Bacon's Rebellion

  • It’s Baaaack!

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Photo credit: The Schilling Show

    Hira Azher, the fourth-year student who posted a large “FUCK UVA” sign on the door of her Lawn residence last year, may have graduated, and the University of Virginia may have implemented measures to ensure that messages and displays on Lawn doors comported with the dignity of the Lawn and Rotunda as a World Heritage site, but the “FUCK UVA” sentiment is alive and well. Hector Terrazas Valencia, resident of room 49, has painted the words, “FUCK UVA !!! (respectfully)” on a panel of his door.

    To prevent the ugly proliferation of leaflets and profanely expressed political sentiments in an architectural gem that attracts many visitors, UVa officials are requiring Lawn residents to confine their verbiage to message boards fitting in the door panels.

    Hat tip: The Schilling Show.

  • Another Sign of the Education Apocalypse

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    James A. Bacon

    Source: State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

    by James A. Bacon

    Tom Allison, a staff analyst with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has uncovered quite the conundrum. How does the Commonwealth reverse the plummeting rate at which low-income students are completing the Free Application for Federal Student Assistance (FAFSA) form?  The free-fall in applications, which are necessary to qualify for federal financial aid to attend college, could presage a decline in actual college attendance.

    Nationally, FAFSA completions are down 4.4% from this time last year. Virginia under-performed the nation, with completions down 4.9%, writes Allison in a new SCHEV publication, Insights, which draws upon SCHEV’s in-depth data collection to inform policy making.

    What really concerns Allison is the fact that at Title 1 schools (schools with high concentrations of low-income students) in Virginia FAFSA completion is down 22.3% — three times the national average for Title 1 schools.

    “Virginia’s low-income students already enroll in college at lower rates, and these data indicate they are likely to fall further behind,” he writes. (more…)

  • Let Me Get This Straight…

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    COVID ID cards

    by Paula Harkins

    Let me get this straight. I’ve got to show a valid ID to dine out or take a spin class… but not to vote?

    A growing number of Virginia businesses, restaurants, and venues are requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination and a photo ID to enter. Richmond was the first Virginia locality to mandate vaccination of its state employees, including those who telework. Private organizations across the state are requiring their employees to be vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test regularly, often at the cost of the employee. D.C. venues like Kennedy Center and Lincoln Theater require vaccination proof or a negative COVID-19 test along with a matching photo ID to attend live shows. Gyms such as Equinox and SoulCycle are requiring proof of vaccination to enter and workout at their facilities. The SoulCycle Standard states, “When it came down to putting new safety measures in place, we went above and beyond the guidelines.”

    Fairfax County’s “COVID-19 for Businesses, Organizations and Employees” webpage states, “Vaccines are good for SALES: As people begin to return to a new normal way of life and revisit their favorite places, knowing that the people who work at the establishments they frequent is reassuring.” (more…)

  • Nantucket Wind Suit May Have Virginia Echoes

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

    by Steve Haner

    First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. 

    A group of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts residents have filed suit challenging the pre-construction environmental review on a massive offshore wind complex planned off its shores. The issues raised may have a direct impact on the similar wind energy project planned off Virginia Beach, which is only now beginning its environmental impact process. (more…)

  • Sorry, Educrats, the SOL Numbers Are Truly Dismal

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    James A. Bacon

    An apples to oranges comparison? No such luck, it’s all apples to apples.

    by James A. Bacon

    The Standards of Learning pass rates for Virginia public school students were grim this year, showing declines of  20 to 25 percentage points in history, math and science from the 2018-19 school year. English reading and writing pass rates weren’t as poor, but that’s in large measure because the State Board of Education had reduced the cut score — the number of correct answers required to get a passing grade.

    Don’t make too much of the numbers, warned the Virginia Department of Education. In past years 99% of Virginia students took the SOL exams. This spring, due to lingering fears about COVID-19, participation declined to the 75%-to-80% range. Therefore, concluded the VDOE in its press release today, “making comparisons with prior years would be inappropriate.”

    That is a fair point. If the “smart kids” were more likely to drop out of testing for some reason, that could have biased the results downward. Conversely, if the poor performers were more inclined to skip the exams, that would imply the opposite.

    So, let’s take a closer look. Is the VDOE’s cautionary statement justified? (more…)

  • 2020-21 SOLs: the Racial Gap Widens

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    James A. Bacon

    Here is a pro forma breakdown of Standards of Learning pass rates by race and subject. I say “pro forma” because these numbers do not reflect the fact that one-fifth to one-quarter of public school students failed to take the test in the 2020-21 school year. Adjusted numbers might prove to be even more dismal, although I am too early in my analysis to suggest that is, in fact, the case.

    Two things are abundantly clear. First, test scores fell across the board — all races and all subjects. Second, the racial gap widened. As anyone could have predicted, test scores among Asians fell the least of any racial/ethnic group — although the decline was big enough to be profoundly discouraging. Pass rates for whites fell significantly more, while pass rates for Blacks and Hispanics went into free-fall.

    A 34% pass rate in math SOLs for Blacks is nothing less than catastrophic. It is difficult to imagine how thousands of Black students can ever recover from this setback. (more…)

  • SOL Test Scores Collapsed In 2020-21 School Year

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    How bad are the Standards of Learning test results for the COVID-afflicted 2020-21 school year? They’re so bad that the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) press release announcing the results didn’t mention bare-bones numbers until the seventh paragraph, and even then it provided no basis for comparison to the previous year, 2018-19, in which the tests were given.

    The results were so bad that the press release didn’t summarize the results in a table, as it has every year previously. Instead, it provided a link to VDOE’s “Build-A-Table” database for readers to figure out themselves.

    The results were so bad the press release alluded to the widening racial/ethnic gap in pass rates but provided no numbers, as VDOE always has in the past.

    The 2020-21 school year might well have seen the greatest regression in learning in Virginia history.

    Rather, the VDOE press release amounted to a lengthy exercise in deflection and blame shifting. It attributed the dismal scores to the “extraordinary circumstances” of the COVID epidemic and the “disruptions to instruction” that followed from school closing across most of the state. (more…)

  • You Gets What You Pays For

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia’s prison system is short 1,500 correctional officers. Turnover has increased to 25% a year, much higher than the average 15% church for other state agencies. And the situation is getting worse as remaining employees work double shifts and come in on days off. The shortfall is worst in urban areas where there is more competition for jobs.

    Those numbers come from testimony by Harold Clarke, head of the Department of Corrections, Wednesday in a legislative committee meeting. So reports The Virginia Mercury.

    Manpower shortages make conditions less safe. Working longer hours impairs performance and lowers attention rates.

    Clarke proposes raising starting salaries for correctional officers from $35,000 a year to $44,000. By comparison, Virginia State Police start troopers at $47,000 a year, while most regional jails and sheriff’s office start at more than $40,000 a year. Clarke says his plan would cost $70 million, an increase of more than 5% to the department’s $1.3 billion operating budget. (more…)

  • Virginia Leads Nation in Distributing Rent-Relief Funds

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia has done a better job than any other state in distributing its share of $46.5 billion in federal COVID-relief aid to renters, according to Treasury Department data published in the Wall Street Journal. Virginia has gotten 53% of its dollars into the hands of renters and landlords compared to 10% nationally.

    Over the past four months alone, Virginia has distributed $235 million to nearly 35,400 families.

    The program is administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Chesterfield County runs its own program, accounting for $7.9 million in distributions, as does Fairfax County, which has  passed out another $4 million, according to Treasury Department data. 

    In contrast to the abysmal job of getting unemployment insurance payments to out-of-work Virginians, the distribution of rent relief appears to be a Northam administration success story. (more…)

  • Redistricting: Say You Want Nonpartisanship?

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    (Author’s note: The following is the first of several articles on the redistricting process that is underway in the Commonwealth. There is a lot going on that merits discussion, but it is my sense that relatively short articles, as opposed to long ones with lots of detail, are more appropriate for the blog.  The reporting and comments are based on numerous reports, with links at the end of the articles, as well as on hours of listening to, and watching, the recorded meetings of the full commission and one of its subcommittees.)

    The Virginia Redistricting Commission has been preparing since January to draw the Commonwealth’s new Congressional districts, as well as the districts for the state Senate and House of Delegates. I wish that I could say “I told you so,” but it is worse than I feared.

    A quick background summary would probably be helpful in refreshing everyone’s minds For many years, Republicans in the General Assembly had resisted calls to hand redistricting over to a nonpartisan commission. Then, in the 2017 elections, they lost 15 seats in the House of Delegates, shrinking their previous 32-seat margin to two seats (and one of those they got literally through the luck of the draw). Sensing the likelihood of additional losses in 2019 and thereby putting Democrats in control of redistricting in 2021 and being able to do to them what they had done to Democrats in 2001 and 2011, Republicans proposed a constitutional amendment in the 2019 Session that turned redistricting over to a commission. The amendment passed the 2019 General Assembly with a lot of Democratic support (the vote in the House on the final bill was 83-15). (more…)

  • UVa’s Ideological Litmus Test — “Diversity Statements”

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    In the fall convocation ceremonies at the University of Virginia this week, President Jim Ryan said many things that once upon a time would have been considered unremarkable. The purpose of a UVa education, he said, is to pursue the truth. The search for truth is unending, and progress toward the truth is predicated upon free speech and open inquiry. UVa is a place for honest and respectful conversations between those who disagree, Ryan said. UVa is a place where civil dialogues can take place.

    An alumnus in the audience, Bert Ellis, was reassured by Ryan’s words. Ellis is president of The Jefferson Council, a group dedicated to upholding the Jeffersonian legacy at UVa that has catalogued the suppression of free speech and expression and the drift toward intellectual conformity, and he was primed to be skeptical.

    “All in all, I liked his remarks,” says Ellis. “I was pleasantly surprised by his references to and respect for Mr. Jefferson and his legacy and with his very strong support for open dialogue and for the Honor System. I hope his actions over the upcoming school year will be as strong as his words.”

    Indeed, words are one thing, and actions are another. While Ryan supports free speech and expression in the abstract, deans and department heads are enforcing a social justice dogma under the banner of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in their hiring policies. Job prospects are subject to what can only be called a DE&I litmus test. (more…)

  • Uh, Oh, Now Conservation Easements Are Racist

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    There’s a lot of talk in the environmental community about “environmental justice,” but here in Virginia, nearly all of the $1.8 billion spent on land conservation over the past two decades mostly benefited well-to-do white people. That observation doesn’t come from me (although it sounds like something I would say). It comes from Matthew Strickler, Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources.

    More than 30% of conservation easements have gone to land conservation in five counties — Loudoun, Albemarle, Fauquier, Culpeper and Orange — all of which have Black populations below the 19.9% state average.

    “In fairness, rural areas are where the land is, and many rural areas have lower minority populations,” Strickler said. “But rural places like the Eastern Shore, western Hampton Roads and some parts of Southside Virginia have higher than average African American populations and are not even in the top 10 localities.”

    Environmentalists have engaged in racial bean counting whenever it suits their purposes. Most visibly in recent years, foes of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline made a racial issue of a compressor station that Dominion Energy proposed to locate in what turned out to be a predominantly African-American community in Buckingham County. With this new report, the racialization of statistical disparities has turned around to bite environmentalists in the ass. (more…)

  • Wilder’s Take on the McAuliffe-Youngkin Race

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    L. Douglas Wilder. Photo credit: Wikipedia

    by Chris Saxman

    Yesterday I spoke with former Governor Doug Wilder regarding the recently released poll by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School on the 2021 governor race.

    That conversation is one that I will remember for a very long time in that here’s a former governor who, at the age of 90, is still actively engaged in Virginia politics because he honestly just gives a damn about the future of the Commonwealth.

    Good on him.

    When he picked up the phone for our interview, I naturally asked him:
    Governor, how are you today?

    Without missing a beat came the upbeat and wise reply:

    I woke up! It’s a good day!

    My favorite quote from the interview was this:

    Truth is not partisan. (more…)

  • Mercy for Another Cop Killer

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    What is it about politicians and their affection for cop killers?

    Here in Virginia, former Terry McAuliffe appointee Parole Board Chair Adrianne Bennett (now a judge in Virginia Beach) led the board in springing convicted cop killer Vincent Martin during a freeing spree that sprung a number of violent criminals.

    Martin was serving a life sentence for the execution of Patrolman Michael Connors during a traffic stop in 1979. Both the murderer and his victim were 23. One man’s life ended that night on a Richmond street. Another is a free man today. Thanks to the soft-heartedness of Bennett and the board she headed.

    Now, as one of his final acts as governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo has granted clemency to five criminals, including David Gilbert, a member of the domestic terrorist group The Weather Underground, who was sentenced to 75 years to life for the infamous 1981 Brink’s Robbery. That bloody crime left two police officers and one security guard dead. Gilbert will be referred to the state parole board to be freed. (more…)

  • Millionaire vs. Millionaire

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Terry McAuliffe. Photo credit: The Virginia Star

    This article was published originally in Style Weekly.

    by Peter Galuszka

    Call it a tale of two campaign stops.

    Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin picks a small office building in a working-class part of Emporia, a Southside town where Amtrak passenger trains no longer stop. It is chiefly known for stock car driving and speed traps given its proximity to the North Carolina border.

    Democratic candidate and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s choice is the parking lot of Port City Brewery in a middle class neighborhood of Alexandria lined with modest red brick houses of the type built by the thousands after World War II.

    Glenn Youngkin

    Seem similar? They are and they reveal strategies that both candidates must follow if they are to win what seems to be a close race Nov. 2.

    Both neighborhoods are modest and might play to voters who may or may not favor former President Donald Trump. How they choose might mean the election.

    McAuliffe already seems to have wrapped up rich suburbs that have voted predominately Democratic for the past 12 years. Youngkin, a Harvard-trained financial expert who has Trump’s endorsement, needs to lure more undecided from more varied areas. (more…)

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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