FamilyFoundationBlog.com

Annotations & Elucidations

The Governor’s Take

The education poll leads the news, but by now you know all about that. As for politics, Governor Tim Kaine is all about the long knives, now, criticizing Creigh Deeds for his campaign, as if the DNC chairman had no say so in it. I would write that it’s easy for him to complain, but what does he know? He wasn’t in Virginia for the campaign (rim shot, please).

The bulk of the news is about the House of Delegates: The Appropriations Committee gets a budget briefing during its annual two-day Capitol retreat; recently defeated Delegate Phil Hamilton (R-93, Newport News) announced his resignation, effective Sunday; and each  caucus held it’s leadership votes over the weekend. The Republican lineup remains the same while the Democrats seem to have a position for every member of its diminished number.

In education news, about 10 teachers at a Henrico County high school are complaining about a guest speaker who advocates abstinence. Yeah. Hate speech. Speaking of communication and culture, a real blow to the Washington, D.C., media community: The homosexual advocacy publication Washington Blade is closing its doors. 

News:

Poll: Virginians like public schools but would like more nonpublic options (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Democrat Deeds ran without his base, Kaine says (Washington Post)

House committee to hear state budget forecast (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Va. House caucuses choose leaders (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Phil Hamilton resigns from House of Delegates (The Daily Press)

Freeman High abstinence-only speaker draws fire (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Health care-sharing ministries: Paying their fair share (Roanoke Times)

Gay weekly Washington Blade closes (Washington Post)

Washington Blade closes; new paper for gays planned (Washington Times)

Yesterday, in a historic moment, The Family Foundation and Planned Parenthood stood together and supported the same bill!  We knew no one would believe it so we captured it on video. 

This year Delegate Jennifer McClellan (D-71, Richmond) introduced HB 1980 that singled out localities that had abstinence programs and required that they notify the parents that their child would be in an abstinence only program that did not comply with the state guidelines.  In its original form, we opposed it.  Abstinence programs are in full compliance with our standards of learning in the Family Life Education and they are effective.  Yesterday afternoon, Delegate McClellen approached us to suggest she amend the bill to no longer single out abstinence education and simply require that all parents be notified that the FLE curricula content is available to them for their review in the library prior to their decision as to whether or not their child should enroll in the program or be opted out.

The moment we joined Planned Parenthood to agree on anything sent shockwaves through the subcommittee.  Some wondered if earth had tilted off its axis!  Some still don’t believe it, so to prove it really happened, here it is:

Will the world ever be the same again?

Planned Parenthood and the “Comprehensive Sex Ed” crowd has launched a national effort to pass legislation that requires that what is taught in schools in our family life education programs is “medically accurate.”   It’s a feeble attempt to undermine abstinence education programs, stating that they don’t talk enough about contraceptives, etc.  The abstinence providers we’ve talked with know that they are fully medically accurate as they clearly state information about condoms, along with their accurate failure rate when used incorrectly.  It’s a silly bill nonetheless.

Yesterday, The Family Foundation defeated Del. Hull’s HB 1789 to ensure that the information taught in FLE is “medically accurate.”  Here’s a clip from the sub-committee hearing.