
Charlottesville neighborhoods. Courtesy Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition
by James C. Sherlock
In the relationship between Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, very bad things have happened to Charlottesville and continue to do so.
I have developed a working thesis on that relationship.
The city is at the mercy of the University by virtue of the latter’s wealth, influence, and power in Charlottesville elections.
Unfailingly progressive Charlottesville city council, school board and Commonwealth’s Attorney candidates are elected by the dominant votes of the University, its employees and its students. With those officials in place, the University gets its way.
Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) are to a large degree creatures of the University.
Many CCS teachers have their bachelors and/or advanced degrees from UVa’s School of Education and Human Development. Every progressive educational policy and virtually every experiment the University’s ed school can dream up are visited on those students.
For the city’s Black children in those schools, that influence, well-meaning though it was, turns out to have been a disaster unparalleled in the Commonwealth. Continue reading →