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: “The 2024 Nation’s Report Card revealed 42% of Virginia fourth graders and 34% of eighth graders were reading at a below basic level on the...
Wielding irony like a razor-sharp butcher’s knife, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed a series of amendments on bills intended to promote renewable energy that basically reverse the impact and do just the opposite. One amendment would even repeal the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which is central to Virginia...
Last night, as promised repeatedly during the campaign, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education (the Department). The order also ensures the continued delivery of essential services such as federal student...
Despite a shortened 2025 General Assembly session due to a water plant failure in Richmond, Legislators still managed to introduce and debate almost 2,500 bills — an impressive workload by any measure. In the end, however, a total of 1,440 of those bills were killed, with 409 (or 28 percent)...
Writing in the blog Bacon’s Rebellion, Arlington parent and self-described “Obama Democrat” Todd Truitt has come out swinging against a Virginia budget amendment to spend $12 million extra “to improve student performance in mathematics.” His argument? Without Governor’s amendments, these extra funds won’t help math outcomes and will probably hurt....
The expanded use of natural gas as a fuel for electricity is the key debate in Dominion Energy Virginia’s integrated resource plan pending before the State Corporation Commission. Not waiting for the decision in that case to come later this year, the utility has now filed an application to start...
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), Senator Danika Roem (D-Manassas) pared down that bill to focus solely on funding a universal free school breakfast program this...
The new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used the Trump Administration’s order to have agency employees report their activities as a chance to show off. Late last week the chairman issued a four-page letter of accomplishments on behalf of his staff, a list that might be a good...
State Senator Ghazala Hashmi (D-Powhatan) has written a Richmond Times-Dispatch commentary proclaiming Governor Glenn Youngkin responsible for Virginia’s education declines, a commentary astonishing for the breadth of its amnestic qualities. Senator Hashmi, who seeks the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor, correctly notes “Virginia’s fourth-grade math scores have plummeted, dropping us...
Until October of last year, customers of Dominion Energy Virginia could see at least some of the higher costs created by the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) detailed on their electric bills. Look at the recent bill and all that transparency is gone and the VCEA costs are now hidden. Compliance...
