In 2010, Virginia joined 25 other states in authorizing the establishment of full-time Virtual School programs – educational institutions allowing students to “attend” school full-time, but online, from anywhere in the state. Three years later, there are still only two school divisions operating full-time programs, with a total of about...
I’ve just finished an extraordinary little book. “Thoughts on Building Strong Towns,” that has helped crystallize my thinking on the fiscal trap of the “suburban sprawl” model of growth and development. The author, Charles Marohn, is a Minnesota-based civil engineer, urban planner and executive director of the Strong Towns organization,...
(This article first ran in the Feb issue of Surface Transportation Innovations, a publication ofthe Reason Foundation. As Virginia contemplates “rapid rail” from Roanoke and Richmond to Washington DC, this article is important.) Five years ago, Congress enacted the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act (PRIIA) of 2008, a five-year...
In his first address as Secretary of State, John Kerry said we must safeguard “the most sacred trust” we owe to our children and grandchildren: “an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly super-storms, devastating droughts, and the other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate.” Even the Intergovernmental Panel on...
In a March 10th New York Times column, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote, “we do not, repeat do not, face any kind of deficit crisis either now or for years to come.” Citing recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Krugman insisted that “the case for making the...
For reasons rooted in local identity and entrenched political interest, Virginians are unlikely to consolidate their local governments into units aligned with the metropolitan regions they serve. But it is not impossible to imagine governments partnering regionally on specific projects. A new study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review...
For the last several years President Obama has frequently called for a $50 billion one-time infrastructure program to deal with America’s “crumbling” highways and bridges, a call he repeated in his Feb. 12th State of the Union address. Just a week before, outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said that...
(This column first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch on March 4, 2013.) Gross regional product in the Richmond metro area grew 2.9 percent in 2011, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That ranks the region as the 208th fastest growing among 366 metropolitan...
As the White House this week politicized the sequester cuts amounting to $85 billion in lower federal spending, a recent GAO (Government Accountability Office) study identified “more than 1,362 duplicative programs accounting for at least $364.5 billion in federal spending every single year…” claims Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a...
Average planetary temperatures haven’t budged in 16 years. Hurricanes and strong tornadoes are at or near their lowest ebb in decades. Global sea ice is back to normal, Arctic ice is nearly normal, and the Antarctic icepack continues to grow. The rate of sea level rise remains what it was...
