Questions about education

Plenty of worthwhile topics for discussion during Youngkin’s CNN town hall

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will take a turn in the spotlight Thursday evening when he appears on CNN for a live town hall about education.

As speculation swirls about the possibility of a presidential campaign, Youngkin will have an opportunity to introduce himself to a national audience by discussing an issue that has been central to his 14 months in public office. The governor will answer questions posed by an audience of students, parents and teachers in an event moderated by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

Toward that end, here are a couple of topics Virginians and viewers across the nation should want to see the governor address as he looks to raise his national profile and potentially bring his ideas for education reform to the White House.

Among Youngkin’s first actions after taking office last year was signing an executive order banning the instruction of “divisive concepts” in Virginia classrooms, but he failed to provide sufficient explanation as to what concepts he considers “divisive.” One hopes the audience asks the governor to provide examples of what he considers divisive and why his administration removed every initiative related to “equity” from state education policy.

As part of that effort, the governor also launched an email “tip line” and invited members of the public to report teachers and schools who run afoul of his poorly defined order. Tapper should ask Youngkin whether a national snitch line would be part of his platform should he seek the presidency.

Related to that, Youngkin refused to provide public access to the reports filed against Virginia teachers, forcing media companies such as The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press to sue his office for those records. Does Youngkin believe concealing pertinent information from citizens is appropriate in public office? Virginians would like to know.

The governor came to office as education officials were rewriting the history curricula for K-12 public schools, a process well underway when his administration scrapped the draft document. He aims to replace it with standards written by a handful of out-of-state consultants rather than the broad coalition of Virginia history educators and researchers who worked for months on the initial draft.

If the governor believes that crafting education policy should involve more voices, why would he abandon that principle when deciding what history is taught in schools?

In October the Youngkin administration rewrote the rules for how public schools should handle transgender students, ordering educators to inform a student’s parents about that student’s sexual orientation or gender identity — effectively forcing teachers to “out” their students. LGBTQ+ advocates contend that could put students at risk of harm, and the audience Thursday night would do well to ask him about the thinking behind policies that single out a small number of marginalized students in such fashion.

Debates have erupted, here in Hampton Roads and elsewhere in the commonwealth, about books available to students in school libraries. Youngkin even used Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved” in a campaign ad to argue that parents should have veto power over what books are assigned in classrooms.

Perhaps Tapper can ask Youngkin how students are served by banning honored works of literature from schools.

Finally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has worked to dramatically overhaul higher education in that state, populating university governing boards with conservative activists and stifling academic freedom on college campuses. Youngkin recently secured the appointment of Bert Ellis to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors after Ellis disparaged student journalists and brought a razor to campus to remove a vulgar sign from a student’s door.

Does Youngkin share DeSantis’ aggressive vision for remaking public colleges and universities to achieve partisan political ends?

There are many other areas to explore — about lab schools, the sudden resignation of the superintendent of public instruction and the administration’s mistake which could cost local school districts $201 million in funding — and Virginians will be eager to hear the governor’s answers.