Video

Christian Braunlich
March 18, 2009

When it comes to teaching kids to read, Richmond is no longer the poster child for failure — thanks to research-based methods, private sector financial support and a dedicated superintendent. And now, it looks like Petersburg is planning to join them.

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Jefferson Forum
March 17, 2009
Richmond used to be a poster child for failing schools. Not anymore. By using research based teaching methods they have dramatically improved their reading scores. Will other jurisdictions follow their lead?...
David Schnare
March 4, 2009

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is not merely a house of science, it’s a home for regulation. But the tensions between the two are always the cause of considerable discord, and a fair amount of schizophrenia — and it looks like it’s getting worse.

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Jefferson Forum
March 3, 2009
Tolstoy opened his novel Anna Karenina with the truism: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” If we peek in the back door of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we see a family in unique discord....
Mike Thompson
March 3, 2009
It will take courage and leadership from our state leaders to make the necessary changes that place us on the right track of limiting the government’s size....
Leonard Gilroy
February 18, 2009

An Arizona bill offers a blueprint for right-sizing state government. A similar system already in place in Florida saves taxpayers $29 million a year. So shouldn’t Virginia, already scrambling to reduce the budget, be looking to echo what works elsewhere?

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Jefferson Forum
February 17, 2009
Arizona bill offers a blueprint for restructuring the Commonwealth Competition Council, right-sizing state government. A similar system already in-place in Florida saved taxpayers $29 million dollars last year, nothing to sneeze at in these tight times....
Jefferson Forum
February 8, 2009

More than 76 percent of voters in majority black Petersburg, Richmond and Norfolk neighborhoods overwhelmingly support school choice for parents in their school division. That’s the conclusion of a recently-completed survey of more than 2,200 voters in overwhelmingly African-American voting precincts, conducted by the Thomas Jefferson Institute and the Black...

Mike Thompson
February 4, 2009

Local governments are under the budget shortfall gun this year. But is it because of a declining economy, or past excess spending? Here’s one case study demonstrating that it didn’t have to be this way.

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Jefferson Forum
February 3, 2009
Growth in government spending and new programs play a larger role in the financial hardships faced by Virginia and its localities than many our elected officials are letting on. To combat this we need to increase budget transparency by getting the checkbooks online and look towards competitive bidding and privatization...