Major Implications for Education in Glenn Youngkin Gubernatorial Victory in Virginia.
Lindsey Burke writes that governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s win “is an indisputable vindication of the values-based base for school choice and parental empowerment.” As she explains:
"Last night, parents made their voices heard at a time when school boards in Virginia—with the backing of the
National School Boards Association
,
the threat of being labeled domestic terrorists, and the sanction of the Biden administration’s
Department of Justice—have continually tried to silence them.
Now, Youngkin’s charge is to address the concerns he heard from parents through policy change. He has a mandate to do so."
She outlines four pressing policy changes the Youngkin administration should pursue. First, he should reject critical race theory’s discrimination from being applied in Virginia’s public schools. Second, Youngkin should take the opportunity to work with the Virginia Legislature to eliminate teacher certification requirements, which would do wonders to limit the power of academia to spread the dangerous ideology of critical race theory from colleges to the K-12 classroom. Third, Virginia should stop the administrative staffing surge in K-12 schools, which has enabled growth
in
chief diversity officers
—the K-12 brethren of
diversity, equity, and inclusion
staff in higher education. And finally, Virginia must embrace school choice.
- Don’t miss AEI’s Max Eden’s piece on the Virginia race with UVA’s Brad Wilcox in the Wall Street Journal: Youngkin Makes the GOP the Parents’ Party.
- Heritage’s Mike Gonzalez analyzes the Virginia outcomes, writing that “The election of Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia sends a strong message: Americans do not want critical race theory in classrooms.”
Related:
“The concerns of parents need to be a tier 1 policy issue” for conservatives, writes Congressman Jim Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee. The RSC lays out several policy priorities in the wake of Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia, including combatting critical race theory by prohibiting federal funds from being used in ways that violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, giving parents an exit option from schools that don’t align with their values through expanded 529 plans and Title I portability, and investigating the origins of the letter penned by the National School Boards Association labeling parents “domestic terrorists” and associated White House involvement.
Irony Alert:
A local teachers’ union in New Hampshire has signed an agreement with the National Education Association and the South Kingstown School Department, allowing union members to… wait for it… exercise school choice! As th
e
Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen reports
,
“under the formal agreement, teachers who live outside the South Kingstown Public School district may send their children to schools there at no additional cost. Other parents outside the district, however, cannot do the same for their children.”
“The union is saying – loudly – ‘Choice for me but not for thee’,” Lindsey Burke commented. “Apparently, the unions have finally come around to the notion that money should follow the child to the school that fits her needs!” she said.
