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Life in a Loud County
Ground zero in the school board culture wars is a minefield for once and would-be future governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe. Can he survive?
It was the gaffe heard ‘round Louden County, Virginia.
Anything you say during a televised debate that your opponent can weaponize against you is a verbal miscue. Anything you say during a debate that your opponent can instantly parlay into a million dollar campaign ad blitz in the run-up to the election is a major misstep by any standard.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” might be a popular opinion at cocktail parties- when it is clear which specific subset of parents to whom the speaker is referring.
When former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, currently running for another term against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin, made that statement during a recent debate, however, parents watching might have felt a bit taken aback.
If parents aren’t to have a say in their children’s public education- which local parents fund with tax dollars- who is?
The obvious answer- school boards, teacher’s unions, and the U.S. Department of Education- doesn’t scare all parents equally. Many progressive parents who happen to agree- at this time- with the current mandates and educational priorities of those three…