{"id":1008,"date":"2004-12-07T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-07T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/12\/07\/virginia_news_2\/"},"modified":"2004-12-07T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-07T21:30:00","slug":"virginia_news_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/12\/07\/virginia_news_2\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charter Schools<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Staunton News-Leader is here<\/a> talking about the big three Va. universities trying to secede from the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

It is projected that tuition at U.Va. will increase up to 61 percent in five years if the charter initiative passes. We may assume similar rates of increase will occur at William and Mary and Tech.The autonomy sought by these schools is far too broad — absurd, in fact. Under the terms of the charter as it now stands, Tech, U.Va. and William and Mary seek to be exempted from state and local statutes or ordinances, rules, regulations and guidelines. They also seek exemption from assessment and payment of all state and local taxes or assessments on any of their projects, property, operations or transactions and any income earned from them. <\/p>\n

\u2026[The proposal] would authorize the institutions to implement inferior benefits and severance protection for anyone hired after the charter went into force, if it is passed. Outsourcing of jobs and services will lead to cheaping out by contractors who will pay low wages and offer minimal or no benefits to employees. The quality of employees will suffer accordingly. That, in turn, will lead to shoddy or non-existent service. <\/p>\n

\u2026The charter initiative represents raw greed overtaking anything resembling a desire to educate. Besides pricing many students out of a chance to attend these three schools, U.Va. envisions itself as becoming a steward of “research parks” which will have little to do with advancing students’ education or employability and much to do with making money. What we will be left with is something more akin to corporatization than higher education. <\/p>\n

\u2026Virginia will suffer, the localities where these schools are located will suffer, students, faculty and staff will suffer, diversity in the student population will be replaced with wealthy homogeneity. This is not a good proposal. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t think they like it.<\/p>\n

New Jobs Initiative<\/em><\/strong>
\nGovernor Mark Warner yesterday outlined his jobs proposal. Tourism<\/a> is part of it. It also includes<\/a><\/p>\n

$5 million for the Virginia Artisans Initiative, including retail centers in Staunton and Southwest Virginia to showcase local arts and crafts. <\/p>\n

$4 million for grants to regional consortiums that develop plans for matching education and work force training programs to industry needs. <\/p>\n

$4 million to redevelop old or abandoned industrial sites. <\/p>\n

$3 million for a new network of “rails to trails” projects in Southside Virginia. <\/p>\n

$379,000 to launch an advanced manufacturing program at Dabney Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge. <\/p>\n

$325,000 for research on specialty crops at Virginia Tech and Virginia State University.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Richmond Times-Dispatch editorializes in its article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although some might consider it too modest, Ruff countered that the plan sets the right tone and scale for the communities to handle and profit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But nowhere in the story do they cite or quote anyone saying the proposal is \u201ctoo modest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story also says \u201c[t]he major culprits have been in areas outside the control of government, including steep declines in the communities’ traditional sectors, from textiles and manufacturing to coal and tobacco.<\/p>\n

Blowing Smoke<\/em><\/strong>
\nSpeaking of tobacco, some folks want to save the industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the next few months, expect to hear the word “transitional” being used a lot to describe tobacco growing in this country – and in the Dan River Region.<\/p>\n

Thanks to passage of a $10.1 billion quota buyout bill, tobacco growing will never be the same.<\/p>\n

\u2026But if the tobacco quota buyout makes American-grown tobacco more competitive in the world market, the effort to get the bill through Congress will have been worthwhile. And if more competitive American-grown tobacco revitalizes the local tobacco-growing industry, that will be even better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By all means, let\u2019s make the production of a product that serves little purpose other than to kill you prematurely \u201ceven better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do you pay if you don’t pay?\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Hampton Roads Daily Press<\/a> uses the Senate Finance Committee\u2019s recent transportation report<\/a> to add up the costs of the state\u2019s crumbling transportation network.<\/p>\n

Chap Petersen Announces<\/strong><\/em>
\nOf Fairfax Democrat Del. Chap Petersen\u2019s announcement that he is a candidate for Lt. Governor one story<\/a> summed it up this way.<\/p>\n

He listed higher education, transportation and saving taxpayer money as among his top issues and vowed to wage a “people’s campaign” that would focus on personal contact, hard work and “original ideas.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Petersen made all the key points Democrats statewide must articulate: Higher Ed, transportation and government efficiency.<\/p>\n

He also mentioned something national Democrats should consider: original ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charter Schools The Staunton News-Leader is here talking about the big three Va. universities trying to secede from the Commonwealth. It is projected that tuition at U.Va. will increase up to 61 percent in five years if the charter initiative passes. We may assume similar rates of increase will occur at William and Mary and… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}