Education Watch

DPVAratified6-24-23Right-wingEdPrivatization

SUBSTANDARD
HISTORY STANDARDS

The November History SOL Proposal was the work of Partisan interests with the aim of indoctrinating Virginia Students into a Conservative, Right Wing view of History.  It ignores entire populations while digging up debunked ideas like the "Lost Cause" interpretation of the American Civil war.  There is nothing in value from November's proposal that would improve on the August Standards. 
We believe that the best course of action is for the Board of Education to Resurrect and adopt the August Proposal immediately!  

The Grass Roots Backlash Isn't

The Right wing these days lives on making their followers afraid or angry but they had a branding problem.  

Chris Rufo, a radical right wing activist who has been seen on Fox News and is a member of Right Wing think tanks started picking into AntiRacism lessons to dig out the new sinister boogy man of the Right.  Critical Race Theory.   CRT was obscure enough, yet lay in the research notes of many of the authors Rufo sought to vilify that it was the perfect brand name for this latest moral panic.  Because of it's obscurity and it's degrees of separation from current scholarly work,  CRT could be tied to and attributed to everything the Right Wing wanted to advocate against while keeping their hands "clean" of overt racism.   

CRT is the new weapon of the Right, and Chris Rufo is the man who built that weapon by cherry-picking selected entries and manufacturing non-sequitur ties between an obscure scholarly school of the late 1960s to the noble work of AntiRacism today.  

Book Ban Bill Busted!

A Bill that would have allowed other parents to deny YOUR child access to books based on what those parents found "offensive" was defeated by Virginia Senate Democrats on 1/20/22.  Despite the rhetoric of "Parent Choice" Republicans would have advanced a bill that would have allowed activists, guided by partisan out of state think tanks, to start pulling books off of School Library shelves.    This censorship scheme was disguised as "notification" but it contained provisions for removal. As a Parent,  I want to give my child a CHOICE in what he reads.  If it offends the pearl-clutching conservative down the road, that's their problem, not mine!  

VPEP Reopen Presentation
VPEP Press Release On School Re-Opening in Chesterfield

What Could have been

These proposals were given to CCPS in the Summer of 2020.   How different things could have been if they were adopted?  

ACLU Files suit against Hanover Schools. 

The ACLU has filed a suit against the Hanover school board over the county's failure to adopt the State's model policy protecting transgender students.    The model policy has become a rally-cry for radical right wing activists in Virginia who seek "wedge issues" to advance their agenda.   The ACLU seeks to protect children who would otherwise be victimized by this political maneuvering   

Reason and Liberty Strike Back! 

A week after Spotsylvania school board members voted to ban "inappropriate" books from school libraries and joked about "burning books" Students, Parents, Librarians and Teachers packed a meeting on November 16th to stand up against Censorship and push back against the radical conservative agendas being imposed on public education.   There are still heroes in Virginia, these Students, Parents, Librarians and Teachers stand among them.  

A radical conservative intolerance grows secretly in Chesterfield 

Branching out from an Anti-Mask group, in reaction to CCPS passage of the State's Model Transgender policy, "Back to Basics Chesterfield County" is a secretive group dedicated to blocking LGBTQ+ progress, and perpetuating the manufactured CRT backlash.   

A private Facebook group which includes "no screenshots" as one of it's top rules, the group has posts advocating censorship, harassment of Chesterfield Educators who displease them and actively working against social progress in Chesterfield Schools.  

The group currently has 391 members and is looking to spin off school dedicated sub-groups to coordinate more action

A look at prior posts shows that the group also works to advocate for Republican candidates Mike Cherry, Roxanne Robinson, and Glen Youngkin