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VPM Daily Newscast: Jan. 15, 2025

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VPM Daily Newscast

The VPM Daily Newscast contains all your Central Virginia news in just 5 to 10 minutes. Episodes are recorded the night before.

Listeners can subscribe through NPR One, Apple Podcasts, Megaphone, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of Jan. 15, 2024:

Virginia’s deadline for health insurance extended by 1 week

Reported by VPM News’ Adrienne Hoar McGibbon

Kevin Patchett, director of the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange, announced the extension Monday.

“We’ve looked at the enrollment numbers and the enrollment trends, and people are still actively engaged in enrollments,” Patchett said. “We want to make sure that we do everything we can to make it possible for Virginians to get health insurance.”

Nearly 400,000 people have signed up for health insurance through the state marketplace since November. The commonwealth launched its exchange, run by a division of the State Corporation Commission, in 2023.

The original Jan. 15 deadline was based on the federal marketplace’s open enrollment period.

Richmond School Board targets test score, grad rate improvements

Reported by VPM News’ Dean Mirshahi

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras told the new School Board the district is aiming for boosts of 20 percentage points in Standards of Learning test scores and 15 percentage points in the graduation rate by 2030 — goals that RPS officials say require additional funding.

Kamras briefed the school board Monday night in a meeting reconvened after last week’s water outage, laying out targets for the top three goals in the Dreams4RPS strategic plan. He said meeting those targets will rely on investments and state funding that it doesn’t have yet: “What has been adopted in this strategic plan, we cannot entirely afford right now.”

The superintendent expressed optimism that Democrats in the General Assembly pushing for K-12 education improvements would set aside funding that could help RPS achieve its long-term goals.

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VPM News is the staff byline for articles and podcasts written and produced by multiple reporters and editors.