Friend, 

Governor Glenn Youngkin continues to empower Virginia parents, ensuring they have the head seat at the table in their children’s education, upbringing, and success. 

Since taking office, Governor Youngkin has put parents in charge of what their kids are learning in the classroom and improved transparency so parents know what’s going on in their children’s schools. 

The far-left follows the model of Terry McAuliffe and Monty Mason when it comes to education—parents shouldn’t have a say in their children’s curriculum, and parental rights are “parental garbage.” 

At the heart of Youngkin’s education policy is a powerful principle: PARENTS MATTER. 

That principle is behind Governor Youngkin’s new model policies for education, which are receiving widespread praise for strengthening the partnerships between parents, educators, and students and getting Virginia schools back to basics of sane, quality education.

“The new Virginia Model Policies rebuild the partnership between parents and schools that every child needs,” writes Laura Bryant Hanford, a Fairfax mother. “Governor Youngkin deserves our thanks for restoring to our children their true ‘safe space’—parents.”

“Through their comments, Democratic lawmakers have demonstrated a fundamentally un-American belief. In their eyes, children — to say nothing of everyone else — function not as part of individual families, but as wards of the state, which can override parents’ interests to do whatever they please,” another Virginia mother, Mary Vought, writes. “I couldn’t disagree with this premise more. I’m glad that Gov. Youngkin’s administration agrees and has taken steps through the revised standards to restore some much-needed sanity to schools across the commonwealth.”

Governor Youngkin develops every education policy with the input and partnership of Virginia parents. Youngkin holds Parents Matter town hall meetings across the Commonwealth and will continue to do so as he continues to put parents, and their children’s success, first and foremost in his education agenda. 

FOX NEWS: One state is cleaning up schools Democrats used as labs for social experiments

Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Department of Education released revisions to the model policies. Where Northam’s policies ignored common sense and the Constitution to create super rights in students who were "gender-expansive, non-binary, and gender nonconforming," the new ones mark a return to Virginia’s schools being a place of academics and respect rather than a laboratory for social experiments that endanger the mental and physical well-being of children.

TOWNHALL: Gov. Youngkin's Education Policies Win Major Support From Parents

Standing up for parental rights is an issue Youngkin has focused on since his time on the campaign trail. While some particularly liberal school districts in Northern Virginia continue to push back, it's also worth pointing out that the governor has considerable support.

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A recent segment from CBS 6 in Richmond featured numerous parents pledging their support at the Virginia Board of Education business meeting on July 27. According to the local news outlet, "a majority of the speakers... backed the Youngkin administration's new policy," which included "parents, religious and family values groups, and a few doctors."

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH: Commentary: Parents really do matter, thanks to Gov. Glenn Youngkin

Parents matter. That sentiment lies at the heart of the policies recently finalized by the Virginia Department of Education. Those policies reinforce the dignity of all students while reinforcing the primacy of the role parents play in raising their children. As logical as those principles sound to most Virginians, the actions by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration stand in sharp contrast to some of the political opposition his actions have received.

FAIRFAX COUNTY TIMES: Governor Youngkin’s new model policies aren’t just fair to parents – they are best practices for children

The policies support existing law for cases of suspected abuse, directing that medical information not be shared if the disclosure will threaten the safety of the student. The former policies wrongly treated parents as abusers by default. To quote another widely reader-approved NYT comment,“[T]hey can't have it both ways. Either the student is not in danger, and the school should inform the family of the student's request to be called by a different name and/or pronouns, as this is a fairly major event in a child's life that the family should be aware of, or the student is in danger, and schools have mandated reporting rules for suspected abuse.”

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In sum, the new Virginia Model Policies rebuild the partnership between parents and schools that every child needs. Governor Youngkin deserves our thanks for restoring to our children their true “safe space”—parents.

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Governor Youngkin's education policy is centralized on one powerful principle: PARENTS MATTER. 

We appreciate your continued support! 

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