The Youngkin Team Pulls a Bait and Switch

 Today at the first meeting of Virginia Governor Youngkin’s new Virginia Board of Education (with 5 new far right members), the pro-charter-lab-company-schools organizations were out in full force to insist that College Partnership Lab Schools had to be moved forward quickly, quickly. 

CodeVA, a 501(c)3 that works with schools, were there with multiple representatives to make the case that all the colleges want to do business with their computer-science high school program. Besides the state's $100M, they were also excited about the $4 Million grant that Amazon had given them; and their partnerships with Microsoft, Google, and Lego. Hurry was their message. We are waiting for your money.

Go Virginia, the Chamber of Commerce’s state initiative to create company job training schools based on large regional employer needs expressed excitement about getting these schools up and running. 

The Superintendent for Mecklenburg County was thrilled about training his students to work in the industries in their county- specifically in tobacco and other agriculture jobs.

After public comments closed Delegate Glenn Davis, the house sponsor of the original Lab School bill came in flustered and frustrated, urging the Board to move forward with the Guidelines that the Department of Education had put forward. 

There was just one problem- The recently released DOE guidelines offered the $100,000,000 to almost ANY post high school institution - private, religious, politically missioned, two year, and four year.  

However, the actual state budget language explicitly states: 

“Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of § 22.1-349.1, Code of Virginia, for the purpose of this Item, a "college partnership laboratory school" means a public, nonsectarian, nonreligious school in the Commonwealth established by a baccalaureate public institution of higher education.” 

The Youngkin team tried a bait and switch and got caught! Will they still manage to keep the big fish?