I met with Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, this summer over tacos at a restaurant in his district to discuss what’s next with Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) exam reform. VanValkenburg is the Chair of the Senate Public Education Subcommittee and a high school Social Studies teacher in Henrico County.
Whoever wins the Governor’s race in November, the next administration will likely be in charge of a massive 9-figure project to overhaul our assessments consistent with the 2023 work group report on assessments. That work group was convened pursuant to House Bill 585 (which was sponsored in 2022 by VanValkenburg) and conducted by the administration of Governor Glenn Youngkin.
VanValkenburg’s Philosophy on Standardized Testing
VanValkenburg is a fierce defender of standardized testing. He believes that such assessments are crucial to our state education system for the purposes of educating children to their fullest potential and for data reasons, teaching and maintaining high academic standards. In addition, he is a strong supporter of Virginia’s testing requirement for graduation for similar reasons; Virginia is one of six remaining states with such requirement.
As for the criticism standardized tests cause “teaching to the test,” he told me it’s essential that any tests be of high quality and Virginia’s tests largely are not. VanValkenburg said: “no one ever complains about teaching to the AP exam.”
From frites to fine wine, from Gothic cathedrals to water-lily murals, there are many things to admire about French culture. Perhaps the least appreciated by Americans is the fact, as I discovered after two weeks in the land of berets and escargot, that the French love their porc products as much as we do. They even have bacon memes.
Well, that may or may not be true. But a meme that has garnered Internet fame builds upon the famous saying of the 17th-century English philosopher Francis Bacon: “Knowledge Is Power: France Is Bacon”… which ultimately inspired the image above.
The French love affair with bacon precedes Internet memes by centuries and is deeply embedded in French culture. For example, bacon is widely served for breakfast. (Good news for Americans: “crispy” bacon, as opposed to flaccid, fatty, lightly cooked bacon, seems to be making inroads.)
Dominion’s Yorktown Power Station retired in 2019, adding to PJM’s supply problems.
PJM Interconnection, the organization that manages the electric grid for 13 states including Delaware, has confirmed what the Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI) has long argued: state mandates are raising bills and straining reliability. Delaware policymakers now face a choice—continue policies that risk higher costs and outages or adopt measures that keep power reliable and protect families from higher bills.
For years, PJM largely went along with state energy policies, building infrastructure and running markets around political mandates, even as costs rose and reliability weakened. As complaints over rising bills mounted, state officials began deflecting blame on PJM.
Until recently, PJM’s leaders avoided confrontation, preferring a cautious approach. That stance shifted when Aftab Khan, PJM’s executive vice president of operations, planning and security, published a commentary in Utility Dive. “We at PJM need realistic solutions, not politics, to take on energy challenges,” Khan wrote. “Some public narratives have presented an inaccurate picture of PJM’s role in cost-effectively keeping the lights on. Here are the facts.”
State policies urging 100% of electric power to come from wind and solar power have struggled to deliver consistent results. Baseload power plants, such as those operating on natural gas, coal, oil, hydropower, and nuclear energy, can run 24/7 and respond to high demand on hot or cold days. Wind and solar often underperform just when electricity is needed most. For example, according to the real-time data from Electricity Map:
Derrick Max, President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson Institute
Last night’s first and final Virginia gubernatorial debate between Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger had one clear loser — the approximately 446,000 Commonwealth voters who had already cast their early ballots.
For a state that has such a storied civic heritage, relying on a single, late-stage debate fails the test of responsible governance. The increase in no-excuse early voting, with a 45-day window to early vote, meant that hundreds of thousands of voters cast ballots before the candidates were scrutinized through the heat of direct, unscripted questions under the lights of a debate stage. No doubt, it seems, this is exactly what the two candidates intended.
The lack of debates allows the candidates to curate their image through campaign ads and partisan talking points, rather than a direct, head-to-head comparison on the issues that truly matter. Early voters were thus denied the opportunity to see if the two candidates for Virginia’s highest office can think on their feet, know the issues, or have a vision for how to lead.
The other clear loser in last night’s debate was Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General whose text messages wishing “two bullets” to murder then Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert – and the death of his children — were leaked by an unwitting recipient who was included accidentally in the violent text thread two years earlier. Jones then followed up the text messages with a phone call where he tried to justify his views and doubled down on his extremely violent text rhetoric.
Winsome Earle-Sears called for Jones to drop out of the race, and pressed Abigail Spanberger to do the same. Spanberger’s refusal to do so looked weak, and difficult to understand considering her clear denunciation of Jones for sending the repugnant text messages. For Jones, to have both candidates at the top of the ticket roundly denouncing his actions was a sure blow to his candidacy.
That’s the headline on the “Irons in The Fire” blog on October 6th. I won’t recap what the blogger, “Firehand,” wrote. We’ve all seen it before, over and over the past few days. It’s about Jay Jones.
What’s noteworthy is not what Firehand said. It’s where he said it from—Oklahoma. He’s not a Virginia blogger—at least according to his personal profile. Lots of people outside of Virginia have heard of the Jay Jones scandal. And they are watching how Virginia Democrats, journalists and voters respond.
I found Firehand’s blog post through Glenn Reynolds, the “Instapundit.” Reynolds isn’t a Virginian either. He’s a University of Tennessee law professor. But he’s following Jay Jones’ antics—and Virginia Democrats’ response to those antics.
Reynolds created and runs the “Instapundit” blog, one of the most popular sites in the conservative blogosphere. He also writes a weekly column for the New York Post. This week he wrote about Jones, and how Democrats are reacting. “Major national Democrats are keeping quiet about Jones’ comments, and there’s no move to force him to withdraw. Virginia Democrats, [gubernatorial candidate Abigail] Spanberger included, are circling the wagons around him after issuing token messages of disapproval.”
Then, Reynolds dropped the real bombshell. He mentioned the real reason that the Jay Jones story is grabbing serious attention far from the Old Dominion: “Why should they oust him? This sort of violent rhetoric has become the leftist norm, with Democrats habitually calling their opponents Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and the like.”
Del. Salam Rasoul (D-Roanoke City), who goes by the nickname “Sam,” has made a down-to-earth, squeaky-clean image a big part of his political persona. Those acquainted with him know Rasoul to indeed be a friendly, outgoing individual.
Rasoul represents House District 38 (see map), which covers most of Roanoke City.
However, when it comes to campaign finance, there is a huge gap between Rasoul’s rhetoric and reality.
In public, Rasoul makes bold claims about not being beholden to big financial donors. Rasoul took the “Big Money Out VA” pledge, whose website is found here. Their subtitle reads: Democracy Loses When Big Money Wins.”
The first paragraph of the pledge that Rasoul signed states:
“I support getting big money out of politics by amending the United States Constitution to guard against corruption and protect liberty, federalism, and the equal rights of free speech by limiting the undue influence of money in elections and government. I additionally support comprehensive campaign finance reform in Virginia.”
The Big Money Out VA webpage also shows a photo of Del. Rasoul with his trademark beaming smile and his quotation: “As the first member of the General Assembly to reject special interest PAC [Political Action Committee] donations, I am proud that my campaign is 100 percent funded by individuals only. It’s time we return the people’s power back to politics.”
So, why was Democrat Jay Jones – he of the Quentin Tarantino imagination – sending highly partisan and politically suicidal text messages to a Republican member of the House of Delegates?
Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, the recipient of these merry notes, says she passed them on to their focus of interest, Republican Speaker Todd Gilbert. She let it go at that and Gilbert did nothing, said not a word. It’s curious. Maybe they concluded – at least, then – that Jones was having a hard day.
Or maybe they carefully placed the chrysalis near a window, as we did as kids, and waited for the butterfly to emerge?
John Le Carre once wrote, “The questions are not dangerous; only the answers are dangerous.”
There are lots of questions about Jay Jones’ behavior and his political judgment. The answers point to a stunning lack of maturity. That would explain the other thing, as well.
In Germany, on an autobahn, away from urban traffic, a BMW may pass you doing 116 mph. (Or even 150 mph.) Lord help you if you’re lounging in the left lane.
You just don’t want to try that in New Kent County, as Jay Jones did.
Hey, I was still in the Denver Airport and on the plane most of yesterday. Did I miss anything while riding the rails in the Rockies? Jim returns this week, I think.
(Author’s Note: The following article is unusually long, even by my standards. The subject is a federal policy document recently sent to the University of Virginia and eight other institutions of higher education. The document is ten pages long and contains numerous provisions which could have a significant impact on higher education and, thus, deserve extensive explanation and discussion.)
The University of Virginia has been offered an opportunity to obtain “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships”, as well as an invitation to the White House. All it has to do is give up its academic freedom and financial independence.
This offer comes in the form of a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” sent to UVa, along with a letter from the Secretary of Education asking for comments by Oct. 20 and “a signed agreement by no later than November 21, 2025.” UVa was one of nine institutions of higher education offered this opportunity. The others were Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, and Brown University.
The compact document declares that “it represents the priorities of the U.S. government in its engagements with universities.” It sets out ten areas which would constitute the agreement between the university and the federal government.
Disbarment presents a higher requirement for wrongdoing than perhaps it used to.
But counselor Jay Jones has easily exceeded any such standards with his deranged- and written- call for the murder of the Speaker of the Virginia House.
For more than a half century, it has been the case that Virginia elects a Governor who is from the opposite party as the President elected the year before.
With one exception.
In 2013, the year after Barack Obama’s re-election, Virginians sent Democrat Terry McAuliffe to the Governor’s Mansion. The background to that should send a chill down the spine of gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger.
As National Review observed, “Democrats are confident that they can work with their allies in the media to blame any shutdown on Republicans….But historically, the public has tended to place the blame on the party that rejects a clean bill and forces a shutdown to make policy demands on issues that aren’t directly related to disagreements over the government spending levels.”
Back in October of 2013, Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to support a budget keeping the government open. Their demand was to delay or make major changes to the Affordable Care Act in exchange for passing the resolution – disagreements unrelated to differences over funding. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Republicans “anarchists” and advocated a hard line against Republicans declaring “We will not go to conference with a gun at our heads.”
Reid convinced then-President Obama to not meet with Republicans, and on the morning of October 1, Obama declared “One faction, of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, shut down major parts of the government – all because they didn’t like one law.”
Nestled among the commercial development and luxury homes along Smith Mountain Lake along Rt. 122 between Bedford and Rocky Mount is a National Monument to a slave born in Virginia.
Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 in the community of Hale’s Ford in Franklin County. His enslaved mother, Jane, was the cook on the tobacco plantation of James Burroughs. Burroughs would have been considered a hardscrabble farmer by the wealthy plantation owners in Tidewater Virginia. The Burroughs men and hired hands worked in the fields alongside the slaves. However, his neighbors in Franklin County probably considered Burroughs as one of the well-to-do.
Most of Burroughs’ wealth was bound up in his human property. At his death in 1861, the value of the slaves on his property exceeded the combined value of everything else he owned. That total included the valuation of five-year old Booker–$400.
Booker T. Washington National Monument, Hardy, Va.
From an early age, Washington longed for an education. One of his duties was to carry the books for Burroughs’ daughter to school. Washington later wrote that he thought that going to school would be like “getting into paradise.”
After their emancipation, Washington’s mother moved with her children to West Virginia to be with Washington’s stepfather, who had escaped slavery earlier. While in West Virginia, he worked in the salt and coal mines, but his stepfather allowed him to go to school at night. At some point, he left the mines and went to live with and work for a family in the community. The wife of the family “taught him proper conduct and cleanliness and encouraged him to get an education.”
During this time, he heard about Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a school established for Blacks in 1868. In 1872, at the age of 16, he set out for Hampton Institute, 500 miles away, walking most of the way.
To pay for his tuition and board at Hampton, Washington worked as the school’s janitor. After graduating from Hampton, he went back to West Virginia to teach for two years and then studied briefly at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. He returned to Hampton Institute to teach there. Upon the recommendation of Gen. Samuel Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, Washington was hired to start a school for Blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama.
When he arrived at Tuskegee in 1881, at the age of 25, he found 30 “anxious and eager students,” but little else. There was no land, teachers, or money. The only building was a leaky shanty. Washington and the students literally built the school themselves, using bricks they fired in a kiln they built. At Washington’s death in 1915, Tuskegee Institute had more than 100 buildings, approximately 1,500 students, 200 faculty members, and an endowment of about $2 million.
There was an important story in the preliminary end-of-year financial report that the Richmond Times-Dispatch misinterpreted as the state “running in the red.” State spending has been on a major growth spurt under Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, although the Democrats with the majority in the General Assembly have just as much to do with it.
The data from the state comptroller, which will reappear later this year after the state’s books are audited, shows that general fund tax revenue grew 25% during the four years it covers in one of its tables (page 3), fiscal years 2021-2025. During that same period, the spending in that general fund category grew 47% (from $23.1 billion to $34 billion.)
The report uses only a few broad categories for spending. Again, this is general fund only so all the various federal programs or dedicated non-general fund revenue for the same services are not included. Spending on individual and family services was $10.7 billion in the year ending June 30, 2025, and that was 52% higher than four years ago. That is steady growth of far more than 10% annually, with Medicaid likely leading the charge.
Spending on education, which always gets the most political focus, was the largest category by far. The $14.9 billion spent during FY 2025 was an increase of 50% since 2021. Presumably this covers the waterfront from pre-K through higher education. Higher education is much more dependent on non-general fund revenue (think tuition and fees), but does share in the general fund, too.
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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