translated to rising real wages, which resulted in mass unemployment.” Moreover, “minimum wage legislation may have contributed to stickiness by preventing nominal wages from falling.”

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From the Bull Elephant

  • Another Local Newspaper Shuts Down

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Tom McLaughlin, editor and general manager, News & Record (South Boston) Photo credit: News & Record

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    A local newspaper closing down is not really news these days. However, the circumstances surrounding the News & Record in South Boston in Southside Virginia and its shutting down are unusual. In addition, the news is personal to me.

    For as long as I can remember, the South Boston/Halifax County area has had two newspapers. The Halifax Gazette, later known as the Gazette-Virginian, was the dominant paper in terms of circulation. The South Boston News and the Halifax County Record-Advertiser were essentially the same newspaper, published by the same folks and put out on two different days of the week.

    For about a year, I delivered the News and the Record-Advertiser to houses in about half the town of Halifax on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It was the first regular-paying job I had. I have a lot of fond memories of delivering those papers, although being regularly chased by a large German shepherd is not one of them. I knew the family that bought the paper after I had gotten married and moved away. The current editor is too young for me to have known him, but I knew his older brother; his father was my midget football coach; I remember his unbelievably calm mother coming into the grocery store accompanied with a rowdy bunch of four or more kids; my wife taught one of the boys in seventh grade. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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