Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series, reprinting the Virginia Board of Education’s SOL history published in the 2013 Annual Report on the Conditions and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia. This part discusses changes to the Standards of Learning upgrading to college-and career-ready standards and moving beyond...
Language used in the “immigration wars” has been rough. One American leader claimed that incoming immigrants were too stupid to learn English and represented a political threat to America, noting that the newcomers “will soon so outnumber us” that “even our Government will become precarious.” And he complained of the...
Next time you hear about the rising cost of a college education and the amount of debt students carry upon graduation, remember the Mason Inn. George Mason University, a Virginia state university located in Fairfax, suffered $11 million in losses on a $54 million investment in the on-campus hotel and...
So, what’s the alternative to expanding Virginia’s Medicaid program? Let an estimated 400,000 Virginians continue without health insurance? That option was workable in the past because the federal government gave financial aid to hospitals to help offset some of the cost of providing health care to indigent patients. But the...
“There ought to be a law,” is not a phrase that slips easily from my keyboard. Generally, I think there are far too many laws and, particularly, too many new laws. Old laws that have long outlived any usefulness are too seldom revisited and removed from the statute books. At...
Editor’s Note: This is Part III of the Jefferson Policy Journal’s reprint of the Virginia Board of Education’s SOL history published in the 2013 Annual Report on the Conditions and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia. In this issue we cover SOL progress during the Tim Kaine Administration. A 10-year...
When legislators debate expansion of Virginia’s Medicaid program in the 2014 session, they would do well to consider the long-term outlook for Medicaid spending. The program already consumes 17% of the state’s general fund budget, and that percentage will grow relentlessly as the population ages. “Virginia faces an onslaught of...
Our Country and our Commonwealth face a significant challenge when it comes to providing health care treatment to an aging population. It is estimated that 10,000 people a day will walk, run or crawl into retirement for many years to come. Regardless of how any of us feel about various...
Since the outset of the Great Recession, left-leaning public figures have insisted that temporary increases in government spending—especially on social welfare programs—would rapidly stimulate the economy. Yet, as detailed below, even though such spending quickly rose to record levels, the economy has been burdened with high unemployment for more than...
The Jefferson Journal: A New Source for Qualified Employees
To keep its economy moving, Virginia will need more than two million new workers in the next ten years, but there are only 1.5 million bodies in the pipeline. Why not encourage, rather than discourage, qualified students to pursue a better education, a higher-paying job, and stay in Virginia?
...