Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and today looks generally pleasant with a small chance of rain throughout the morning. Temperatures will warm up a bit over the course of the week as things dry out, so don’t put away your slip-ons quite yet.
Water cooler
It’s Tuesday, and that means coronacounts updates; here are the all-time graphs for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to COVID-19. Nothing surprising or shocking here, but, while we slide down the backside of the recent delta-induced peak, we still need to do all of the things that help keep each other safe: masking, testing and staying home when you feel sick, and, of course, getting vaccinated if you haven’t yet. I think it’s still too early to tell if our coronagraphs are headed back to summertime lows, or if the next half dozen weeks will look more like the UK’s graphs, which, after a big dealt peak, plateaued at winter 2020 levels.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Kenya Hunter has written a three-part series about the history, legacy, and future of segregation at the Maggie Walker Governor’s school. First, “One building, two schools: The legacy of segregation at Maggie Walker;” second, “For 20 years, white students have been accepted into Maggie Walker at a rate nearly four times higher than Black students;” and third, “Officials pledge progress on equity after governor’s school bill falters; another never got a hearing.” A lot of work went into these pieces, and I’m thankful for Hunter for putting together this narrative of how racism is so deeply built into many of our systems. The third and final piece looks at how the General Assembly tried (and failed) to change the way admissions work and increase the number of Black and Brown students attending the State’s Governor’s Schools. I think State involvement is really the only way to make cohesive steps towards more equitable enrollment, whether that’s through the GA or, as Anne Holton suggests, reforming how the school boards work. Either way, the outcome of the upcoming gubernatorial election will certainly have a lot to say about whether or not we continue working to dismantle this particular inequity.
