"Parents certainly have rights, but they do not have the right to stand in the way of justice, truth, or democracy.
In the wake of Glenn Youngkin's victory in the Virginia governor's race, many savvy political analysts are pointing to his gameplan of talking up schools and "parents' rights." They see this as a way to stoke backlash to Democratic overreach. Sure enough, many journalists have swung behind this narrative, interviewing parents who say they are swayed by the Republican arguments - those parents invariably happen to be, as far as I have seen, almost exclusively white.
Nevermind that the specifics of Youngkin's supposedly pro-school agenda are about as thin as a sheet of tissue paper. More funding? Better teacher pay? Innovative classrooms? A focus on science and technology? Better college counseling? Pre-K opportunities? He wasn't talking about that kind of school stuff. Instead, his "appeals" to voters on education amounted to a dog whistle - the all-out protection against the teaching of so-called "critical race theory," which he never really defined and of course isn't taught in Virginia's schools.
You don't have to be an educator or historian to understand what's really at play. This is about stoking the fears of parents. Now to be fair, some of the current parental concern and dissatisfaction around schools is deserved and widespread, particularly around closings and COVID. But Youngkin was also tapping into something much deeper, and darker - racism and the fear from some white parents that their children will be presented with a history of America that they don't want them to learn. "
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| "Parents Do Not Have A Right To Deny History" |
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