2 Racist Incidents in 7 Days, Wilder School's Hot Press Release, College Legacy Admissions, No Cells in School, Speaker Scott on MSNBC, Weed Lobby Day, Civilian Oversight
🌞 Thank you to all of our subscribers and readers!
2 Racist Incidents in 7 Days: Gloucester, Loudoun
There have been two racist incidents in Virginia that have made news in less than seven days. The first is in Gloucester County’s Peasley Middle School. The second involves the annual story that seems to never go away: Racist flyers being decimated in Loudoun country that the sheriff’s office is perpetually “investigating.”
Both local NAACP chapters involved and Loudoun NAACP Chapter President Pastor Michelle Thomas is featured on television in a local news piece (seen below) on the topic, once again.
RELATED: Jan. 22: Racist graffiti found at Gloucester middle school (WAVY)
🚩 Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office investigating hate flyers in neighborhoods:
In a striking press release on Jan. 23, The Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University had a few things to say about the $73 million development deal VCU backed out of and more. The release is below:
………..
VCU Administration Negates Virginians’ Voices, Maligns Wilder School Commonwealth Poll Credibility in Conflict of Interest Over Failed VCU Health Development Deal
Earlier this year, it was reported that VCU spent $73 million to back out of a development deal for the building of a new downtown facility with the City of Richmond. Later, it was reported that the financing could be $100 million more than the quoted cost and VCU received nothing for their money.
This message is a direct response to the damaging and factually inaccurate attacks on the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Commonwealth Poll, published on January 22, 2024.
VCU top administrators and VCU News have challenged Virginians’ candid concerns about the failed Clay Street VCU Health real estate deal, the exit of which has thus cost VCU more than $83 million dollars and has the potential to exceed $100 million by the time all fees have been paid to developers and the City of Richmond.
The Wilder School Commonwealth Poll data revealed that participants familiar with the Clay Street deal reported the following. “When asked if they agree or disagree that the VCU Health Systems Board should be responsible for explaining more details about the deal to Virginia taxpayers, 92% of those familiar with the reports agreed and 5% disagreed. 65% of those familiar agreed that these events indicate that information about the deal has been concealed and kept from the public.”
The Commonwealth Poll, led by the Wilder School Office of Research and Outreach, is a tested bellwether of public opinion and serves as a principal source of perspectives and opinions of the citizens of the Commonwealth. The poll has operated for more than 15 years, and during that time, it has been a vital source of public perception to leading media in Richmond, Virginia, and across the nation.
CNN Politics recognizes The Commonwealth Poll as an official Presidential Election Poll. It is a scientific and non-partisan source respected by journalists across major radio, TV, and online media outlets. At no point has the methodology of the Commonwealth Poll been challenged by outside media. And at no point has the sound methodology, direction or execution of the Commonwealth Poll changed.
VCU News, and by extension VCU, has never refuted the Commonwealth Poll in its methodology nor challenged the quality of its content. This track record is evidenced by the multiple polls released by VCU News each year. As the primary distributor of media releases by VCU, it is further discouraging that VCU News delayed the release of the Commonwealth Poll by two days in order to craft a formal response from the VCU administration, which was released directly on the tail of the publication of the Commonwealth Poll. In a review of the poll media release draft, VCU News did not indicate to the Commonwealth Poll authors that there were challenges to the methodology nor that it would issue a statement in response.
The unfounded and unprofessional behavior of VCU News presents a biased conflict of interest because the overwhelming perceptions of Virginians’ of the poll draw negative attention to the failed VCU Health deal.
The language used in the VCU response to the Commonwealth Poll is destructive and damaging not just to the Wilder School’s recognized credibility but also a disservice to the entire VCU community, media outlets, and the VCU brand at large. This attack directly implies a conflict of interest. At no point has VCU President Michael Rao personally addressed the failed real estate deal nor explained how a third-party law firm reported a lack of due diligence on the tanked deal.
We all deserve the right to know the perceptions of Virginians, even if these opinions disagree with the official VCU narrative of the failed project. We should not be stifled or discredited to divert attention from the compounding mistakes of the VCU administration, led by Michael Rao and carried out by Michael Porter, VCU associate vice president for public relations.
An investigation of the actions and behavior of VCU and VCU Health administrators is currently being conducted by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission’s (JLARC) review of VCU Health. We look forward to its report.
MEDIA CONTACT: David Slipher
Director of Communications and External Relations
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
slipherd@vcu.edu
(804) 828-1614
Rep. Scott Visits Richmond, Speaker Scott Displays His New Plate
Video: Speaker Don Scott on MSNBC on Jan. 20, 2024
Listen to the Podcast featuring Speaker Scott’s First Day as Speaker:
Gov. Youngkin Sounds Like He’ll Veto a $1.50 Raise in the Minimum Wage
As reported by Graham Moomaw: Yesterday at an event Gov. Glenn Youngkin said: “If you go around and see what people are paying around the commonwealth of Virginia, there are very rare circumstances where people are paying minimum wage. And yet here we are with lots of economic counsel that says that it harms job growth. So the market is working. Virginians are earning lots of money. We’ve now gotten our labor participation rate back up to where it was before the pandemic, and now we’re at a 12-year high.”
Virginia Senate Bill to Ban College Legacy Admissions Heads to Virginia House
Will Gov. Glenn Youngkin sign legislation to ban college legacy admissions in Virginia. We may soon find out. Yesterday, legislation by Democratic State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg passed unanimously through the Virginia Senate 39-0 and now heads to the Virginia House. The companion bill in the Virginia House is sponsored by Del. Dan Helmer.
Tomorrow, Jan. 25, 2024: Civilian Oversight in Virginia
🚩 Register for this virtual session on zoom.
Today: Legalization Lobby Day
🚩 Timeline for the Day | Listen to the podcast on cannabis microbusinesses:
8:15 AM - 11:15 AM - Visiting the offices of select legislators.
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM - Group walks over to the Capital building for their mid-day session.
12:00 PM - 12:20 PM - Group is introduced before the meeting begins.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM - Group meets for a quick lunch 1st Floor General Assembly Building.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM - Group continues visiting offices of legislator.
3:00 PM - Group meets back in the Dining Hall to wrap up the day.
Virginia Senate Bill Would Ban Cellphones in School
By Nathaniel Cline for The Virginia Mercury 🚩 Some of Virginia’s school boards have begun banning or restricting the use of cellphones in schools. Now, the Virginia Senate is backing a proposal to explicitly empower local boards to institute such prohibitions on cellphones and other “handheld communication devices” during regular school hours.
The legislation cleared the Senate on a 36-3 vote Tuesday and will need to get the approval of the House of Delegates and Gov. Glenn Youngkin to go into effect.
“I’m not telling them to ban cellphones,” said Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, the bill’s patron, during a hearing earlier this month on the proposal. “I think we should send a clear message to our school systems that if they find it’s in their best interest to do so during the school hours, they should have every right to do so.”
In Virginia, several school divisions including those in Carroll County and the city of Richmond have restricted cellphone use during school hours.
Richmond City Schools launched a pouch pilot program that allows students to keep their cellphones in a locked pouch that is unlocked at the end of the school day.
Nationally, 76.9% of schools prohibit cellphone use during school hours, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Pro and con
Over the past several weeks, Virginia lawmakers spent more time debating whether they needed to create legislation than supporting a ban on the use of devices during school hours.
Supporters say the bill, which states that “each school board may develop and implement a policy to prohibit the possession or use of cell phones and other handheld communication devices during regular school hours,” could help schools reduce classroom disruptions and deter harmful behaviors like students recording school fights for online publication.
“I think we need to alert ourselves in this commonwealth on a statewide basis that this is an issue, and that we trust our school boards and we trust our schools to implement a policy that, one, makes sure that learning is paramount as what everyone wants it to be, and two, that our children are protected,” Stanley said. However, opponents argue the law is unnecessary because boards already have the power to limit cellphone use.
Sens. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax, voted against the bill on Tuesday.
Pekarsky has said that while cellphone use in schools is an important issue, “I just see this as a redundant law. It’s not needed in my opinion. It’s not a mandate. It’s just permissive.”
Supporters admit some districts have already adopted such bans but say the Dillon Rule may be confusing others. Under the Dillon Rule, a legal doctrine that governs local-state relations in Virginia, local governments are only allowed to exercise those powers explicitly granted to them by the state government.
“The reason why they didn’t think that they could do what this bill proposes to do is because of the old Dillon Rule that says that localities don’t do something unless we empower them to do so,” Stanley said. “But this bill makes it clear that we here in the commonwealth of Virginia … encourage all of our school systems to develop their own policy when it comes to regulating or prohibiting use of cell phones and handheld devices.”
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Richmond, who also works as a teacher, said, “I don’t have a problem throwing some redundancy in the code if it’s going to help facilitate that conversation, because it needs to be had.”
“We know our friends at the local level sometimes like to dither around,” he said. “If this helps encourage some of those conversations, I think that’s to the good.”
Federal Interest
Congress is also considering whether cellphones should be restricted during school hours.
Last November, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, introduced a bill along with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, to study the effects of cellphones on students in K-12 classrooms.
The legislation would also create a $25 million, five-year pilot program that would provide schools with secure containers for students to store phones during school hours.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in our recovery from the depths of the pandemic. But there’s much more work to be done to help students overcome learning loss and excel in the classroom,” Kaine said in a statement. “That includes looking into how cellphone use in schools is impacting students’ mental health and their ability to learn. This bill would help us do that, by gathering information and providing it to schools as they grapple with students’ use of cellphones in class and how to best set them up for success.”
➡️ SUBSCRIBE TO BLACK VIRGINIA NEWS. “One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” —Ida Wells. 👨🏽💻 Send your press releases, submissions, tips, pitches, comments and corrections to BlackVirginiaNews@gmail.com.