Bacon's Rebellion

  • Daniel Invokes Honor Code to Clean up UVa’s Lawn

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Aubrey M. Daniel III, author of two widely read letters critical of the University of Virginia administration for its handling of the controversial “F— UVA” sign posted on the door of a Lawn resident, has issued a third, which he says will be his last.

    Following the advice of university counsel, Rector James B. Murray Jr. and President Jim Ryan said that any move to take down the offending sign would violate the Lawn resident’s right to free speech. Daniel responds in this letter that all signage on Lawn room should come down because all of it violates the contractual terms signed as a condition of residency.

    Addressing the letter to Murray, Daniel argues that Ryan and the board have failed to preserve the Lawn in accordance with its status as a UNESCO world heritage site, that Ryan has failed his fiduciary duties to the university, and, most controversially, that the authors of the “F— UVA” sign and other detritus applied to Lawn doors are guilty of honor code violations for their failure to live up to contractual obligations, incurred when they became Lawn residents, to “enhance the general reputation and good name of the University in the eyes of the public.”

    Here follows the letter: (more…)

  • A Challenge to the University of Virginia Ed School on the Teaching of K-12 Black Children

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I provided an extensive review in this space of the latest book by Dr. Bettina Love, an assistant professor in the education school of the University of Georgia. She advocates separate but equally funded schools for black children and a radically revised curriculum unique to black children.

    Dr. Bettina Love

    Readers can see in that review the details of her analysis of the problems in the education of black children in American schools and her incomplete but radical prescriptions for fixing the problems she assesses.

    The University of Virginia, my alma mater, brought this woman to my attention by paying Ms. Love to keynote a symposium, not for University faculty or students, but sponsored by the Education School for working K-12 teachers in Virginia.

    That, when combined with similar content in many courses at the University, constitutes an endorsement of Ms. Love’s views, not a hearing of them by the University.

    I believe that Black parents in Virginia will reject Ms. Love’s views root and branch by very large margins.  Which in turn will raise the question of why is the University doing what it is doing.

    So I offer a challenge to the University.

    Fund a reputable polling organization:

    1. to accurately portray Ms. Love’s views as she states them; and
    2. survey Black parents of children in public schools in Virginia to find out if they agree or disagree.

    Then publish the results, even if some at the University may think they do not know what is best for their children.

  • New Business Starts in Virginia by Jurisdiction 2019

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    With the interest shown in my last post, I think it will prove interesting to this audience to see the distribution of business starts by political jurisdiction in Virginia along with some data to ponder.

    The preparation

    I have put together a spreadsheet sourced from the census bureau, and then added the 2019 census population of each jurisdiction to that spreadsheet.

    I then divided the population of each jurisdiction in 2019 by the business starts in each jurisdiction in 2019 to come up with a measure of the intensity of business starts in each jurisdiction.

    Then I added the median household income of each jurisdiction.

    The results might surprise you, might not.  Especially remember these are only snapshots of partial data.

    (more…)

  • Study Says Virginia School Segregation Getting Worse, Contradicting Its Own Data

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    “School segregation by race and poverty is deepening in Virginia,” asserts the opening line of a just-published study, “School Segregation by Boundary Line in Virginia.”

    The study proceeds to show no such thing.

    While it is beyond dispute that de facto segregation persists, especially in inner-city school districts, the study provides no data to support the conclusion that the separation of races is intensifying. Indeed, the authors concede that black student enrollment has declined in urban school districts and increased in suburban districts — thus moving from highly segregated to less-segregated schools.

    The main trend in school enrollment over the past decade has been a decline in the percentages of whites and blacks and an increase in the percentages of Hispanics and Asians.  (more…)

  • COVID-19 Peaks in SW Virginia, No Cause for Panic Elsewhere

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    James A. Bacon

    COVID-19 surge in Virginia’s Southwest region. Source: Virginia Department of Health.

    by James A. Bacon

    Spread of the COVID-19 virus is gaining momentum as the weather cools, and news reports from around the country are raising the alarm that hospitals are at risk of being swamped by a fresh surge in patients. Here in the Old Dominion, the situation is reaching a “crisis point” in far Southwest Virginia, according to the leading hospital system, Ballad Health.

    So, how bad are things getting? Are we experiencing a re-run of the spring when public policy was driven by panic that the United States might see a repeat of the hospital overcrowding in Italy and then in New York City?

    When viewed from a statewide level, there appears to be no imminent threat of hospitals getting overwhelmed. According to the latest Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association data, hospitals are treating 1,313 patients confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19. That compares to 3,063 inpatient beds available, and another 3,695 additional beds licensed under Executive Order 52. (more…)

  • Capitalism Transcends the Best Efforts of the Universities to Kill It

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    sherlockj

    Adam Smith, the Muir portrait at the Scottish National Gallery

    by James C. Sherlock

    We have chronicled here the broad and deep attacks on capitalism by the socialist and Marxist clerisy led by academics and their students in the media. The attacks are bitter and utterly relentless.

    There is hopeful news.

    PBS outlets all over the country yesterday published an article titled “The Unexpected Boom in Startups.”  After the election it apparently is safe to publish such news.

    Separately, the Census Department found that Virginia, year-over-year, in a week-to-week comparison with 2019, saw increases in 2020 in business applications of 44.5% (week 44), 38.7% (week 43), 32.7% (week 42) and 36.3% (week 41). Week 44 of 2020 was Monday, October 26 – Sunday, November 1.

    Entirely unsurprisingly, the same Census Department report, when interrogated for regional results, showed the bulk of these gains were in the politically reddest regions of the country. New York, Washington and Oregon were in the 20% range. California 33%.

    States of the old South like South Carolina (68.2% ), Georgia (62.4% ) Mississippi (89.6% ) and Louisiana (73.3% ) as well as Pennsylvania (61.2% ), Ohio(60.9% ) and Montana (83.3% ) have led the charge.

    Newly majoritarian Democrats haven’t had time to ruin the business climate in Virginia, but they’re working on it. (more…)

  • COVID, Telecommuting and Urban Renewal

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    James A. Bacon

    Riverfront Towers. Photo credit: Richmond BizSense

    Just a year or two ago, the big momentum in commercial real estate markets was for businesses to relocate facilities from the suburbs to the metropolitan core. Young people wanted to live and work in or near Virginia’s downtowns, and corporations followed the talent. The City of Richmond snagged one prestigious tenant after another. One of those was healthcare logistics giant Owens & Minor, which in 2017 supplemented its suburban Mechanicsville headquarters with a 90,000-square-foot lease in Riverfront Tower downtown.

    Now, reports Richmond BizSense, Owens & Minor has pulled the plug on its downtown call center and is seeking tenants to sub-lease the space.

    The reason? The company has shifted office workers to remote work in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Employees have adapted well to the work-from-home setting.

    “As 2020 progressed, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled us to reevaluate our call center operations. The performance of our call center teammates in the work-from-home era has been spectacular, and the teammates requested that we carry that new business model into the future. We have recently made the decision to exit from our call center location in downtown Richmond,” the spokeswoman said. (more…)

  • Northam: Messaging, Not Mandates

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    James A. Bacon

    Northam during an October press conference. Image credit: Virginia Mercury

    Despite a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, hair-on-fire national media coverage, and the imposition of tighter restrictions in neighboring Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., Governor Ralph Northam is holding steady with a relatively light regulatory regimen for Virginia. As the Virginia Mercury puts it today, “Northam is stressing messaging — not mandates — to curb rising COVID-19 infections.”

    Good for Northam.

    After some missteps early in the epidemic, the governor appears to have struck a reasonable balance between slowing the spread of the coronavirus and keeping the economy open. Northam is asking Virginians to exercise personal responsibility. Wash hands, wear masks, and limit gatherings. (more…)

  • Reality Check: COVID Forecasts and Cases

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    James A. Bacon


    by Carol J. Bova

    Since mid-April, 2020, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has reported weekly on information from the University of Virginia (UVA) Biocomplexity Institute COVID-19 Model and RAND Corporation. One aspect of these reports is a forecast of weekly cases; another gives date ranges as to when regions are estimated to exceed hospital surge capacity.

    Week after week, adapted scenario after adapted scenario, the reports kept advancing the dates when surges would impact hospital capacity. That dire scenario has yet to occur. (more…)

  • Virginia 40th of 45 States for Charter School Friendliness

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    We have often referenced public charter schools in this space. It is worthwhile to stop and discuss their availability in Virginia.

    In its eleventh annual ranking of public charter school laws in January of 2020, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) has ranked 45 states with such laws. 

    Virginia. Virginia ranks 40th. 

    NAPCS comments about Virginia’s laws include:

    • While Virginia’s law does not contain a cap on public charter school growth, it only allows district authorizers and provides little autonomy, insufficient accountability, and inequitable funding.” 
    • Virginia’s law needs improvement across the board. Potential starting points include expanding authorizing options, beefing up the law’s application, oversight, and renewal requirements, increasing operational autonomy, ensuring equitable operational funding and equitable access to capital funding and facilities, and ensuring transparency regarding educational service providers.”

    Virginia currently has eight charter schools serving approximately 1,200 students. Virginia has approximately 1.25 million public school students.

    So one in every 1,000 Virginia public school students goes to a public charter.

    If Virginia legislators ever care to improve access to charter schools, NACPS offers a model law. (more…)

  • Fifty Pounds of Weed in Arlington = Probation?

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    djrippert

    Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

    by DJ Rippert

    This landing may get bumpy. In late 2018 a chap was on a plane that landed at Reagan National Airport. He undoubtedly had the usual tools of travel — toothbrush, shave kit and clean socks.  However, he also had 50 pounds of marijuana and 400 cartridges of hashish oil. Perhaps he got on the wrong plane expecting to land in Denver. The MWAA Police met him at baggage claim, offered to help him with his luggage and cuffed him up.

    As arlnow.com reports, “Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and the attorney representing the alleged drug carrier agreed that the defendant would plead guilty to two felony charges and be placed on probation. After completing the probation and 200 hours of community service, he would be able to withdraw the pleas to the felony charges and instead plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges while having a $100 fine imposed but then suspended.” (more…)

  • Black Georgia Professor, UVa Ed School Teachers Conference Keynoter, Trashes Brown v. Board and Offers Return to Segregated Schools

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    sherlockj

    Dr. Bettina Love

    We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love (2019)

    Reviewed by James C. Sherlock

    Background and Introduction

    I became interested in reviewing this book when I watched Dr. Bettina Love, as Associate Professor of Education at the University of Georgia, speak at a seminar for Virginia K-12 teachers sponsored by the Education School at the University of Virginia.

    I did that as part of personal research into the radicalization of my alma mater.

    I found her presentation to be pretty radical to my old white ears. I decided to read her book.

    This review, like the one that will follow of Dr. Sowell’s book, “Charter Schools and their Enemies,” focuses on the actual words of the author, not the views of the reviewer. I will give each their say.

    Because her views are likely to be highly controversial, this review will be longer that it otherwise might to ensure I allow the reader full opportunity to hear her.

    She has been featured multiple times in Education Week, and has been a recent speaker at the University of Texas, Duke, and the University of Houston as well as C-Span, the City Club of Cleveland, Women’s Voices and advocate.com. She has provided commentary for NPR, the Guardian and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

    Yet I find no review of her book by any major newspaper of magazine.

    She needed an editor. The book is very disorganized and peripatetic. It is thus very hard to read. No editor is credited and none is apparent.

    But no editor would have curbed the venom coming out of the author’s pen. (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: COVID and School Choice Edition

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    James A. Bacon

    Chesterfield “sick-out” pretty anemic. A “sick-out” by Chesterfield public school teachers fizzled Monday as the last cohort of students returned to in-person classes, reports the Virginia Star. Students in grades 6-12 entered a hybrid program in which students attended in-person classes two days a week to socially distanced classrooms. “Thank you for giving our children a CHOICE,” wrote parent Julie Watson. “Some kids are having a really hard time mentally and socially being isolated for so long.” According to the Chesterfield Education Association, the vast majority of teachers responding to a survey indicated feeling unsafe or unprepared. Although a few teachers stayed home, a threatened sick-out never gained momentum.

    Meanwhile in Fauquier County… Roughly 7,000 children returned to Fauquier County public schools for in-person instruction Monday, reports the Washington Post, even as neighboring Northern Virginia school systems continue to operate online-only or are retreating from reopening plans. The cohort represents 70% of Fauquier’s student population of 11,000. Another 30% of families chose the option of a hybrid experience or staying home for online instruction amounted. Providing families an option — wow, what a novel concept! Rural Fauquier County managed to overcome logistical hurdles such as installing cameras in more than 900 classrooms and reinventing bus transportation schedules to make it happen. Kudos to Fauquier!

    And in Fairfax County… In Fairfax County, parents’ main option is dropping out of the school system. Parents of 8,959 students have pulled out of Fairfax County schools this year. Eighty-seven percent were elementary school students, and almost 25% were kindergarteners, reports Reston Now. The exodus reflected students transferring to private schools or switching to homeschooling. Nearly 1,900 left to be homeschooled, up from 264 last year; 1,100 left for a private religious school, up from 296; and 713 departed for a non-religious private school, up from 237.

  • WaPo’s Journalistic Jihad Against VMI Continues…

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    James A. Bacon

    Ian Shapira

    by James A. Bacon

    President-elect Biden may be calling for national unity after a contentious presidential election, but the Washington Post hasn’t gotten the message. Post reporter Ian Shapira continues his campaign against the Virginia Military Institute, which he has charged is guilty of “relentless racism,” by slanting coverage of the pending state investigation of the military school.

    Pajama boy

    In a story co-authered with Laura Vozzella, he wrote:

    RICHMOND — Virginia Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. used inflammatory language Monday as he denounced the resignation of Virginia Military Institute’s superintendent, warning lawmakers: “You cannot let the media lynch VMI.”

    Apparently, in the eyes of our media overlords, it is now problematical for white people to use the term “lynching.” The statement, writes Shapira, was jarring to some lawmakers because a white student in 2018 threatened to “lynch” a Black freshman. (VMI suspended the offending student, but no need to mar a spicy narrative with messy details.) (more…)

  • Higher Education and Economic Mobility

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia’s top public universities are largely stratified by socioeconomic status. Consider the following statistics that appear in the new book by James V. Koch and Richard J. Cebula, “Runaway College Costs: How College Governing Boards Fail to Protect their Students.”

    • At the College of William & Mary only 13.6% of the student body comes from families in the bottom 60% of the income distribution. (Only 1.5% comes from the lowest income quintile.)
    • At the University of Mary Washington only 15% comes from the bottom 60%.
    • At the University of Virginia only 15% comes from the bottom 60%.
    • At James Madison University, only 16% comes from the bottom 60%.

    Those numbers compare to an average of 47% from the bottom three quintiles for all public four-year institutions nationally.

    Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It depends upon your perspective. It is widely acknowledged that academic achievement is highly correlated with socioeconomic and educational status. Parents in higher socio-economic brackets expose their children to more spoken vocabulary, emphasize reading at an earlier age, send their children to better schools, and set higher expectations for academic achievement. From one perspective it is understandable that these children would be more likely to be admitted to elite academic institutions. (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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