Virginia NAACP President Cozy Bailey speaking to a crowd in front of the Shenandoah County Circuit Court on June 11, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury) The Virginia NAACP on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Shenandoah County School Board for what it called “reaffirming discrimination,” after the school system voted to rebrand schools with Confederate names in May.  The lawsuit alleges that the school board violated the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act. The plaintiffs seek to remove the Confederate names, mascot ..read more

(Getty Images) Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares signed a letter with 20 of his Republican counterparts asking the American Bar Association to drop its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools. DEI efforts implemented in the schools directs their administrators to violate both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin,” the states argued. The letter comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in a lawsuit against Harvard College that ..read more

(Getty Images / ferrantraite) Ferrum College’s hopes for creating a specialized laboratory school have ended after months of discussions with state leaders, but the college’s president is still holding out for a different outcome. According to documents from the Virginia Department of Education, the private institution in Southwest Virginia joins more than a dozen institutions that are not being considered, some of which have withdrawn their applications including Eastern Shore Community College, Southside Virginia Community College, Hampton University and the University of Lynchburg. Virgin ..read more

Virginia Commonwealth University President Michael Rao meeting with lawmakers in Richmond on June 5. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury) Officials from Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health System told lawmakers on Wednesday they are reviewing an agreement to pay the city of Richmond approximately $2.5 million annually in lieu of taxes for a development that was never built, after the school paid the city, investors and developers nearly $80 million to exit the failed building project.  In 2021, VCU Health System signed a lease with a developer to construct the Clay Street Proje ..read more

(From left to right) Eric Oakes, Courtney White and Rachel Tully, assistant dean of students at VCU, participate in a Q&A with reporters following the 2024 Virginia Hazing Prevention Summit. Oakes' son Adam Oakes, who was also White's cousin, died from alcohol poisoning after a frat party at VCU in 2021. (Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury) Eric Oakes’ voice cracked for a moment when he reflected on the Virginia Hazing Prevention Summit he’d helped host at Virginia Commonwealth University Tuesday. Three years after the death of his son, Adam Oakes, the pain lingers but so does inspirat ..read more

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide funding to help school districts purchase clean school buses, most of them electric. Shown is a yellow electric school bus plugged into a charging station. (Photo by TW Farlow/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to help them purchase clean school buses. The initiative, part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus ..read more

(Getty Images) On the heels of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which mandated public school desegregation nationwide, Virginia’s scholarship fund named after the landmark Supreme Court case has gained $2.5 million in federal and state aid. The state’s Brown v. Board of Education scholarship fund now stands at more than $3.4 million, after $500,000 in federal funds were awarded in March and $2 million in state funds were confirmed in the commonwealth’s newly passed two-year spending plan, according to the scholarship committee. At a Wednesday morning meeting, th ..read more

Thousands of demonstrators rallied for better teacher pay and more public school funding during a January 2018 rally at the Capitol. Education groups still doubt that the state's current spending on teacher salaries is enough to reverse current staffing shortfalls. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury) Legislation that would have aligned Virginia teachers’ pay with the national average or higher by the 2027-28 school year won bipartisan support but was blocked from the state budget by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s veto last week.  The two-year budget, signed last week, includes $540 million to help pay ..read more

High school students across Virginia including those at McLean High School walked out in protest of the governor’s revised transgender student policies on Sept. 27, 2022. Pictured is a student holding a rainbow flag. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury) WASHINGTON — Twenty-six GOP-led states, including Virginia, are suing the Biden administration over changes to Title IX aiming to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools. Less than a month after the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule seeking to protect against discrimination “based on sex ster ..read more

Crews work to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson in Richmond in 2020. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) Proud and satisfied, or sad and embarrassed. However citizens of the commonwealth view Shenandoah County School Board’s recent decision, Virginia appears to be the first in the nation to restore Confederate school names, after years of vigorous community engagement, a controversial renaming process, and a change in board priorities related to race, diversity and inclusion. On May 10, the Shenandoah County School Board reversed a 2020 decision by a previous board to rebrand tw ..read more