VAPLAN

Yes, but it's more about how the media will report it. We live in a world of soundbytes, not statistics. 😒

I've been "educated" over on *that other site* that this change is something experts in education support, but my main point re: the timing and how headlines next year will scream about scores plummeting under Gov Spanberger is still correct.

Higher SOL cut scores coming, but not this year, Virginia board says • Virginia Mercury Virginia will delay raising its academic benchmarks in reading and math until the following school year — a pause that gives teachers and school divisions a brief breather before higher proficiency st...

The tl;dr is that Youngkin put in place a new (untested and nonstandard) way to measure--just in the future--how well Virginia is educating her children that will make it look like Governor Spanberger isn't doing well. virginiamercury.com/2025/11/14/h...

Centra South Side Community Hospital to close labor and delivery unit in Farmville • Virginia Mercury Starting on Dec. 19, Farmville-area expectant parents will need to travel to Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg — a roughly hour-long drive west.

Nothing to see here from the "pro-life" folks, right? virginiamercury.com/2025/11/07/c...

I suspect they'd have lost 5-6 House seats no matter what. But with a terrible top of the ticket and putting all their eggs in a (fairly unlikeable) Miyares basket, a few more were sorta screwed.

Seemed pretty obvious when they nominated a terrible candidate for the top of the ticket (and then national and VA GOP only dumped money into Miyares for months) that GOP delegates had been thrown under the bus. Not sure Kilgore's to blame for most of that.

No words for how vile and disgusting this is. And dangerous, frankly, to rile up a MAGA mob about not wanting *those kind of people* in this state. Where have we seen this before? 🤔

Oh, don't worry, @abigailspanberger.com IS going to pack up and go home--just as soon as Youngkin moves out of it!

Democratic colleagues Simon, Ebbin, Watts and Locke wrote in their letter to OSIG that they are “deeply concerned” Miyares may have pressured VADOC “to adjust its practices in ways that advantage” his campaign.

“If true, this would represent a profound breach of the public trust,” they wrote.

Sen Mulchi speaking passionately and heart-breakingly about domestic violence and how many victims of domestic violence are re-victimized in court, labeled as having mental illness. And I can't help but think about how Miyares did that to this victim: vanow.org/news/article...

Voting board shows 21 yeas and 16 nays on HJ6007

@ssurovell.bsky.social before Virginia Senate passes redistricting amendment: What do you do when one side refuses to play by the rules? Do you continue to play by the rules and concede defeat? Or do you take actions, even if unsavory, to protect the principles of democratic government?

@senatorlocke.bsky.social points out that the GOP keep saying "We don't react to things happening elsewhere," but all year long we've been responding to Executive Orders coming from DC, whether they follow the law or constitution or not. While other states are fighting back, Miyares is not.

Weird how it's the "death of our democracy" here in Virginia to offer the voters a chance to engage in mid-decade redistricting.

So do we all agree that Trump's actions are the death of democracy?

We keep hearing occasional peeps from VA GOP members during this redistricting discussion insinuating-sometimes downright stating-that Trump's coerced mid-decade redistricting in TX & elsewhere to rig Congress's majority is wrong. But none of them said a single word before this.

GOP Senator Peake says something good was said down the hall from someone "we rarely hear good things from, [GOP] Delegate Lee Ware" OUCH!

It's cute for the Senate GOP to argue about what constitutes an intervening election and whether voters have a chance to oust legislators if they don't like how they vote on this amendment when it ISN'T THE SENATE THAT IS UP FOR ELECTION. So there's no risk to them either way.

Oh goody, we're going to have a constitutional law duel on the Senate floor on this Friday morning. 🫠

@ssurovell.bsky.social on early voters: They voted before the shutdown, before the East Wing of the White House was torn down, before they knew whether the government would extend the health care subsidies, lots of things people were unaware of but made up their mind to vote early anyway.

Voting board shows 16 yeas and 21 nays on motion to approve floor changes to HJ6007

Senate rejects GOP floor changes to redistricting amendment that'd undermine the intent of this plan, which is to give Virginians the opportunity to ask legislature to respond to unfair redistricting taking place in other states, watering down their representation in Congress.

Probably wouldn't matter, but the Senate GOP kinda hamstrings themselves by not all showing up to work. They're missing 3 members when the majority has a one vote margin.

If they love redistricting comissions show much, why have they never rebuked trump's efforts to "find me more seats?" Why have they never demanded federal legislation prohibiting mid-decade redistricting? Of course, the answer is they don't care about process, they care about power.

It is RICH to hear these GOP Senators fervently singing praises of the Redistricting Commish. @creighdeeds.bsky.social & others drafted redistricting commish amendments for YEARS, and the GOP rejected every single one of them UNTIL they were in minority & could no longer draw own districts.

Sen Obenshain says that the decision on how many Republican-leaning and how many Democratic-leaning Congressional seats Virginia has shouldn't be one of those "cats and dogs issues" that Democrats and Republicans aren't supposed to agree on. Huh?

The Virginia Senate has a Charlie Kirk memorial resolution on the floor this morning. I will not be reporting any further on it.

Bear in mind any maps drawn would still have to follow Virginia and federal laws on districts--compact, contiguous, preserving communities of interest, equal representation, etc.

There's nothing further to update. The Senate has to have constitutional readings on the floor (tomorrow, just procedural) and then discuss and take a floor vote to pass it (Friday I think). Assuming they make no changes, that will be it, until the January session when they must pass it again.

Voting board shows 8 yeas and 6 nays on motion to report HJ6007

Senate Privileges and Elections reports out redistricting amendment resolution to the floor.

@aaronrouse.bsky.social: Speaking of unprecedented, it has been five weeks since the US House has convened to seat a duly-elected member from Arizona. What happens when that becomes Virginia? Do we ignore what happens at the federal level?

@creighdeeds.bsky.social says doing Congressional redistricting with a bipartisan commission when other states don't do the same is like unilaterally disarming, and says that this resolution probably doesn't go far ENOUGH, but it's an important start to responding to Trump's power grab.

@russetperry.bsky.social: "If they don't want it, they can say so!" But I think the concern, and you're right to be concerned about that, I think they're going to decide that too, is that voters will want to take this action. It'll be the voters decision--that's the foundation of democracy.