Rarely are the differences between two candidates for public office perfectly crystallized into a single minute of debate. But such a minute transpired in Alexandria, Virginia, during a recent gubernatorial debate between Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe and businessman Glenn Youngkin.
Asked about the Virginia Department of Education policy that allows anyone to use whatever restroom he or she wants regardless of biological sex, Youngkin responded, “What we’ve seen over the course of this last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. In fact, in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents get upset because there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen. It was shocking.”
“And, in fact,” Youngkin continued, “you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they were there. You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.”
“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and take books out and make their own decisions,” McAuliffe replied. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
And there you have it. Youngkin believes parents should be in charge of their children’s education. McAuliffe believes parents shouldn’t be telling schools what they should teach.
That is the difference between the two candidates in the Virginia governor’s race.
This issue is especially salient now, as parents across the state fight to take back local school boards after learning what their schools teach about the very nature of our country.
For example, the obscene materials that Youngkin referred to that are available at Fairfax school libraries included a book containing “explicit illustrations of sexual encounters involving children” and another including “graphic descriptions of sex between men and children.”
Also in Fairfax County, teachers produced a so-called “anti-racist” social studies curriculum designed to “address the overrepresentation of white and Eurocentric history.” Specifically, the curriculum they modeled, “Teaching Tolerance,” requires students to learn that “the United States was founded on protecting the interests of white, Christian men who owned property.”
The Fairfax County school board also spent $20,000 on a single training session by author and huckster Ibram X. Kendi on how Fairfax educators can be “anti-racist.” The school board has not released the contents of Kendi’s presentation, but Kendi wrote that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Do Fairfax parents have no right to stop their children’s schools from teaching them this toxic garbage? McAuliffe doesn’t think so. He wants parents to sit down and shut up while their children are indoctrinated using their own tax money.
Parental control of education has been a uniquely American trait since our nation’s founding. When Alexis de Tocqueville came to the U.S. in the 1830s, he marveled at the farmers and laborers who organized public schools for their communities. Parents have every right — in fact, it is their duty — to ensure their children receive a worthwhile education.
Leftist activists who don’t believe in our nation’s founding principles have stealthily controlled our schools for too long. It is far past time for parents to seize back control of their children’s schools, and it appears only one candidate for Virginia governor understands that.
