By Ashe Schow | The Daily Wire
Virginia’s Democrat and Republican gubernatorial
candidates participated in their final debate Tuesday night, with Democrat and
former Gov. Terry McAuliffe declaring that parents shouldn’t have a say in what
their kids are taught in public schools.
At one point during the debate, the candidates were asked
out whether protections for transgender students should be determined at the
state or local level. McAuliffe responded to a recent incident where a parent
complained that two books available to high school students contained graphic
sexual content and pedophilia. The school district removed
the books and is currently reviewing them.
“I’m not gonna let parents come in to schools and
actually take books off and make their own decisions,” McAuliffe said to
audience applause (the debate took place in ultra-Liberal Northern Virginia).
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
“I get really tired of everybody running down teachers. I
love our teachers and what they’ve done through covid, these are real heroes
who deserve our respect,” he added.
While McAuliffe’s statements about parents not being able
to say what their kids are taught drew applause in Northern Virginia, many
areas in the rest of the state are fighting for parents’ rights to know what
their kids are being taught. The battle is especially strong in Loudoun County,
where parents have repeatedly pushed
back against the Loudoun County Public School district’s attempts to
incorporate critical race theory in school curriculum. It started when the
school attempted to restructure history and social studies to emphasize slavery
and push racial victimhood. Meanwhile, the school began providing training
sessions that insisted oppression was still rampant in America. Some of these
trainings were racist themselves, such as one that suggested Hispanic parents
and students didn’t perform as well because they face “immigration” and
“deportation threats,” as if all Hispanic students are in the country
illegally.
Teachers who objected to the district’s so-called
anti-racist measures were told to remain silent. The district attempted to
craft a speech code that prohibited teachers from criticizing the district’s
racial equity plan, and an advisory board demanded teachers be dismissed if
they criticized equity training. Parents who spoke out were put on a list to be
harassed.
McAuliffe’s take on education is interesting considering
some of his positions when he was governor between 2014 and 2018. He vetoed a
school-choice bill “that would have allowed parents to use state money to pay
for private schools or home schooling,” according to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch. McAuliffe vetoed this bill, which would allow low-income
students to attend better schools, even though he has sent his own kids to
expensive private schools.
Education was not the only issue on which McAuliffe
demanded state control. He also knocked his Republican opponent, Glenn
Youngkin, for refusing to force vaccine and mask mandates on people. Youngkin
responded by saying “Everyone should get the vaccine … but I don’t believe we
should mandate it.”
