Governor Glenn Youngkin won last year’s election mostly because Terry McAuliffe and his Democrat colleagues dropped the ball on education. This gave Youngkin a mandate to handle education policy, and now is the time to deliver.
Last week Virginia’s Board of Education tabled a vote on new education standards for public schools after several errors were found, such as omitting James Madison and George Washington as Founding Fathers. The Board decided to delay the vote and conduct a closer look at the plan that was created by the Northam administration and Democrats in the General Assembly. A delay isn’t needed because the best course for the Board is to vote down the plan and start over.
Senate Democrats are upset with the delay. In a press conference on Friday, State Senator Louise Lucas said, “We demand the state Board of Education honor its constitutional obligation and adopt these standards immediately.” Does she appreciate that she is advocating for a rubber stamp? Does she believe rubber stamps are responsible actions from a government? Even after discovering that Madison and Washington weren’t listed as Founding Fathers, Democrats “demand” that a new Board of Education approve an old plan from an old Board. At the very least, the “error,” as it was described, of omitting Madison and Washington, in Virginia of all places, is large enough of an error to warrant a complete review, but Democrats can’t even concede that and instead they “demand” a thoughtless rubber stamp.
Lucas was joined by state senators Ghazala Hashmi and Mamie Locke. All three mindlessly said “whitewash” in their comments, a tired and false accusation that is obviously meant to divide.
Republicans are not trying to “whitewash” anything. Public schools in Virginia teach the slave trade and abolition, women’s suffrage and Voter’s Rights, segregation and the Civil Rights movement, the good, the bad, and the ugly of our history is all included. What we are against is telling the white children that they are inherently racist, and we’re against telling the Black children that they need to lower their own expectations. We are in favor of teaching the limitless bounds of free-market capitalism, while teaching about the mass murders and oppression of every socialist country. We want parents to be involved their child’s education, not kept from secrets about their child. We want all American students to know that in this country they can accomplish anything. It’s disturbing to see those points as contrasts between education policies, but here we are.
Elections have consequences. Last year, Republicans won all three statewide offices on the ballot and flipped the majority in the House of Delegates, which gave the new governor a mandate to stop Democrats’ idea of woke history. There are five new members to the nine-member state Board of Education, giving the Youngkin administration a majority. As any new governor may, Youngkin has appointed a new schools superintendent and new leaders in the state Department of Education. The people are in place, the time is now.
This is an important opportunity to really help public schools. It is also a good opportunity to expand school choice programs, such as charter schools and vouchers. Voters gave Glenn Youngkin and his Republican colleagues a mandate to fix education in the commonwealth. The time to start is right now by voting down Northam’s plan.
