Julian Taliaferro on education: An empty fire suit in city hall

In Charlottesville’s long lineage of inept elected representation, has there ever been a more obvious “placeholder” on City Council than Julian Taliaferro? (Well, maybe Tom “wake me when the meeting’s over” Vandever, but that’s another story!)

Aside from advocating for the destruction and political takeover (at great taxpayer expense) of our fine, volunteer-run Charlottesville/Albemarle Rescue Squad, Councilor Taliaferro, since his 2006 election has done nothing notable beyond occupying space on the Council dais twice a month.

And now he wants to us to re-elect him.

Even though his council record shows him to be little more than a semi-distinguished cipher, he must stand for something, right?

Despite 30+ years of opportunity to consider the topic, when running for the office in 2006, he had not decided his position on the Meadowcreek Parkway. He still hasn’t.

Strike one.

Despite 3+ years of council service and (presumably) considerable time spent studying the subject, he’s not taken a definitive position on the Community Water Supply Plan. From an NBC 29 interview 3/8/2009:

This thing is kind of coming in stages and that really makes me uncomfortable, and I really don’t want to see people’s water rates skyrocket.

Strike two.

Wait, there’s his strong stand on and commitment to public education in Charlottesville! During both campaigns (2006 and 2009), the Chief “Emeritus” has said that education is his number one priority. In an April 2006 interview with Charlottesville Tomorrow, the Chief brayed these pearls of wisdom regarding education:

Well, my top priority is to really support our school system.+ I’m concerned as a+ lot of other people are about some of our standings.+ I really find it hard to believe+ where we are and I want to be sure that as a Council member that I support the+ newly-elected School Board. I want to support the new Superintendent and I+ want to support the teachers within the system and along with that, besides+ supporting them, I want to insure that we have adequate funding for our schools+ in order to insure a quality education for all of our children.

But, aside from advocating for increased spending (beyond the $17,000+ currently dedicated to each student in our failing school division), how does the “Sage” of City Council, Julian Taliaferro, propose that we help our vulnerable and underachieving children succeed?

We must discourage them, when they are young, from attending college! Yes, he actually advocated that (see video clip below).

So, which young students “are not college material” and should be identified “early on,” according to Councilor Taliaferro: certainly not the white, privileged children of liberal University elites. That group is remarkably successful within their highly segregated, tracked classes.

Given the fact that the black dropout rate in Charlottesville City Schools recently was pegged at an astronomical 15.4%, the demographic of Democrat Taliaferro’s dissertation is painfully obvious. Perhaps Julian could affectionately refer to the subjects of his education platform as (to paraphrase George Bush I) “the little black ones.”

Is this effort to keep kids from college Julian’s answer to Charlottesville’s troubling dropout rate (double that of neighboring Albemarle County)? Conceivably. But more likely, there really is an empty fire suit in City Hall and Julian Taliaferro is wearing it.

In his infinite wisdom, Councilor Taliferro supported spending $50,000 for a Community Dialogue on Race. Perhaps his education “plan” should be dialogue topic number one.

Watch the Chief elaborate on his education plan for Charlottesville’s (black) kids:

taliaffero