EDUCATION
Virginia’s new school COVID-19 guidance keeps most safety decisions in the hands of local districts
Masks, social distancing and screening should continue to play an outsized role in the upcoming school year, according to new safety guidelines released Wednesday by the Virginia Departments of Education and Health. This year, though, state lawmakers have given local divisions much less leeway to go fully remote, citing growing mental health concerns among children […]
VMI superintendent: ‘zero tolerance’ for racism, sexism
The head of the embattled Virginia Military Institute told a state oversight body Tuesday that there will be “zero tolerance for any more acts of racism and sexism” at the public military school in Lexington. “I’ve had an opportunity through about 25 hours worth of listening sessions to form my own assessment about the climate […]
Legislators are weighing what to do with a $1 billion surplus from Virginia’s college savings program
A Virginia college savings program has accumulated more than $1 billion in surplus revenue — money that could potentially be reinvested in financial aid and other higher education initiatives. Lawmakers directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a state watchdog agency, to study the possibility after reviewing a regularly scheduled audit of a now-discontinued […]
A Supreme Court ruling creates an existential crisis for the NCAA and its anachronistic idea of amateurism
The world of bigtime college sports is about to change profoundly in ways not even experts yet comprehend because of a bombshell U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Last week’s unanimous and unambiguous decision in NCAA v. Alston eviscerates the American college football and basketball cartel’s business model of earning billions […]
Thomas Jefferson’s admissions results show equity and merit can go hand in hand
By Makya Renée Little Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, currently ranked the No.1 high school in the nation, has released admissions statistics for the Class of 2025. The results are groundbreaking and a model for the nation: Admissions reform increased diversity on almost every metric without compromising the quality of the incoming […]
Virginia is changing expectations for child care providers to put focus on early education
Come July 1, Virginia will join a growing number of states to fold child care oversight into its Department of Education. The seemingly small shift signifies a major change in how the state is thinking about early childhood development. For years, child care and K-12 schools have been treated as separate services, overseen by different […]
U.S. House Ag leader seeks permanent scholarship funding for 1890 land-grant colleges
WASHINGTON — Leaders from 1890 land-grant colleges told the House Agriculture Committee Wednesday how a fresh infusion of scholarship funding provided by Congress has helped those historically Black institutions educate and train the next generation of agriculture workers. Committee Chairman David Scott, (D-Ga.), said that their testimony would help members of the committee work to […]
Major staffing shortages beset Virginia’s child care providers
After more than a year of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosalind Cutchins is braced for a busy June as she prepares to reopen two Head Start programs at her child care centers across the Hampton Roads region. But she’s been confronted by a staffing shortfall — 22 unfilled positions across eight different locations. It’s a […]
Former governor, education secretary call for more investment in Virginia’s historically Black colleges
As Virginia lawmakers consider how to spend more than $4.3 billion in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, two former state leaders are calling for more investment in the state’s historically Black colleges and universities. Former Gov. Doug Wilder and Jim Dyke, who served as Virginia’s first Black secretary of education in Wilder’s administration, […]
U.S. Senate panel grapples with fast-approaching state laws on rights of student athletes
WASHINGTON — There was little disagreement among senators Wednesday over whether a national law is needed to standardize what soon will be a patchwork of conflicting state statutes allowing some student athletes to earn money from their personal brands. But the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing shed little light on what a potential federal law […]
System ‘needs to be broken’: Pharrell Williams launching Norfolk private school
Virginia Beach native and multiple Grammy Award winner Pharrell Williams has announced he’ll create a private school in Norfolk initially aimed at third-to-fifth-graders from low-income families. He will thus become the latest entertainer around the country to spearhead an alternative to traditional schools. It will be called Yellowhab and provide tuition-free education for the original […]
What grads really need to hear about the problems confronting us and the prospect of progress
FALLS CHURCH — Gov. Ralph Northam traveled to Northern Virginia last week with a timeworn message for this year’s high school graduates as they enter adulthood: Anything is possible in America. “The sky is the limit,” he said during an in-person outdoor ceremony at George Mason High School in Falls Church City. “Don’t ever, ever […]