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Virginia child care rating system aims to improve kids’ school readiness
Virginia has implemented new guidelines to establish a unified rating and improvement system to assess the commonwealth’s publicly funded early childhood care providers. Approximately 75% of child care programs that received public funding previously did not participate in the state’s voluntary quality measures, according to Del. David Buolva, D-Fairfax, who co-patroned 2020 legislation that led to all publicly funded providers being required to participate.
70 years after Brown v. Board, many Virginia students separated by race, economic class
When the U.S. Supreme Court ordered school desegregation in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education, the court hoped K-12 schools across the nation would give equal opportunities to both Black and white students. Many believed that tying the fate of Black students to the fate of their white peers would lift Black students because of white parents’ and legislators’ resources and political leverage to provide for their own children. But today, nearly 70 years after the landmark ruling, students in Virginia remain largely separated by race and economic class. While segregation is no longer mandated by public policy, it is reinforced by school attendance zones and segregated housing patterns.
Virginia’s Rep. Wexton endorses Subramanyam to succeed her in Congress
U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) is backing state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam to succeed her in Congress, she announced Monday, an endorsement that is likely to give the Loudoun County Democrat significant momentum in a crowded primary race. “Suhas is a principled, effective leader who has a long commitment to service, and he is rooted right here in our community,” she said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post. He “will continue my legacy of getting things done for Northern Virginians.” Wexton, who has represented Virginia’s 10th Congressional District since 2019, is not running again because of health reasons. Her impending exit from Congress has drawn a packed field of 12 Democrats in the party’s primary, making it hard for any of them to emerge as a clear front-runner.
Yancey: From graduation walk-outs to police in riot gear, the campus protests in context
Virginia made national news over the weekend when some students walked out of the graduation ceremonies at Virginia Commonwealth University when Gov. Glenn Youngkin started speaking. Some left to express support for Palestinians, others protested some of Youngkin’s policies and still others the VCU board’s decision not to require that students take a course in racial literacy. Maybe some were protesting all three. This wasn’t the only school that saw some kind of protest at its graduation ceremonies — there were pro-Palestinian demonstrations at multiple schools across the country over the weekend. It’s also not the first time that students have walked out on Youngkin.
Waddell: Support academic freedom, but don’t deny oversight
State Sen. Mamie Locke’s guest column in the May 4 paper, “Youngkin administration actions undermine academic freedom,” is on target in saying that “higher education … is about equipping students with the tools to navigate complex issues, not indoctrinating them with a particular ideology,” and that students deserve a comprehensive education that “equips them to think critically.” I applaud and join in those sentiments, for there is no greater threat to our country right now than our inability to think dispassionately and carefully, to admit the possibility that our beliefs may not be 100% right, and to negotiate with ourselves.
In 7th District primary, Republicans debate party’s future
Clashes among Republican factions in the 118th Congress are playing out in Virginia's 7th Congressional District, with money and endorsements flowing to rival candidates in a GOP primary from the party's establishment and most conservative wings in the House of Representatives. The 7th, based in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, is a pivotal political battleground in the outer Northern Virginia suburbs and countryside for control of the House in a presidential election year.
Textbook decision tabled in Montgomery County after questions about bid process
It was a question of buy the book or by the book at a Montgomery County School Board meeting this week. A decision on which English textbooks to purchase for the county’s elementary school students was delayed after school board members learned that two competing vendors were not treated equally – both made offers, but only one was asked to revise its proposal and lower the price tag. “This opens up a lawsuit,” board member Derek Rountree said Tuesday.
Schmude: Amid expansion, Chesapeake Regional seeks unnecessary price hikes
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare recently announced more than $150 million in new construction across Hampton Roads. In the same breath, the system has demanded dramatic price increases for Tidewater’s people and businesses in its current negotiations with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Virginia. I spend my time advocating for health care affordability because it is consumers and businesses that pay for health care, and they should not bear the burden of flagrant cost increases to fund Chesapeake’s expansion plans.
Gibson: Online sexual abuse against women is imperiling our democracy
Last month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s painful experiences as the victim of AI-driven sexual abuse appeared in a piece in Rolling Stone. Titled “Fake Photos, Real Harm: AOC and the Fight Against AI Porn,” the article explores how U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez first discovered the artificially generated explicit images of her, and her effort to amend the Violence Against Women Act in order to create civil liability in response to this new form of sexual abuse. Like so many people who read it, I was both horrified and motivated.
Fears grow as Mountain Valley Pipeline nears completion
The most visible scars from the Mountain Valley Pipeline are gone now from the pastoral property that Anne and Steve Bernard call home. But the Bernards remain troubled by what they can’t see. “Bottom line: I’m scared to death of that pipe sitting out there,” Steve Bernard said of the buried steel pipe, through which highly pressurized natural gas could soon begin flowing along a route that passes about 150 feet from the couple’s white frame house and adjacent art studio.