Virginia School Research Articles

A burden on future generations? How we learned to hate deficits and blame the baby boomers

The idea that public borrowing places an intolerable burden on posterity is as old as the institution of public debt itself. But the debate over deficit-spending assumed an entirely new scope and import with the rise of the fiscal state in the early twentieth century, as governments assumed greater responsibilities with regard to public welfare and found themselves subject to a new kind of conflict concerning the uses and distribution of public income. In this context, the intergenerational argument against social welfare spending became an important tool in the fight against class redistribution. With a focus on American debates, this article provides a historical sociology of the idea that deficits constitute a burden on future generations, identifying the key historical turning points when this idea acquired new political resonance. In particular, the article investigates how we learned to blame baby boomers for the alleged ills of government deficit-spending and how this now ubiquitous motif of public discourse was reintroduced by the Virginia school public choice theorist James M. Buchanan and later refined by the chief proponent of generational accounting, Laurence Kotlikoff.

Are there Alternative Traditions in Public Choice? An Introduction

This brief note introduces readers to the papers published in this issue on the theme of “Alternative Traditions in Public Choice.” While the field of Public Choice is commonly seen to have been born of Buchanan and Tullock’s Calculus of Consent (1962), the guest editors encouraged submissions to consider alternative influences. Instead, the papers illustrate the difficulty of disentangling Public Choice from the influence of Buchanan and the underlying political philosophy of the Virginia School. This suggests something about the importance of Buchanan in the field but, also, tells us that scholars themselves have difficulties to escape the path-dependence that exists in the history of economic thought.

En mémoire de Gordon Tullock, l’économiste non-conformiste

Gordon Tullock’s insights have revolutionized the analytical framework of economists and political scientists. Both independently and with coauthor James M. Buchanan and others, Tullock (1922-2014) made seminal contributions to the economic theory of majority voting, constitutions, rent seeking, fiscal federalism, bureaucracy, government action to redistribute income, demand revelation, bio-economics, monetary history, and in law and legal systems with focus on the economic analysis of pollution, crime, punishment, and litigation. Tullock applied his economic perspective of homo economicus to the common law versus the codified law and the economics of juries. His innovative use of the economic paradigm to areas considered outside standard economics, often led him to unexpected outcomes, which laid the groundwork for streams of research to be carried by others. Whether by neglect or purpose, Tullock did not explicitly articulate the connection of the various elements of his nonconventional economics into a general system. This paper explores some of Tullock’s unconventional work within the context of his contributions to the development of Public Choice and the broader Virginia school of political economy.

First person – Brittany Seman

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Brittany Seman is first author on ‘Neonatal low-density granulocytes internalize and kill bacteria but suppress monocyte function using extracellular DNA’, published in JCS. Brittany is a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology in the lab of Dr Cory M. Robinson at West Virginia School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, investigating host–pathogen interactions in the context of infectious diseases.

TaffiX® Nasal Powder forms an Effective Barrier against SARS-CoV-2

Barbara J Mann1*, G Brett Moreau1, Tair Lapidot2 and Dalia Megiddo2 Author Affiliations 1University of Virginia School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Charlottesville, VA, USA 2Nasus Pharma, 29 Harakevet St, Tel Aviv, Israel Received: January 13, 2021| Published: January 27, 2021 Corresponding author:Barbara J Mann, P.O. Box 801340, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2021.33.005405

The effects of a comprehensive and supplemental middle school reading program

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program’s impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement scores, including students with disabilities, to determine reading gains. The multi-year curriculum consisted of multiple components (word-level instruction, comprehension and vocabulary, motivation and engagement, and assessment) and seven related instructional units, each taught using explicit instruction. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the intervention’s effectiveness. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and comparison conditions on a standardized measure of reading achievement with some scores favoring the experimental condition. Results support, in part, the reading program’s promise to improve middle school students’ reading achievement scores at a level that may narrow the reading achievement gap.

The Relationship Between Perceived Teacher Support and School Burnout Among Males in Christian High Schools

Male students are especially susceptible to becoming disgruntled with high school and leaving school early. A quantitative correlational research study was conducted to explore whether teacher support can predict school burnout among Christian high school males. One hundred twenty-six male students from four private, Christian high schools in North Carolina and Virginia participated in this study which examined four sub-categories of teacher support (investedness, positive regard, expectations, and accessible). The Teacher Support Scale measured teacher support and the School Burnout Inventory measured participants’ level of school burnout. Multiple regression analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between perceived teacher support and male students’ level of school burnout. The perception of Christian male students’ personal connection with teachers, specifically teachers’ positive regard, is believed to be a strong predictor of school burnout.

Infinite Regress: Virginia School Neoliberalism and the Tax Revolt

This article examines the fortunes of American government in light of the work of James M. Buchanan, the Virginia school political economist whose thinking on constitutional revolution played a formative, if largely unrecognized, role in shaping the tax revolt. By looking backwards, to an earlier wave of constitutional tax and spending limits enacted in the American South during the Redemption era, and forwards, to the increasingly regressive nature of local government revenue generation in the wake of the tax revolt, this article shows that Virginia school neoliberalism is less an argument against taxation than an argument in favor of regressive forms of taxation that are rarely acknowledged as such—user fees, fines, and flat-rate levies. The city of Ferguson, Missouri, which has become infamous for its exorbitant use of municipal ordinance violations and court fees to fund local services, is examined as a real-world experiment in Virginia school public finance.

DBQ: Document-based Quarantine

This paper presents how one school and one special library handled the first months of quarantine and remote teaching and learning as COVID-19 hit the United States in spring 2020. While teaching with archives has long been a part of the professional discourse within the archival and special collections community, changes in methodology in teaching remotely and modifications to the Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) exam’s document-based question (DBQ) called for experimentation and innovation. The collaboration between APUSH teachers at Woodbridge Senior High School in Virginia and the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania provided one solution to preparing students for the modified AP exam. The authors of this paper explore the background and context of the work of teachers and archivists, describe the actions taken in spring 2020, and analyze the results and impact. Lessons learned and future opportunities for collaboration are then examined. The paper concludes with a proposal that similar relationships and activities are not just possible but also beneficial for all involved.

A Unique Opportunity for Education Policy Makers

A Unique Opportunity for Education Policy Makers Jenna Conway (bio) When it comes to solving problems and measuring impact, public education organizations primarily rely on two approaches—using civil service to hire personnel directly or using competitive procurement to hire outside experts on contract. These two approaches can limit such organizations' efforts to gain insights, to incorporate cutting-edge research into policy and practice, and to develop innovative solutions quickly, nimbly and affordably. In this commentary, I discuss how public education organizations can use research-practice partnerships (RPPs), especially partnerships with public higher education institutions, to tackle new, unique, and complicated education problems and thereby help children. Consider how traditional approaches can inadvertently limit public education organizations. In civil service, most jobs are full-time, classified positions with very specific descriptions that are subject to a range of restrictions to protect the rights of employees. It can be hard to gain new insights without procuring outside experts whose rates are significantly higher than most government pay scales. Similarly, public education organizations may have a research director or team, but they usually don't have the capacity to analyze all the available data or measure the impact of everything the organization does. For new initiatives or pilot programs, public education organizations rarely have the internal research or analytical capacity to conduct rigorous, real-time research on interventions as they are implementing them. Instead, they typically rely on outside research. Doing so entails a lengthy grant application or procurement process and requires an extended time period to collect and analyze data and produce findings. Finally, with procurement, a public organization must specify both the problem and proposed solution up front, establish constraints, and require bidders to define precisely what they will do and provide and how much it will cost. This can inhibit an iterative design process where prototypes can be tested and improved. To top it off, the procurement process itself can take a year or more. Procurement may work well for well-established projects and services, but it proves more challenging when a state is [End Page 157] designing a new service, intervention, or tool, especially one that will be used by a large and diverse set of users. In contrast, RPPs, particularly those involving public higher education institutions, offer a unique opportunity for policy makers to expediently and cost-effectively gain expertise, integrate real-time research into their policies and practices, and design and build innovative solutions in an iterative manner that better meets their needs. First, RPPs allow public education organizations to gain cutting-edge expertise without having to hire full-time staff or procure expensive consultants, which may not be economically feasible. When I was assistant superintendent of early childhood for the Louisiana Department of Education, we established a multi-year partnership with Daphna Bassok at the University of Virginia School of Education. In an ambitious transformation of its birth-to-five early childhood system, Louisiana unified its child care, Head Start, and school-based prekindergarten systems. Specifically, over five years, Louisiana established uniform expectations across programs, supported local networks in every community, measured interactions in every classroom, offered incentives for quality improvement at the classroom level, and coordinated enrollment locally to make it easier for families to choose the best option for their children. Louisiana's approach, which was different from that of most other states, entailed significant change for early childhood educators and for the department. Operating from the hypothesis that teacher-child interactions are what matters most for child outcomes, Louisiana rapidly gathered classroom data from thousands of child care, Head Start, and school sites across the state. It would have been hard to hire staff or craft a contract with specific targets when we were unsure what the data would reveal and when no other state or entity had done what we were doing. In exchange for our collaborating on research projects (and the grant proposals that preceded them), helping them safely and securely access appropriate data, and offering their graduate students valuable internship opportunities, UVA helped Louisiana make sense of large volumes of new classroom data, offered insights on how to encourage improvement, designed new approaches to engage families through enrollment, and...

The school to prison pipeline: quantitative evidence to guide school counselor advocacy

ABSTRACT The school to prison pipeline begins with disciplinary incidents which result in suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to law enforcement. We analyzed 230,988 disciplinary infractions from one year in public K-12 schools in Virginia. We found evidence that Black male and female students are overrepresented in initial infractions and overrepresentation worsens only at the more discretionary points of the school to prison pipeline. A three-pronged approach to school counselor advocacy for transformative change is detailed herein.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Three School Meals and Weekend Food Backpacks on Food Security in Virginia

BackgroundFood insecurity is a concern for the health and well-being of low-income children in the United States. School-based nutrition assistance programs aim to reduce food insecurity; however, there is limited evidence of their combined impact on food insecurity among children (FI-C). ObjectiveThis study tested the impact of the Virginia 365 demonstration project on the food security status of children attending low-income schools. DesignA cluster-randomized trial was conducted from 2016 to 2017 with baseline and follow-up surveys. Participants/settingHouseholds with children who attended a treatment (n = 19) or control (n = 19) school in rural and urban Virginia were included. InterventionTreatment schools became food hubs where children had access to free breakfast, lunch, and supper on school days, and a food backpack on weekends and school breaks. Control schools implemented a similar, but less robust set of benefits. Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was the percentage of children classified as FI-C as measured by the US Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Survey Module. Secondary outcomes included very low food security among children and food security among households and adults. Statistical analysis performedLogistic regression models tested the impact of the demonstration on FI-C and secondary outcomes adjusting for baseline household and individual characteristics. ResultsAt follow-up, 1,393 treatment households and 1,243 control households completed a survey sufficiently to be included in the analysis. The rate of FI-C in treatment households was higher at 25.9% compared with 23.9% in control households, a difference of 2 percentage points (95% CI 0.1 to 3.9). The rate of very low food security among children in treatment households was lower at 3.2% compared with 3.9% in control households, a difference of −0.7 percentage points (95% CI −1.3 to −0.10). ConclusionsAlthough the distinction in nutrition assistance benefits between treatment and control schools was less than planned, providing a suite of school-based nutrition assistance programs targeted broadly to low-income households with children has both positive and negative impacts on child and household food insecurity.

Salad Bars and Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Title I Elementary Schools.

Despite widespread support for salad bars as a means to increase fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake within the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), empirical support for their use is limited. This cross-sectional study examined associations between salad bar access and F&V selection and consumption in Title I elementary schools in Virginia serving universal free meals. Three matched pairs of schools (3 with salad bars; 3 without [control]) were randomly selected. Digital imagery plate waste methods assessed F&V selection, waste, and consumption. N = 1559 trays (N = 760 salad bar; N = 799 control) from 1st-5th grade students were analyzed (92.5% NSLP participation; 98.6% racial/ethnic minority). Salad bar usage varied widely (8.2%-63.8%). Different patterns of F&V selection and consumption were observed across pairs. Vegetable selection was higher in one salad bar school (+43.6g; q < .001) and vegetable consumption higher in 2 salad bar schools (+15.3g [q = .005]; +8.3g [q = .022]), compared with matched controls. Students in 2 salad bar schools selected more fruit than controls (+30.2g and +18g; qs < .001), yet fruit consumption differed across all 3 pairs. Salad bar access might facilitate children's vegetable intake. Inconsistent results across school pairs suggest that school food environment factors other than salad bar access influenced F&V consumption.

Optimal Allocation of Nursing Resources: An Interview With Robyn Begley, DNP, RN, NEA-BC; Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN; and Todd Nelson, FHFMA, MBA.

Appropriate nurse staffing to provide high-quality care was a hot topic before the pandemic challenged healthcare organizations across the nation. In a report released earlier this year, the subject is explored by 3 coauthors: Robyn Begley, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, chief executive officer of American Organization for Nursing Leadership and chief nursing officer of the American Hospital Association; Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, University of Virginia School of Nursing Sadie Heath Cabaniss professor and dean and former president of the American Nurses Association; and Todd Nelson, FHFMA, MBA, Healthcare Financial Management Association director of partnership relationships and chief partnership executive. The report was excerpted in the June issue of Nurse Leader and can be read in full at the Healthcare Financial Management Association website. The authors delve into the report's insights, generated by questions from Terese Hudson Thrall, managing editor at the American Organization for Nursing Leadership.

University of Virginia School of Medicine.

University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Electing Economics: Election Law's Efficiency-Convergence Dilemma

We are facing a moment of unique reflection in American democracy. Data suggests that marginalized communities feel persistently ignored by political actors—on a bipartisan basis. The scale of wealth inequality is soaring to unprecedented heights. Domestic indifference to foreign interference in our elections has poisoned public confidence in the political process. Mass reckonings with institutionalized racism and police violence have rocked major cities, facing deep and violent resistance from the President and the federal government. A global pandemic disproportionately devastated Black and Brown communities, and the federal government’s response prioritized economic liberty over health and safety. Americans are reconsidering the nature of our relationship to the federal government, and the pressure for reform may now exceed any moment since the New Deal. In this setting, Iowa’s dramatic failure to efficiently administer the Democratic Presidential Caucus hardly seems worthy of a footnote in the history of 2020. Yet, at the time, it became a national story. Iowa’s failure to administer an efficient election was new—but election law’s marriage to economic efficiency is much older. Understanding the depth of efficiency’s roots in the law of democracy requires turning back to that same New Deal era. The conflict between the American Legal Realists and the laissez faire Lochnerism of the Supreme Court laid the groundwork for efficiency’s lasting role in law—and for the century of criticism that sprung up to contest it. Efficiency—and specifically, the conceptions of efficiency proffered by Chicago School Law and Economics and Virginia School Public Choice Theory—emerged victorious from those contests. But, we are facing a moment of unique reflection, and in such a moment, an opportunity arises. By looking back through efficiency’s rise, we can chart a course forward. This article offers a framework with which to do so: the efficiency-convergence dilemma. Part I builds the efficiency-convergence, outlining the intellectual history of efficiency’s role in election law. Part II builds the dilemma, highlighting critical legal theory and heterodox economics traditions that contour the normative concerns with the efficiency-convergence. Part III presents the framework. I develop a typology of efficiency arguments within election law, derived from novel primary source analysis of the legislative history for the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, along with case law and scholarship across election law. I theorize that this typology demonstrates an efficiency-convergence dilemma, functioning to institutionalize racial subordination as a neutral principle undergirding legal thought in the law of democracy. I offer a series of critiques for this efficiency-convergence, built from the critical theories discussed. Finally, Part IV offers two normative implications of the efficiency convergence. The first is to look outside the law, developing an operationalized definition of equity based on similar research in public health and public policy. The second is to highlight election law scholarship that bucks the efficiency convergence, charting a path forward. I present one such path: reimagining the right to vote as a constructive right implemented through constitutional conventions and norms and protected as an instrumental right.

P60 The Effectiveness of Nutrition Education: Comparing Registered Dietitian Educators and Dietetic Interns

<h3>Background</h3> The Marshall University Nutrition Education Program (MUNEP) delivers nutrition education to needy elementary schools (grades K-2) in rural West Virginia. This dissertation research reviewed pre-/post-tests and teacher focus group findings comparing effectiveness of RDN educators and dietetic intern (DI) educators in program delivery. DI educators have no formal educational training or pedagogical practice compared to RDNs, yet they play a significant role in program implementation. <h3>Objective</h3> To examine differences in knowledge/behavior change based on pre-/post-scores after an intervention of nutrition education lessons by RDN educators/DI educators; and to compare the effectiveness of RDN educators/DI educators through teacher focus group findings. <h3>Study Design, Setting, Participants</h3> A mixed-methods, retrospective study of (15) knowledge/behavior-change questions on student pre-/post-tests (n = 1160) comparing RDN/DI educators; and results of teacher focus groups (n = 4), with teachers (n = 30) examining the effectiveness of RDN/DI educators in program implementation. <h3>Measurable Outcome/Analysis</h3> Quantitative analysis included independent t-tests comparing pre-/post-test scores for overall knowledge/behavior change; independent t-tests examining post-test scores for overall behavior/overall knowledge and comparing RDN/DI educators; post-hoc Bonferroni ANOVA analysis comparing post-test scores to free/reduced-priced (FR) meals in needy schools. Qualitative inquiry included thematic analysis to compare effectiveness of RDN/DI educators. <h3>Results</h3> Overall knowledge change from pre- to post-test was statistically significant (<i>P</i> = .000); no significant difference in overall behavior change from pre- to post-test (<i>P</i> = .710), or comparison between RDN/DI educators (<i>P</i> = .175 for knowledge change; <i>P</i> = .479 for behavior change) were found. Statistical significance existed for post hoc review of students' post-tests and socio-economic status based on percentage of FR school meals for students in the 50%-59% FR meal category vs students in the 90%-100% FR meal category (<i>P</i> = .017). Focus groups showed that RDN educators were empowered in the classroom and had better management than DI educators; taste-testing is a critical component for both RDN/DI educators. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study adds to limited data comparing effectiveness of RDN/DI educators in nutrition education. Results will be used to inform DI training, improve MUNEP participant experience related to knowledge and behavior change, and to improve MUNEP experience in needy schools. <h3>Funding</h3> Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - Education.

News, Programs, Publications, and Awards

News, Programs, Publications, and Awards

Proper Disposal of Prescription Opioids in Southwest Virginia: Assessment of Patient, Physician, and Medical Student Beliefs and Practices.

Southwestern Virginia demonstrates the highest regional mortality rate from prescription opioid overdoses. Nationally, 65% of patients misusing opioid medications received them from friends and family, underscoring the need for effective disposal of unused narcotics. (1) To understand patient, provider, and medical student beliefs and misconceptions regarding proper methods of opioid disposal; (2) to characterize discrepancies that exist between patient self-reported habits and medical student/provider perceptions of opioid usage, disposal, and diversion. Descriptive, cross-sectional, observational study. Large, nonprofit health care organization and allopathic medical school in Southwestern Virginia. All ambulatory patients 18 years or older presenting for elective consultation at health system orthopedics department; all institutionally employed physicians with active system e-mail addresses; and all current students at the associated medical school. Patients: The number who had received information regarding proper methods of opioid disposal, intended disposal method, methods of disposal considered appropriate, comfort level with opioid disposal, and demographic data. Physicians and Medical Students: The number who had received instruction regarding proper methods of opioid disposal, acceptable means of opioid disposal, most appropriate disposal method, disposal method most likely to be employed by patients, practice profile/prescribing data, and medical school year. In total, 64% of patients (n = 255/750) had never received instruction from a physician regarding opioid disposal; 56% of physicians (n = 212/732) and 78% (n = 80/171) of medical students indicated that they never received formal instruction regarding methods of disposal. The majority of physicians believed that their patients are most likely to use in-home methods of disposal or store prescription medications for future use; 61% of patients indicated a preference for accessible disposal facilities. The discrepancy between patient and physician responses highlights a lack of communication regarding disposal of unused opioid medications and is a target for future intervention.

German and European Ordo-liberalism and Constitutionalism in the Post-war Development of International Economic Law

This contribution discusses the regulatory approaches of German-speaking countries to the design of European and international economic law since World War II. The US initiatives for the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreements and the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade were driven by neo-liberal, multilateral approaches prioritizing rules-based liberalization of market access barriers, deregulation, privatization and ‘financialization’ of markets as spontaneous information, coordination and sanctioning mechanisms enabling private economic actors to pursue their economic self-interests. By contrast, the post-war German and European ordo-liberalism and the ‘Virginia School’ of ‘law and economics’ perceived markets as legal constructs, which cannot maximize general consumer welfare without legal limitations of ‘market failures’, ‘governance failures’ and ‘constitutional failures’. The federalism and constitutional protection of common market freedoms inside Austria, Germany and Switzerland contributed to their promotion of ordo-liberal, constitutional approaches also in their external economic policies aimed at creating and progressively developing Europe’s micro-economic ‘common market constitution’ not only inside the European Union, but also in the broader ‘European Economic Area’, the European Free Trade Area and the EU’s common commercial policies. The worldwide WTO legal and dispute settlement system was influenced both by neo-liberal US initiatives as well as by ordoliberal European proposals (e.g. for the design of the WTO dispute settlement system). The current US assault on the WTO Appellate Body system is driven by neo-liberal interest group politics and hegemonic mercantilism by the US Trump administration.