Schools

Educators Rally Against 'Anti-Teacher' Actions By Gov. Youngkin

A new group of Virginia educators, Stand and Deliver Virginia, accuses Gov. Glenn Youngkin of being "anti-teacher" and "anti-truth."

Teachers and students held a rally at the Tinner Hill Historic Park in Falls Church Sunday afternoon to oppose what they called attacks on public education by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and conservative parents.
Teachers and students held a rally at the Tinner Hill Historic Park in Falls Church Sunday afternoon to oppose what they called attacks on public education by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and conservative parents. (Mark Hand/Patch)

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Teachers are growing increasingly worried about their classroom lesson plans and the books they assign to students out of fear that students or parents will report them to a tip line set up by the Virginia governor's office, speakers said at a rally Sunday afternoon.

Pat Hynes, who served two terms on the Fairfax County School Board from 2011 to 2019, told the crowd at the Tinner Hill Historic Park in Falls Church that schools in Fairfax County “were really just beginning to make progress on equity, inclusion and teaching the full truth of our history when I was on the school board."

“Today, we face a governor who wants … to smother good teaching, teaching that empowers our students with the truth and the skills to be critical thinkers,” said Hynes, co-founder of Stand and Deliver Virginia, the group that organized Sunday's event with the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation.

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Micaela Pond, a teacher in Arlington Public Schools and co-founder of Stand and Deliver Virginia, told the crowd that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have gone from receiving praise from communities to being accused of acting as a threat to children's education.

“Fast forward two years, and now we are a threat,” she said. “Trust me, I am not a threat.”

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The mission of Stand and Deliver Virginia, formed three weeks ago in response to what the group called the demonization of educators by politicians in Richmond, is to "educate educators and the community about the anti-teacher, anti-truth, anti-public schools power grab happening in Richmond right now," according to the group.


SEE ALSO: VA School Superintendents Urge Youngkin To Terminate Tip Line


During his campaign for governor in 2021, Youngkin regularly attacked the quality of education across the state. His campaign latched onto campaigns by groups of conservative parents who opposed racial equity and diversity initiatives in public schools.

On his first day in office, Youngkin signed an executive order that banned the teaching of critical race theory or related "inherently divisive concepts" in the state's public schools.

Last Thursday, Virginia's public school administrators called on the Youngkin administration to immediately scrap the tip line created for parents to report teachers and schools to his administration.

"Division superintendents disagree with your assumption that discriminatory and divisive concepts have become widespread in Virginia school divisions," Howard Kiser, executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, wrote in Thursday's letter.

The association represents the state's 133 public school division superintendents.

At Sunday's rally, Hynes said Youngkin "wants to scare educators into compliance with a tip line and with threats of stripping our state licenses and even charging us with state crimes. And for what? For teaching what our own communities expect us to teach. It is a pernicious and unprecedented power grab.”

Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd), who represents the City of Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County in the House of Delegates, said the ultimate goal of Youngkin and others in Richmond is to weaken public schools in Virginia.

"The fact is, Virginia public schools are fourth in the nation," Simon said at the rally. "Here in Falls Church and Fairfax County, we have some of the best schools in the country. And yet they want to make teachers the villains. They want to make your public school boards and your administrators the bad guys in some big culture wars and narrative that is happening here. And it's just not true."

Simon emphasized that public schools are in need of help, like focusing on renovating schools that have leaky roofs and poorly operating heating and air conditioning systems that cannot circulate the air properly.

Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd) spoke at the rally at the Tinner Hill Historic Park in Falls Church on Sunday, telling the crowd that Virginia schools need help with renovations, not tip lines and book banning. (Mark Hand/Patch)

Bills introduced in the General Assembly to put more money into school renovations and construction were voted down because "they are distracting everyone with the tip lines, with the banning of books," Simon said.

Adele McClure, a candidate for the 2nd District in Arlington in the House of Delegates, told the crowd that some in Virginia are working to make it difficult to teach the history of African Americans and women in the state and across the country.

"We've been here before," said McClure, who serves as executive director for the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.

In the 20th century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and other groups "successfully re-wrote history with regard to the Civil War and the Confederacy," McClure said.

These groups formed textbook committees and rallied school boards across the state to ban books that were considered unjust to the South. "In other words, divisive," she said.

Robert Rigby Jr., president of FCPS Pride, which represents LGBTQ employees in the county's school system, said the attacks on public education in Virginia are part of a nationwide effort by conservative groups to make schools "so unfriendly" for teachers and administrators that they decide to leave the schools systems.

"We are collateral damage in this political effort to pull down public education," he said. "We organize, and we demand action from our political leaders."

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