Tag: Derrick A. Max
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If Trump’s Foibles are Election Fodder, Why Not His Wins?
By Derrick Max, When I wrote recently that “Virginia’s elections should be about Virginia’s future, not a referendum on President Trump,” I meant it. For months, liberals have tried to nationalize Virginia election – forgoing discussions about schools, taxes, energy, the Youngkin record — focusing instead on endless attacks on Donald Trump. And as the president…
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New Scholarship Tax Credit Hangs on Future State Decision
By Derrick Max As early voting in the gubernatorial race in Virginia is about to begin, students in the Commonwealth hang in the balance. While Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) was able to implement a landmark school accountability measure that will help inform parents and the public about our students’ true performance, most of his other…
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More Evidence the VCEA Is Based On a False Premise
By Derrick Max For several years now, Virginians have been told that the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is necessary to save Virginia and is a necessary step to save the planet. We’ve been told that rising seas, worsening storms, and other supposedly catastrophic impacts of man-made climate change justify a radical restructuring of Virginia’s…
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NOVA-Only Vehicle Emissions Tests are Ripe for Repeal
By Derrick Max and Gabrielle Brohard For more than four decades, Northern Virginia drivers have dutifully lined up every two years to have their vehicles inspected for emissions (separate from the equally onerous safety inspections required throughout Virginia). The mandate, which only applies to localities in Northern Virginia, was enacted in 1982 under the 1970…
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Education Issues, Choices Facing Virginia’s Voters
By Derrick Max Virginia’s education system is in crisis. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are a wake-up call: only 31% of Virginia’s fourth graders are proficient in reading and only 40% in math, and just 29% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards in both reading and math. Worse, nearly one…
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New Tariffs Will Damage Virginia’s Economy
By Derrick Max, No one can say we weren’t warned. During his debate with then Vice President Kamala Harris, President Donald Trump clearly stated, “other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world, and the tariff will be substantial…” Promises made, promises kept. Unfortunately.…
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One Last Effort to Let Some Escape from School Failure
By Derrick Max, To say that there is a crisis in Virginia’s education system would be a gross understatement. As the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Hannah Schmid recently wrote: This terrible performance is despite the extra $7 billion in direct aid to public education that Governor Glenn Youngkin has approved since the pandemic — a 50%…
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The Social Cost of Free Lunch
By Derrick Max After failing to pass legislation last year that would have made breakfast and lunch free for all public school students regardless of income (at a staggering cost of $201.5 million), state Senator Danika Roem, D-Manassas,) pared down that bill to focus solely on funding a universal free school breakfast program this session. Fortunately, the…
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A Conscious Veto of the Unconsious Bias Bill
By Derrick Max, Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) and the Progressives in the General Assembly have again sent a bill to Governor Youngkin’s desk requiring doctors in Virginia to complete training in “unconscious bias and cultural competency.” Last year, when Governor Youngkin vetoed a similar bill, Sen. Locke took to X (formerly Twitter) to smear the Governor: “It…
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Choosing Politics over Educational Progress
By Derrick Max, Senator Ghazala Hashmi, chair of the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee, is introducing a bill that has no chance of becoming law — apparently trying to carry water on behalf of the Virginia Education Association (VEA) in hopes of gaining support for her campaign for Lieutenant Governor. Hashmi’s bill would require…
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Poll: School Accountability System Supported
By Derrick A. Max While Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly appear unanimous in their opposition to the Governor’s new School Performance and Support Framework, there is near unanimous support among registered voters for enhanced educational standards that measure both growth and accountability by student subgroups according to a new poll. In a survey conducted…
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Gov. Youngkin’s Priorities Shared by Jefferson Institute
By Derrick Max Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) presented his budget amendments to the the legislature’s money committees yesterday. The speech was filled with budget amendments to reduce taxes and fund new or existing programs. These tax cuts and additional spending proposals were made possible by Secretary of Finance Stephen E. Cummings’ report that the Commonwealth was…
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End Federal Control of Our Schools
by Derrick Max While the U.S. Department of Education is only a small fraction of total education spending – accounting for less than 10 percent of education spending in the United States (9 percent in Virginia) – it has a huge impact on how states and localities spend their own money on schools, on how…
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Both Parties Threaten Free Trade Crucial to Virginia Economy
By Derrick Max One issue that is not getting enough attention in this election, especially for its impact on Virginia, is the growing “anti-trade” mentality of both major parties. In Tuesday’s debate, former President Donald Trump stated, “other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world,…
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The “Black Jobs” Narrative is False, Harmful
By Derrick Max While most of the post-debate news coverage is still rightly focused on the mental acuity (or lack thereof) of President Biden, the use of the term “Black jobs” by former President Trump in the context of low-income, unskilled jobs that will be impacted by our open southern border, bothers me almost as…