Category Archives: Top Story

Beware Their Cheating Hearts

In 1998, the first year of SOL testing, only 2 percent of Virginia’s schools received full accreditation. This year, the State is bragging that 98 percent of Virginia’s schools are accredited. What they don’t tell you is that both the State and the schools cheated to get those scores. Continue reading

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Bringing Quality Schools to Virginia

In much of Virginia students are quite successful in their public schools, but there are also significant pockets where the public school system has failed the students who attend them. The Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Boards Association should focus on bringing quality charters into the Commonwealth to address those failings. Continue reading

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Reform of Local Public Finance in Virginia – Examining Impact Fees

Since the entire community presumably benefits from, for example, new schools, it would not be fair to assign the full cost of new community services to new residential development. But it is imminently fair to assign something to new development. Continue reading

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Campaign Finance Transparency in Virginia

According to a new study Virginia gets a failing grade on campaign finance transparency. Here’s why, and what we can do to get a passing grade next time. Continue reading

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The Data Revolution

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, pictured at left, is at the forefront of a movement to make government data available to citizens. His efforts in D.C. and at the Federal Level have proven what we here in Virginia already knew, that when you combine public data with private ingenuity you get great results. Continue reading

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