Bacon's Rebellion

  • May Day Brings Virginia’s Labor Revolution

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    “Liberty Leading the People,” Eugene Delacroix.

    by Steve Haner

    Four major changes in Virginiaโ€™s labor laws delayed at the beginning of the COVID-19 recession will all take effect May 1. All were approved by the 2020 General Assembly once Democrats controlled both legislative chambers and then delayed at the 2020 Veto Session. May Day 2021 is almost here.

    Minimum Wage. The 31% increase in the stateโ€™s minimum wage, from $7.25 to $9.50 per hour, will have the broadest impact. House Bill 395ย andย Senate Bill 7 also raised the hourly minimum wage to $11 eight months later, on January 1, 2022, and to $12 a year later on January 1, 2023.ย  (more…)

  • In 2019, 34% of Virginiaโ€™s Black 4th graders Could Not Read – Mississippi Offers Hope

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj


    by James C. Sherlock

    Since 2013, Mississippi has made unprecedented, best-in-the-nation improvement in the academic achievements of its children starting as measured in nationwide testing. The improvements were especially pronounced in 4th graders who benefited directly from its 2013 literacy law.

    I have done a deep dive into those results and traced them back to public policy.ย  There are actionable lessons for Virginia school districts seeking improvements in the literacy of their students.ย Mississippi has far better school literacy laws, and a markedly better Board of Education and education strategic plan than Virginia. ย 

    Fundamentally, Virginia is going in a different direction than Mississippi in terms of child academic achievement because the Governor, the General Assembly and Board of Education want it that way. It is simultaneously going in a different direction in measures of child academic achievement. (more…)

  • Minority Businesses Decry Northam Gaming Restriction

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Minority small business owners operating under the name โ€œVirginia Small Businesses for Skill Games” are calling on Governor Ralph Northam to amend legislation to keep the game terminals in bars, restaurants and convenience stores. Casinos, which are years away from opening in the four localities where they have been approved, have lobbied to eliminate the slot machine-like terminals which would compete with their franchises. (more…)

  • Northam School Policy: The Gendered Majority Must Accommodate the Tiny Transgender Minority

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    When Virginians voted for mild-mannered, middle-of-the-road Ralph Northam for governor in 2017, they had no clue that he would preside over the most sweeping transformation of public education since the end of Massive Resistance. Even while students were suffering from a catastrophic loss of learning due to the COVID-19-driven shift to online instruction,ย the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) preoccupied itself with implementing Critical Race Theory. Now, we learn, the Northam administration also has been busy figuring out how to restructure public schools around the needs of transgender students.

    The VDOE has issued a document describing “model policies” for the treatment of transgender students in Virginia’s public schools. Two conservative groups have filed suit to halt implementation of the guidelines. Not surprisingly, The Washington Postย has disparaged these organizations, noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified one as a “hate group” and that the other, the Family Foundation of Virginia, among other crimes against humanity was originally founded to oppose sex education.

    Karl Frisch, an LGBTQ member of the Fairfax School Board, described the lawsuits as “a mean-spirited attempt to turn the clock back on equality in Virginia. “Our students deserve better than bigotry and hate.”

    The litigation, said Northam spokesperson Alena Yarmosky, “is beyond the pale.”

    So… Anyone who defends social norms that have prevailed for 2,000 years and objects to faddish constructs that have popped into the popular culture in just the last few years is a bigot, a hater, and engaged in behavior outside the bounds of acceptable discourse. (more…)

  • Broken Windows

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Maybe itโ€™s time to admit that bicycle cops high-fiving gangbangers isnโ€™t the best way to protect the public at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. I mean no offense to the police officers who patrol that wild 10-block area. They have a tough job.

    Itโ€™s time we let them do it.

    For years, the city tried to play nice with the unruly crowds that congregated on the resort strip on warm nights. Business owners and restaurateurs complained and tourists with children found the atmosphere intimidating. Yet city officials deliberately downplayed the bad behavior.

    Letโ€™s just call these โ€œleadersโ€ what they are: violence deniers.

    I mean, who will ever forget this headline from the May 2, 2018 Virginian-Pilot:ย โ€œDespite Multiple Shootings, College Beach Weekend Was โ€˜A Calm Atmosphereโ€™ City Says.โ€ (more…)

  • Virginia Will Mandate and Hold Retirement Savings

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Click here for more information on the California state-run retirement fund that inspired the Virginia legislation. Source:ย  Georgetown Center for Retirement Incentives.

    by Steve Haner

    Next weekโ€™s reconvened General Assembly session will decide whether only full time employees of Virginiaโ€™s small businesses will be pushed into a new state-sponsored retirement savings plan, or part-time workers will join them there.ย  (more…)

  • Big Brother Has Been Curtailed

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Photo credit: New Castle News

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    A recent TV series, Person of Interest, centered on the ability to use large databases of personal information coupled with extensive audio and video surveillance to identify any individual and pull up extensive data on that individual. A small team of good guys used this capability to identify threats to individuals and help the threatened individual escape harm. An extensive network of bad guys seized upon the technology to dominate the world. The good guys, of course, tried to stop the bad guys.

    That may sound a little futuristic, but it exists today. The Chinese government has built an extensive facial recognition system which it uses to persecute minority populations and intimidate its general population.

    The United States has not gotten to the level of the Chinese, but law-enforcement agencies have made extensive use of face recognition technology. For example, police departments in the state of Florida have been using it for a couple of decades. (more…)

  • Shhh! Don’t Ask! COVID-19 Equity Analysis Is for Governor’s Eyes Only

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Carol J. Bova

    The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) blog posted March 16 that the department and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) would open community vaccination centers in Danville, Portsmouth, Petersburg and Prince William. โ€œThe sites were selected after the Virginia Department of Emergency Management conducted an equity analysis to determine the communities with the largest number of vulnerable populations and communities with the largest percentage of vulnerable population and greatest COVID-19 impact.โ€ (See Steve Haner on March 26.) I sent a FOIA request to VDEM for a copy of the equity analysis.

    While waiting for the VDEM reply, I wrote on Baconโ€™s Rebellion March 17 that VDH should target vaccination efforts to neighborhoods with high rates of poverty where COVID-19 risk factors were most likely to be found rather than basing the sites on VDHโ€™s flawed virus statistics of racial demographics.

    I received a response from VDEM denying my request. (more…)

  • The UVa School of Education Provides Exclusive Analysis for State Early Childhood Education Policy

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    UVa Ed School

    by James C. Sherlock

    Sometimes thumbing through the state Budget Bill, HB1800 (Enrolled), one finds something other than what one is looking for.

    I was examining the Education budget, and specifically theย Department of Education, Central Office Operations,ย Item 137,ย Instructional Services (18100).

    That is where the massive infusion of federal COVID education dollars are found. The instructional services budget increased from $32 million in FY 2021 (ends Jun 30, 2021) to almost $263 million in FY 2022. The increase is all federal dollars and all for Program Administration and Assistance for Instructional Services (18102).

    Readers know I am a graduate of the University of Virginia, but sometimes that causes me some discomfort. This is one of those times. (more…)

  • Does Loudoun CA’s Anti-Mass Incarceration Policy Mean More Battered Women?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Buta Biberaj. Credit: Virginia Star

    by James A. Bacon

    Loudoun County, which still manages to elect Republicans to office on occasion, now vies with Arlington County and the City of Charlottesville for the title of the Berkeley of the East Coast. Over and above a super-woke school board which is implementing critical race theory in classrooms, Loudoun in 2019ย electedย a super-progressive commonwealth attorney, Buta Biberaj.

    A signatory member of the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, Biberaj is dedicated to ending “mass incarceration,” and one means to do that is to reduce the number of prosecutions for domestic violence.

    In recent budget work sessions, county supervisors cited a statistic that out of 735 cases, Biberajโ€™s office dismissed 491, reportsย The Virginia Star. By another count,ย as her office shifts from prosecution to counseling as a tool to deal with domestic violence, Biberaj is bringing only 8% of cases to trial. (more…)

  • What the New Racism Looks Like

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    My generation was inspired by the words of Martin Luther King to judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. I have tried my best to live up to that standard personally and to impart it to my children. In raising my son, I never mentioned race. I thought it a meaningless attribute. It wasn’t until he was seven or eight that our son even took note of racial differences. One day he asked in idle curiosity, “Do you think there are more dark-skinned people or light-skinned people in the world?” He had not yet learned the racial classifications that Americans use.

    Apparently, that’s a retrograde attitude. Peoples’ racial identity has become a matter of all-consuming importance. Pretending that racial differences don’t matter when systemic racism prevails, according to Critical Race Theory, is just another form of racism.

    Those thoughts came to mind when I watched the video above, in which a Loudoun County school teacher badgers a student into labeling two women in a photo by their race. (more…)

  • Richmond โ€œBleeding Heartโ€ Released Killers From Supervised Parole

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Meet one of Virginiaโ€™s most notorious murderers: Joseph Giarratano. If his name isnโ€™t familiar, it may be because you werenโ€™t in Virginia — or Norfolk — in the late 70s and early 1980s.

    On February 4, 1979 Giarratano strangled and raped a 15-year-old Norfolk girl, Michelle Kline, and stabbed her mother, Toni Kline, to death in their apartment. Two days after the crime, Giarratano turned himself in to authorities in Jacksonville, where he confessed to the killings.

    He confessed several more times, but later recanted.

    Giarratano was convicted and sentenced to die, but in 1991 Gov. L. Douglas Wilder commuted his sentence to life in prison.

    By then Giarratano had become the darling of the set-em-free celebrity set, who championed his innocence. Yet Giarratanoโ€™s conviction stood.

    But in 2017 Virginiaโ€™s Parole Board – chaired by Terry McAuliffe-appointee Adrianne Bennett – decided Giarratano had spent enough time in prison and they paroled him. (more…)

  • Virginia’s Ideological Litmus Test for Teachers

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Hans Bader

    Can a state punish its school teachers for not having a progressive ideology? That’s what Virginia’s Board of Education appears to be doing. Its newly adopted “performance standard” for teacher evaluations is based on whether a “teacher demonstrates a commitment to equity and provides instruction and classroom strategies that result in culturally inclusive and responsive learning environments and academic achievement for all students.”

    This standard is full of buzzwords and ideologically-charged phrases that can be used to punish conservative teachers or reward bad teachers for mouthing politically-correct platitudes. Its adoption will make it even harder to get rid of bad teachers and attract good teachers.

    A “commitment to equity” sounds nice until you learn that “equity” means something very different from equality and non-discrimination, in “Virginia’s Roadmap to Equity.” In that book, “equity” is about racial “outcomes,” and it is not about equal “opportunities” or achievement based on “ability.” It describes “culturally responsive educators” as those who fight “injustice,” not just “racism,” or effectively teaching minority children. (more…)

  • Relaxing Restrictions on Pharmacists

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Under a bill signed by Governor Ralph Northam today, pharmacists will be able to provide a wider array of services to adults such as writing prescriptions for the flu, administering COVID vaccines, and prescribing controlled substances for HIV. A separate bill signed into law will expand the scope of practice for physician assistants.

    โ€œItโ€™s long past due for us to eliminate barriers for people to get basic care,โ€ said Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, who submitted the bills. โ€œPharmacists and physicians assistants are health care professionals who can and should be able to provide basic services. For people who donโ€™t have a primary care provider, this will make a huge difference when it comes to treating basic illnesses.โ€ (more…)

  • Will Fairfax Schools Become Ungovernable?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Having previously prohibited several forms of physical restraint to control disruptive students, the Fairfax County School Board approved in December a policy that banned seclusion — isolating students in a place where they are physically prevented from leaving. As an alternative, teachers would use conflict resolution, de-escalation, and prevention.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    For starters, the school system promised to train staff on alternative approaches to dealing with highly disruptive students. But now that students are returning, post-COVID, to school buildings, staff training has been limited to online sessions, reports Inside NoVa.

    But that’s a temporary problem. Eventually, staff will receive better training. Here’s what can happen when you mainstream students with severe emotional-control issues:

    โ€œThe fact is, when it takes five of us to even physically keep a student in an area that’s safe, then that’s not worth the injury to staff,โ€ special education teacher Cheryl Sandford told Inside NoVa. โ€œNo one is going to stand there and just get bitten or hit repeatedly, or be given a concussion because a chair was thrown at their head.โ€ (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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

About

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.

Fund the Rebellion

Shake up the status quo! Your contributions will be used to pay for faster download speeds and grow readership. Make a one-time donation by credit card or contribute a small sum monthly.

Can’t wait until tomorrow

For your Bacon’s Rebellion fix?

Enter your email address to receive immediate notifications of new posts by email.

SUBSCRIBE

Search Bacon’s Rebellion

Categories

Archives

The Jefferson Council

Protecting Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy at the University of Virginia

Forgot Your Password?

Shoot me an email and I’ll generate a new password for you.

Latest