Meanwhile ... 1.) Last week was National School Choice week, and a Thomas Jefferson Institute-commissioned Mason-Dixon poll showed the highest support (74 percent) for Virginia’s sole education choice program (the Virginia Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit) among black voters (here). Overall support is 68 percent; among Democrats, 64 percent. Read the results and methodology here. 2.) Expansion of the EISTC and college partnership lab schools as well as creation of Education Savings Accounts and real charter schools will be considered by the General Assembly this year. This results in adversaries blowing a dog whistle unfairly conflating segregationist policies with modern education choice (here) in an effort to scare Black support away (here). We are confident Black voters are seeing through the Left's scam. 3.) Consistency is not an attribute of the media. In back to back editorials, The Washington Post praised Governor Glenn Youngkin for trying to establish charter schools (here) and attacked him for his mask policies, saying he showed “disdain” for the Virginia Constitution (here) ... in both cases citing the same section of the Virginia Constitution. We pointed out The Post can’t have it both ways here (third letter down here). 4.) The Governor’s Mask-Optional order continues to spur controversy (here). Democratic Senator Chap Petersen, meanwhile, continues to exhibit the independence that makes him (along with Senator Joe Morrissey) the Joe Manchin-Kyrsten Sinema of the Virginia Senate. While not a fan of Executive Orders (he took Ralph Northam to court over it), in a Friday newsletter to constituents, Petersen echoed an earlier newsletter (here) argues that the long-term masking of children cannot become the “new normal,” School Boards have to adopt metrics for phasing out forced masking, and cites The Case Against Masks at Schools (here), asking “At what point do politicians have the courage to say ‘enough?’” It appears the Governor has, but a permanent solution will take something more than him alone. 5.) Morrissey, meanwhile, continued to confound his more leftish colleagues in a hearing for Andrew Wheeler, Youngkin’s nominee for natural resources secretary, asking “Why do you think you’re such a lightning rod of controversy? Because I’ll be clear, what I’ve heard today, particularly on things that are important to me, all sound good.” (here). 6.) Education wasn’t the only Mason-Dixon polling data released by the Institute, as we released a poll showing overwhelming opposition to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other expensive Green New Deal efforts (here). You can read the poll and the methodology here. 7.) Institute Senior Fellow Steve Haner also released a review of the tax proposals made by Governor Youngkin (some building on those proposed by Governor Northam), concluding that if adopted they would be “the most significant tax cut in the state’s recent history” (here). Finally ... we have been tied up and away much of this week at a national strategy session on public sector labor unions, worker freedom, monopoly union contracts and collective bargaining ... so this is both an abridged newsletter and late as well. Happy Sunday Everyone! Play the Long Game.
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