In our Washington Post column this week, Paul Goldman and I write about the return of the “chloroform of conformity” to Virginia politics and what it has meant for education:
Again, more money doesn’t mean better schools. But with so many of Virginia’s public schools crumbling because of age or outright neglect, the case for putting more money to work to correct these problems seems self-evident. The conscious policy of benign neglect has turned what was once a manageable list of fixes into a litany of horrors.
That assumes, however, anyone cares about the kids who attend those schools. It appears not to be so. Many of the kids and families in these crumbling schools are, to be blunt, poor. They are also overwhelmingly minority. One might think Democrats would have a field day with this, hammering Republicans for their tight-fistedness.
But they, like Republicans, prefer instead to keep inhaling the chloroform of conformity, allowing the disposable kids in those crumbling schools to fend for themselves.
There is opportunity here for a candidate in 2017. Whether any of the names floating around as possible gubernatorial candidates will seize it is an open question.
