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Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office said the Black Lives Matter at School toolkit released by a Virginia teachers union “will not be tolerated.” The Virginia Education Association’s Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action toolkit champions BLM’s 13 principles in the classroom. It uses kindergarten through 12th grade lesson plans made by the education branch of the Southern Poverty Law Center to teach students principles including “transgender affirming,” “queer affirming,” “restorative justice,” and “globalism.” The principles promote critical race theory, a racial lens that teaches students to deconstruct American society on the premise that its institutions are “systemically...

It seems like every single day we see a new example of government schools, particularly in Virginia, being run by people who are totally obsessed with exercising their power to force terrible Covid regulations that prevent kids from learning.This latest example is from a teachers' union boss in Fairfax, Virginia who is celebrating higher rates of Covid because it means that they can continue to keep kids masked:Her air quotes aside, she is still celebrating HIGHER Covid rates because it means that the teachers will be able to continue exercising their power to muzzle kids in schools.Most sane people would...

I suppose it can said of a Virginia elementary school teacher who allegedly told her students “Republicans are stupid” that she at least spoke her mind. Her actions are more defensible than those of a fellow Old Dominion State colleague who deviously tasked her students with finding flaws in the GOP presidential candidates but not in the lone Democratic candidate. The Daily Caller reports that “as Republican voters were filing into the halls of [Colin] Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday,” teacher Kristin Martin told her sixth-grade class that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t...

We’re so stupid that we find it abhorrent when a teacher pushes liberal propaganda on unsuspecting students. Via Daily Caller: A Virginia elementary school teacher told her students that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t care about anyone but wealthy people and businesses.” Kristin Martin said this to her 6th grade class as Republican voters were filing into the halls of Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday. “It all started when this disabled kid came in and named all the Republicans candidates for Super Tuesday,” one student told The Daily Caller. “She [Martin] said to...

Virginia middle school teacher is under fire after making his students do "opposition research" on Republican presidential candidates, according to a report. Eighth-graders at Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County were assigned to research the backgrounds and positions of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and find any “weaknesses,” according to The Daily Caller. The students were then required to draft a strategy paper, mapping out how to exploit those weaknesses and then research how to forward it to the Obama campaign.

Wear black on Friday, February 17, 2012 to illustrate your collective mourning over the attack that has been launched against Virgnia's teachers and students by legislators with the open disrespect and disdain as demonstrated by eliminating continuing contract status for ...new teachers, an effort to diminish our pension benefits, and general underfunding of our schools resulting in too large class sizes, under resourced schools and classrooms, and salaries that lag embarrassingly below the national average in spite of the fact that Virginia is the 7th wealthiest state in the nation.

Continuing Contract Threatened Take Action! Write Your Delegate Today HB 576 denies experience teachers continuing contract, moving them to annual contracts. Thwart this attack on the teaching profession by writing your delegate now!

November 16, 2011 Dear xxxxx: I have not written since the elections. Partly because we've been extremely busy, and partly because I just needed to ponder the results. I thank each of you who worked in the campaigns for friends of education, and I thank all of you who voted. We won eight of our twelve targeted races. The VEA Fund recommended 36 House candidates. Twenty-three of those candidates won for a winning percentage of 64%. The VEA Fund recommended 25 Senate candidates. Nineteen of those candidates won for a winning percentage of 76%. We lost the Senator that has...

VEA Recommends Candidates for Election The VEA Fund for Children and Public Education is recommending a raft of pro-public education candidates for election. (Read more about the process below.) As of October 14, these Senate and House of Delegates candidates had earned recommendations. Recommended Candidates for Senate (Senate District) John Miller (1) Mamie Locke (2) Ralph Northam (6) Donald McEachin (9) David Bernard (10) Shawn Mitchell (13) Henry Marsh (16) Edd Houck (17) Louise Lucas (18) Brandon Bell (19) Roscoe Reynolds (20) John Edwards (21) Bert Dodson (22) Creigh Deeds (25) Charles Colgan (29) Adam Ebbin (30) Barbara Favola (31)...

October 17, 2011 Dear The news from the last few days could not have been more incongruous. Nor could it have revealed a greater misunderstanding of state government on the part of the electorate. First, the public is pleased with the direction of the state and the current General Assembly. Olympia Meola wrote, when reporting on the new Christopher Newport University/Richmond Times-Dispatch poll, "Virginians are a largely content bunch when it comes to the direction of the state …." Second, Virginians face an election which will completely change the direction of state government. Bob Lewis of the Associated Press wrote,...

July 18, 2011 Dear Governor McDonnell made it clear on CNBC that a pension battle lays ahead. Please listen to what he says from 1:37 to 3:51 relating to VRS. http://virginiapolitics.tumblr.com/post/7580306962/gov-bob-mcdonnell-made-his-pitch-for-taking It appears to me that the Governor is wrong on three counts. First, as you know state workers now pay the employee contribution. Second, almost all states have defined benefit plans, as do some private sector entities. Please see the article below that appeared in Financial Times on 4/25/11. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/25/why-young-workers-want-a-good-old-fashioned-pension/ Only Alaska and DC do not have defined benefit plans for teachers. Please see this study: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/CharacteristicsLargePubEdPensionPlans2010.pdf Third, Virginia’s...

Victoria Cobb, President Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Information Alert: Senate Finance Dems Reject Ed Freedom Yesterday, nine Senate democrats rejected education opportunity for low-income children by cowering before Virginia’s education establishment. By a 9-6 party-line vote, and in the face of overwhelming testimony, the committee defeated HB 2314, patroned by Delegate Jimmie Massie (R-72, Henrico). The legislation had the active support of Governor McDonnell and his staff. The Governor took the rare action of going office to office of committee members before yesterday's vote urging their support. I urge you to watch video from yesterday's meeting by clicking here. If...

Act to Stop School Voucher Bill! Take Action! Write Your Delegate Now! The House will debate Delegate Massie’s HB2314, a private school voucher bill, on Monday. The final vote should be on Tuesday. Please click on “Take Action!” to send your delegate a message urging the defeat of HB2314. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.

I am asked about the Virginia Lottery money at virtually every public meeting I attend. The public perception is that education should be in no trouble because we are showered with lottery funds. Check out this news story on TV3 in Hampton Roads: http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-va-lotto-school-budget,0,6190448.story To put the lottery proceeds for education on perspective, State General Fund Aid to Education in FY 2012 will be $4.9 billion. The lottery proceeds for education in that year will be $435.2 million. This money is not “bonus money” for our schools. It is used to fund ongoing programs, so the lottery is, in effect,...

November 12, 2010 Dear xxxxx As we approach the 2011 General Assembly (GA), legislators are focusing on what is still a daunting budget situation. Incoming revenues continue to lag the projections upon which the current budget was based, and the Governor is working on his amendments to balance the budget and advance his agenda. He will present his amendments on December 17th. For that reason, this message concentrates on funding. More Cuts? The Governor has requested that state agencies submit budgets cutting 2, 4 and 6%. In the past, direct aid to public education has not been included when these...

October 13, 2010 Dear xxxxx, Many of you have asked me to provide information regarding the upcoming elections. Your elected leaders on the VEA Fund Executive Committee examined the records, interviewed the candidates and studied the questionnaires to pick the best congressional candidates for public education. Then, President Boitnott moved the recommendation of these candidates at the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education Council meeting in Washington. This year, NEA concurred with all of our Virginia recommendations. The NEA Fund recommends: Glen Nye in the 2nd Bobby Scott in the 3rd Tom Perriello in the 5th Jim Moran in...

Dear xxxxx As part of our Issues Advocacy and Grassroots Lobbying campaign we have begun running TV ads in the Richmond and Hampton Roads TV markets. We wish we had the funds to run the ads everywhere. You can help get the word out by watching the ad by clicking the link below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F46R6NRP7Q Please share the link with your colleagues, family and friends. Please go to the website (and encourage family and friends to do the same) and sign the petitions to McDonnell and Deeds. www.supportvirginiaschools.com Thank you, Robley Jones VEA GR

Deeds' Speech Shows Contrast with McDonnell More Info Creigh Deeds persuasively made the connection between public education and a strong economy today in a major campaign speech at George Mason University. "This election is about Virginia's future: how we deal with the economic challenges we face and how we make our public schools the best and most innovative we possibly can," Deeds said. The singular most important piece of evidence we have of the candidates' stance on public education is the historic 2004 bipartisan effort that gave a $1.4-billion boost to public schools. Deeds voted for the measure; Bob McDonnell...

August 17, 2009 Dear xxxxx: The Caps Hurt Kids rally is at the Bell Tower in Richmond's Capitol Square (9th and Franklin Street) at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Certain rules do apply to events at the Capitol: No parades are allowed on Capitol Square (We'll be playing music, but resist the temptation to form a Conga Line). No stick-holding placards will be permitted (bring a sign, but no stake). No food may be served. No parking will be available on Capitol Square. No signs or other items are permitted to be placed on the Capitol Square fence. Please remember these...

July 22, 2009 Dear xxxxxx, Some of you will remember that the permanent cuts proposed by Governor Kaine and supported by the House to the Standards of Quality (SOQ) had a 2009-2010 price tag of $340 million, and state funding for 13,000 support positions was eliminated. We said then that the cost of the cuts would grow as enrollment increased. We'll they did. According to the Virginia Department of Education the permanent cuts, the imposition of the support cap ratio, will cut $754,301,683 from educating funding in the next biennial budget if adopted. I estimate that this will eliminate funding...