OPINION:
Virginia Delegate Dan Helmer, District 10 Democrat, introduced a bill this week encouraging public school boards to adopt an instructional program that would mandate portraying the events of Jan. 6, 2021, exclusively as a violent insurrection and bar discussion of 2020 election fraud claims.
It’s just one example of many in which Democrats are clearly trying to institutionalize their beliefs in our children’s public school policies and curricula.
Northern Virginia’s public school districts’ leaders don’t need any further encouragement from state legislators. In 2020, for example, Fairfax County Public Schools paid Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 for an hourlong virtual presentation to district leaders and principals on his beliefs that all policies are either “racist” or “not racist,” with nothing in between.
Now, Northern Virginia’s school district leaders are engaged in a legal battle with the federal government to allow boys in girls’ bathrooms and sports. Rather than abiding by Title IX and requiring transgender-identifying students to use single-use bathrooms or those based on their sex, Democratic activist leaders in these school districts are compelling speech with mandated “preferred pronouns” and sacrificing the comfort of the many for the whims of the very few.
For these activists, identity boxes are prioritized above education. In addition to making sure children are taught the “right way” to think about Jan. 6, Delegate Joshua Cole, District 65 Democrat, introduced a bill this session that changes the definition of “bullying” to specify “the real or perceived power imbalance” between students based on their membership in a protected class.
In other words, if this bill passes, when two students have an argument in their public school, then the cross-section of all their identities is likely to become more important than the conflict itself.
Regardless of political inclinations, it seems that everyone should agree that the purpose of public education is to educate children. Based on Virginia Democrats’ priorities — pushing political narratives and institutionalizing identity hierarchies — one might think the primary mission is accomplished and students are excelling in their public schools.
That’s not the case. Ironically, while Mr. Helmer tries to control the Jan. 6 narrative, according to the Virginia Department of Education, 34% of Virginia’s public school students failed their history standards of learning test last year. Delegates would better spend their work hours and efforts remedying the fact that fully one-third of Virginia’s students have a poor understanding of basic history.
Across the state, 29% of students failed their science standards of learning test, 28% failed math, 24% failed English writing and 26% failed English reading. The failure rates are even more dismal for Virginia’s economically disadvantaged children.
According to the Virginia Department of Education, 39% of economically disadvantaged students failed their English reading standards of learning test, 38% failed English writing, 41% failed math, 43% failed science and 46% failed history.
So while Virginia Democrats such as Messrs. Helmer and Cole and other equity warriors are introducing and passing legislation to prioritize fringe issues in public education, Virginia’s poorer students are failing at alarming rates. That’s the opposite of equity.
If state legislators truly want to improve public education for Virginia’s children, they should introduce legislation that requires school boards to allocate public funds based on students’ academic outcomes and limit expenditures in categories such as administrative staff and legal fees.
• Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in National Review, Fox News Digital, The Daily Signal and Townhall.
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