Recently the Virginia House of Delegates passed a budget resolution to authorize the second half of the 2004-2006 budget. However, they chose to eliminate a line-item that would continue the study of The New College of Virginia. Claiming that the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) refused to endorse the proposal, the House leadership wants to argue that they cannot complete the study and get things started before the deadline.
What deadline, you ask? Click to find out.
The Harvest Foundation, a non-profit managing $200M in assets from the sale of a local hospital (no comment from the peanut gallery on the advisability of THAT move), has offered a $50M challenge grant to the state for the development of a public university in Martinsville in Southside. Unfortunately, because SCHEV said that more study was needed, the House decided not to spend the $1.5M that the governor's budget proposal introduced for the next year to continue the study. They said that the study couldn't be completed before the deadline for the challenge grant.
Tim Kaine, who's made the New College a major plank in his platform, blasted the SCHEV report, but couldn't be bothered to talk about the budget cut. Not sure why that is, but Kaine's been pushing hard for Southside development throughout his tenure as LG and in his campaign. SCHEV argued that because the Martinsville area was likely to lose population over the next ten years, there wouldn't be any jobs for graduates of the New College. Kaine responded that the college would itself bring in the business and development needed to provide jobs for its graduates.
I'm not sure how likely that is, but I wonder where the harvest Foundation is in all this. Why aren't they out kvetching every step of the way that the House is irresponsibly trying to keep Southside depressed to provide a pool of cheap uneducated labor for their "betters" in Richmond and NoVa?
There are big holes in this diary - lots of places where more information would be nice. Take that as your opportunity to show off your research skills or your knowledge of Virginia politics.