On the heels of Terry McAuliffe brazenly suggesting parents should not have a say in the library books and classroom lessons their children read, The Washington Post attempted to help him with an opinion piece that claims conservative-leaning parents are harming their children. How so? By inserting their biased political views into a public education that is meant to help children “think independently,” the article states.
The article’s co-writers go on to suggest that schools “should prepare young people to think for themselves, even if that runs counter to the wishes of parents,” a philosophy about power and control that has certainly put many parents against a wall for opposing the State.
That is also quite a claim to be make considering Loudoun County Schools gym teacher Tanner Cross, thinking independently, was suspended over the summer for informing the school board he would not use made-up pronouns to recognize so-called transgender students. A lawsuit and a court ruling gave him his job back.
That same public school district has also implemented a “Bias Reporting System” that allows students to turn in each other if they overhear phrases or conversations they consider racially biased or sexually intolerant, The Washington Times reported in May.
The snitching report is sent anonymously online to a “Supervisor of Equity” who reviews the claim.
Outraged parents sued Loudoun County Schools this summer over the anonymous reporting, which is just one example of parents in a wealthy suburb who are fighting back. More recently, those parents are now learning the high school covered up the rape of a ninth-grade student by a male who identifies as female.
In neighboring Fairfax County, which has become another battleground over radicalized indoctrination, The Daily Wire reports students fill out an anonymous survey every year that asks questions about their sexual activity, their gender status, drug and alcohol use, and their family structure and habits.
Fairfax County Schools made headlines in September when the public learned the school district was directing millions of dollars in COVID-related relief funds to “equity” training for faculty and staff.
Yet the central claim in the Post article, co-written by an education professor and a journalist, is that “hard-liners” in the Republican Party are constantly looking for opportunities to “undermine” the public school system. In the suburbs of Virginia, with a governor's race at state, the GOP sees an opportunity to stoke “White racial grievance” with made-up claims about Critical Race Theory.
In other words, the co-authors summarize, what is really happening in Virginia’s suburbs is really about racist Republicans improving voter turnout.
'Racist dog whistle' of CRT
Polls are predicting McAuliffe, who called claims about Critical Race Theory a “racist dog whistle,” will lose in his bid to defeat Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin today.
Never mind that “Critical Race Theory” appears on the Virginia Dept. of Education website, Fox News reported this week, where a quote still exists from then-Governor Terry McAuliffe who encouraged teachers to “embrace Critical Race Theory” in order to “re-engineer attitudes and belief system.”
Despite a documented history of indoctrinating students in Virginia, and bullying parents who object, McAuliffe told NBC News this week that his opponents are using children as "political pawns."
After Glenn Youngkin was nominated to represent the GOP, McAuliffe said, "all of a sudden these people started showing up creating such a ruckus.”
Responding to the op-ed’s claims, Southern Baptist leader Dr. Richard Land says it is quite something to see parents accused of “indoctrinating” their own children and teachers framed as if they innocently want those same children to simply think for themselves.
“Assuming that these are well-educated and rational people,” he says of the Post article's co-writers, “this is disingenuous in the extreme. Of course, parents have the right to inculcate their worldview into their children.”
By now parents have every reason to remove their children from a public school classroom but realistically, he says, that is not possible for many.
“I'm a strong, strong supporter of vouchers,” Land says, “and believe that if parents want to choose to send their children to a private school, or a Christian school, they have to get money back from their taxes.”
