Bacon's Rebellion

  • Thanks, Loudoun County! We Needed That.

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty 

    Dear Loudoun County,

    Thanks so much for hiring Aaron Spence as your new superintendent of schools.

    Love, Virginia Beach

    Good news for those who care about returning sanity and common sense to Virginia Beach Public Schools: superintendent Aaron Spence is leaving to head up the troubled Loudoun County Public schools.

    Spence is not stupid, just incredibly woke. No doubt he realized that after last year’s school board elections he was exactly one vote away from being sacked. Why not take a high-paying job in a larger Virginia district where he’ll no doubt look terrific compared to the last guy, who was fired and is under a criminal indictment?

    The Washington Post reported in December that not only had Scott Ziegler been canned by the Loudoun County School Board, but a grand jury indicted him on criminal charges.

    Virginia special grand jury charges against former Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler and spokesman Wayde Byard were unsealed Monday. At least some of the indictments appear unrelated to the subject of the grand jury’s investigation: how the district handled two high-profile sexual assault cases in 2021.

    (more…)

  • What the Minutes Say About Public Education in Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by James Wyatt Whitehead, V

    School may be out for the summer, but the report card for the Commonwealth’s public schools is headed for the inbox. It is hoped that progress can be measured and built upon.

    School boards face a siege of ailments not likely to be cured overnight. The challenges range from pandemic-era learning loss to chronic absenteeism, falling test scores, teacher retention, bus driver shortages, expanding achievement gaps, crumbling and aged schools, declining student conduct, and a concerned public that desires better outcomes from the billions of dollars spent on schools.

    Politicians and education experts have spilled gallons of ink outlining reforms that will correct the failures of public education in Virginia and move our students in the promising direction of success and achievement. Yet none of the reforms have examined an immediate solution that is in plain sight and could be implemented for August 2023; time.

    Since there are no caped crusaders who will save the day for the coming school year, school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers, and students are going to have to use the one thing that they do have. The Code of Virginia stipulates 180 instructional days or 990 hours of instructional time. Five-and-a-half hours or 59,400 minutes must occur each day and educators should waste none of this precious commodity. A typical high school class must have 140 hours or 8,400 minutes of instructional time to qualify for a standard credit for graduation. High school credits are measured by seat time thanks to the Carnegie Unit. But this measurement was conceived in 1906 and does not measure knowledge learned. Every school board in Virginia must ask the superintendent if that time was delivered to every teacher.
    (more…)

  • Belated Bacon Meme of the Week

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    by

    James A. Bacon

  • New Jefferson Institute CEO: Derrick Max

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Derrick Max, new CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Institute of Public Policy

    The following was released this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy:

    The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy announced today that Derrick Max has been appointed the new CEO and President of Virginia’s non-partisan, free-market public policy organization.

    An experienced thought leader and advocate, Derrick Max will succeed outgoing CEO Chris Braunlich, who is retiring from full-time employment,  and assume full responsibilities on July 1, 2023.

    Derrick Max has worked at the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute and served as a staff economist on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce where he led investigations into the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Departments of Education and Labor, the National Endowment for the Arts, and AmeriCorps.  Derrick led two business organizations trying to reform Social Security and co-founded and ran Cornerstone School, a private Christian school in Southeast DC, serving low-income students for more than 23 years. (more…)

  • A Fool’s Errand Finds Takers in Charlottesville

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    As an experiment, I went to the UVa Ed School research page and searched “all topics” for “Charter Schools.” The response: “No research items found matching your search.”

    So, I expanded the search to “Charter” and got the same response.

    I then investigated what should have proven a promising lead.

    The Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE) is a unique joint venture between the highly ranked University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and School of Education and Human Development.

    Darden is involved, so it must be professional, businesslike, right? It certainly claims so.

    UVA-PLE combines the most innovative leadership advancement, practical expertise, and proven methodologies from both business and education to demonstrably improve educational and life outcomes for our nation’s students.

    “Proven methodologies” it says.

    Now take a look at “UVA Partnership for Leaders in Education – Exploring New Frontiers for K-12 Systems Transformation” published by UVA-PLE in February of this year.

    It is a 28-page word salad unblemished by any assessment of the pedagogy of charter schools, especially the most prominent and successful K-12 public school operation in the United States, Success Academy in New York City. (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Back in Vogue at UVa: Viewpoint Diversity

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Douglas Wetmore

    by James A. Bacon

    The University of Virginia leadership normally keeps its Board of Visitors meetings running on such a tightly scripted schedule that board members rarely get an opportunity to engage in free-wheeling discussion. But Rector Whitt Clement and President Jim Ryan made an exception Friday during the board’s June meeting: they set aside nearly an hour to talk about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

    Board member Douglas Wetmore, a Richmond businessman appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin, set the tone as soon as the discussion began. On paper the administration values “viewpoint diversity” along with demographic and other forms of diversity, he noted. But unlike the meticulous statistics it compiles on the racial and gender breakdown of students, faculty, and staff, he said, the university does not track viewpoint diversity at all.

    “We want a wide range of competing ideas,” Wetmore said. “One hundred percent of statistics are related to race and gender. I haven’t seen one reflecting viewpoint diversity,” he said.

    While a few board members suggested that viewpoint diversity was not a serious issue at UVa, the ensuing discussion revolved mainly around how to define viewpoint diversity, how much of such diversity was desirable, and how to measure it while respecting individuals’ right to privacy.

    The Board conversation was unprecedented at UVa, where the DEI bureaucracy dedicated to advancing the interests of “marginalized” minorities has grown to 55 employees by the university’s own count. (more…)

  • UVa’s Undergraduate Female/Male Demographics vs. Diversity, Equity and Federal Law

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    UVa President Jim Ryan

    by James C. Sherlock

    The University of Virginia measures its diversity efforts by statistics. We’ll hold them to their own standards.

    That seems only equitable.

    President Ryan has said that the demographic composition of students is easy to measure. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office, proving him right, proudly displays a Diversity Dashboard.

    All eyes, including their own, go to race.

    But we’ll look at sex. And we’ll remember the requirements of Title IX of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments.

    no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

    It is demonstrable statistically that males are woefully underrepresented in the undergraduate population of the University of Virginia at rates inexplicable by chance.

    We will examine as potential root causes the skewed demographics of:

    • the undergraduate student population on the one hand; and
    • the Undergraduate Admissions Office and Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights on the other.

    And then we will see if we can identify any other potential causes of those discrepancies.

    It won’t go well. (more…)

  • Deflating Degree Inflation

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Robin Beres

    In May 2021, The Harvard Business Review featured a column by Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Learning titled, “The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need.”

    Hansen argued that today’s education system is not equipping students “with the skills and capabilities to prepare for a career where they can obtain financial stability.”

    It’s no secret the pandemic drastically upended the American workforce. After millions of workers lost their jobs and were sent home, they began to appreciate the value of downtime and a stress-free lifestyle. So much so that many of those newly-unemployed were reluctant to return to the nine-to-five grind.

    Businesses, anxious to be up and running again, have been desperate to get warm bodies back on their payrolls and in the office. Many CEOs have come to realize that degree-inflation — requiring an often-unnecessary bachelor’s degree for entry- and mid-level positions — has been a barrier to bringing on good, hard-working men and women.

    These types of jobs can include well-paying positions such as regional managers, supervisors, support specialists, administrative workers, and countless others. While a kid right out of high school may not have the skills necessary for many of these jobs, someone who has worked in the field for five or 10 years or more usually has picked up the qualifications necessary to do the work well.

    Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined six other state governors in a trend that began last year when he announced that the Old Dominion will no longer require college degrees for nearly 90 percent of state government jobs. It will also no longer give higher preference to degree holders. Every year, Virginia state agencies advertise more than 20,000 job openings. (more…)

  • The Craziness Gets Worse

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Now I understand why so many people are opposed to DEI.  It is “an inherently un-Christian practice.”

    At least that is what some conservatives outraged at Chick-fil-A are saying as they call for a boycott of the company.  As one asserted, “you cannot hold to that position [DEI] and glorify God.”

    What seems to have set off the storm of criticism is this statement on the company’s website;

    One of our core values at Chick-fil-A, Inc. is that we are better together. When we combine our unique backgrounds and experiences with a culture of belonging, we can discover new ways to strengthen the quality of care we deliver: to customers, to the communities we serve and to the world. We understand that getting Better at Together means we learn better, care better, grow better and serve better.

    Chick-fil-A, Inc.’s commitment to being Better at Together means embedding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in everything we do.

    The website goes on to explain that it would achieve this goal by: “ensuring equal access, valuing differences, and creating a culture of belonging.”

    The company’s critics were also outraged that Chick-fil-A had hired a Vice-President, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Never mind that the company policy has been in place for many years and the vice-president had been in that position since at least 2020.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/business/chick-fil-a-woke-dei.html

    Keep in mind that this is a company that declares that its corporate purpose is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.” As part of fulfilling this purpose, the company’s stores are closed on Sundays to give their employees the opportunity to go to church.

    This country is going crazy.

  • UVa President Ryan Has “No Idea.” Golly Gee.

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    As a follow-up to yesterday’s story on the slide show for the UVa Board of Visitors on DEI at the University, I think it only fair to offer President Ryan’s preamble to that presentation.

    To summarize:

    • He cannot imagine what all the fuss is about; but
    • He assures that DEI efforts at UVa are misconstrued by critics, who he divides into two camps:
      1. those who support the goals of DEI “but are concerned about overreach threatening academic freedoms or seem designed to enforce ideological conformity”; and
      2. “one that asserts that the programs are being used to promote a stringently liberal, if not radical agenda – one that stands in opposition to merit and excellence and unfairly privileges certain groups over others.”
    • He asserts that any fair criticisms will be taken seriously; and
    • He is trying to create a level playing field.

    He asserts that:

    We ought to define the terms that comprise DEI; assess and resolve instances where DEI efforts are in potential conflict with other core values; and continually examine what is working and what is not and adjust accordingly.

    He then proceeds to define the terms diversity, equity and inclusion in a clear attempt to push critics of his DEI program, expanded enormously in a progressive attempt to “never let a crisis go to waste” in 2020, to the edges of reasoned debate.

    He professes he has “no idea where this notion” (that equity means equal outcomes) came from. This from a man whose own DEI bureaucracy publishes only statistical outcomes.

    “No idea.”

    I call this the “golly gee” approach. “Golly gee” indicates surprise, excitement or both from an innocent in the ways of the world.

    Seriously?  Spare us. (more…)

  • UVa Board Trims Next-Year Tuition by 0.7%. Big Whoop.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Responding to a Youngkin administration request for Virginia’s public colleges and universities to curb tuition increases, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted this morning to reduce a scheduled 3.7% tuition hike next year to 3.0%.

    As explained by Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis, the shaving of $5.5 million from the budget represents a “good faith” effort to comply with the administration’s request. But in response to a question, she acknowledged that it only “partially” complied.

    “This is very late in the budgetary cycle,” which closes June 30, said former Rector and the board’s financial guru James Murray. “We’re supposed to have a budget number in March. It’s very difficult in this point the year to say, ‘Go find millions of dollars.’” He described the partial rollback as “a concession to political reality.”

    In other business, the Board also approved a $5.4 billion operating budget for Fiscal 2023-24, which begins July 1. The budget encompasses the academic divisions of the University of Virginia main campus, the campus in Wise, and the UVa Health System. The UVa main campus operating budget amounts to nearly $2.3 billion.

    To an outside observer, the proceedings were remarkable — for the lack of oversight. Board input into what is arguably the most important vote of the year was inconsequential. Aside from praise for the UVa financial staff and a few requests for clarifications, board members had little to say. They offered no substantive questions. They provided zero pushback. (more…)

  • DEI Presentation at Tomorrow’s UVa Board of Visitors Meeting Attempts to Deflect the Discussion

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Tomorrow, June 2, there will be a meeting of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia.

    The University has published a preview of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion presentation to the Board.

    That presentation is designed quite clearly to deflect the conversation from the true issues.  It attempts to:

    • center the discussions on issues the university president wishes to defend; and
    • define terms in ways he wishes to defend them.

    I offer some questions and observations.

    Slide: Racial and gender diversity at UVA are relatively new – and our DEI work is even newer.  The presentation is off to a weak start. Setting the stage for the DEI discussion with race and gender is a deflection.

    For example, white students have been underrepresented in the undergraduate and graduate school populations at UVa since at least 2010 as compared to whites in the population as a whole in both the United States and Virginia. Females outnumber males in the UVa student population by roughly 60% to 40%.

    Those are facts.  They raise the question of the true reason for the recent expansion of DEI bureaucracy.

    Let’s see if we can find it. (more…)

  • Fact Checking Bill Leighty

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    In my review of Bill Leighty’s memoir, I quoted at length an incident that was supposed to illustrate Leighty’s deal-making skills, as well as how things are often accomplished in state government. One of this blog’s alert readers, “how_it_works,” pointed that the timing of the events related in the story just did not work out, thereby casting doubt on the story.

    I thought the objection was valid and serious enough to warrant investigation. Because the story involved legislation enacted in the late 1980’s and the on-line Legislative Information System does not have legislative history before 1994, I had to wait until the public agencies with the paper records opened after Memorial Day before I could do any checking. This follow-up article sets out the results of my research. (more…)

  • Virginia Democrats Have New Tourism Twist

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Olivia Gans Turner

    Recently North Carolina passed a bill to prevent abortions after 12 weeks. This new law may save many lives in North Carolina, but most abortions actually happen earlier, in the first weeks of pregnancy.

    Now Virginia Democrats are announcing their intention to make Virginia a destination state for abortions. In the upcoming 2023 elections they must hold the Senate and gain the House of Delegates in order to turn Virginia into a place where unlimited abortions are available and paid for with our taxes.

    It is tragic that the Democrats in Virginia are prepared to make Virginia a destination state for abortions-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy. It is infuriating that they have opposed every rational bill that has come out of the House of Delegates during the past two General Assembly sessions. They have even announced their desire to enshrine a permanent, unrestricted “Right to Abortion” into the Virginia Constitution.

    In polling done earlier this year by McLaughlin and Associates, 70 percent of respondents stated that abortion should only be legal under very limited circumstances, including the life of the mother or rape and incest, with reporting. Less than 5 percent of abortions are done in the U.S. for those reasons. Another 60 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions.

    Pro-life Republicans are committed to passing reasonable laws on abortion, including the bill to protect unborn babies who can feel pain and a bill to provide medical care to babies who survive an abortion. Radical pro-abortion members of the Virginia Senate, led by Sen Louise Lucas, blocked every rational pro-life bill that came out of the House of Delegates.

    Virginia Democrats are way out of step with most Virginians and are only committed to the abortion groups that fund so many of them. Abortion with no limits does not help women and it kills their babies. It is not good medicine or real health care. Tragically, it is big business in Virginia now.

    It is up to Virginia voters to stop this dangerous agenda.

    Olivia Gans Turner directs American Victims of Abortion (AVA), an outreach project of the National Right to Life Committee. This column was originally posted in The Republican Standard. It is reprinted here with permission.

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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