Parents Matter!
"Be encouraged" is the message of Tuesday's elections in Virginia, a state which became Ground Zero for parents fed up with the racialization and sexualization of their child's schooling, and with being told that their push back on the oppressor/oppressed binary - otherwise known as CRT - means that they are potentially a "domestic terrorist" according the National Association of School Boards and the Justice Department.
Add this to 18 months of onerous mask mandates and school closings that largely served the interests of teachers unions, not students or families, mixed with outrage over the cover-up of a sexual assault on a femaile Virginia student by a transgender male to female youth, and you have a recipe for a blue state beginning to see red!
Newcomer Republican Glenn Youngkin handily beat Democratic insider and former governor, Terry McAuliffe, in a state Joe Biden won by over 10 points.
Youngkin was given little to no chance in the race until Terry McAuliffe shared the immortal words, ". . . I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."
At that moment the race became about parents and their role in education - and parents won!
Are there implications for Illinois' institutions at the state and local level? Yes. "Woke" doesn't when you stand up against it.
In Virginia a coalition of parents concerned about what their kids were being taught in schools, but ignored or attacked by local school officials, built a a coalition which crossed political, racial, income, and gender lines to fuel Youngkin's triumph. In fact, exit polling showed that Youngkin won with a significant non-white electorate - including a majority of Hispanics and Asians and higher levels of Blacks voting Republican than in any recent election.
This bodes well for parents everywhere, including in the Land of Lincoln, if it means that parents are less intimidated by school officials and highly-paid "equity" experts, and more willing to constructively engage to build schools that teach, instead of indoctrinate.
Stay tuned for more on how you can address sexualized, racialized and politicized programming at New Trier and other schools, and instead help foster a culture of excellence, respect and resilience.
