Del. Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) released an education plan today, pledging to end the left-wing takeover of public education in Virginia and taking on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in a direct way.
It is no small secret that CRT is infiltrating Virginia’s public education system, forcing rigid and deterministic ideas of racial segregation and superiority on children as young as 5 years of age.
Already, Virginia Democrats are looking to dismantle advanced math courses as “racist” while grinding every student down to the lowest common denominator in the pursuit of so called equality.
A 30 year government teacher with a strong record on education, Cox is leading the Republican pushback, releasing the following statement:
“Two years ago Virginia had some of the best public schools in the country. Accreditation rates were rising, our students were outperforming the national average on college entrance exams, and more students than ever were getting two and four-year degrees,” said Kirk. “In spite of all this success, Virginia Democrats have set out to fundamentally remake our education system – injecting far left ideas like Critical Race Theory, lowering academic standards, and now talking about ending advanced math courses just because they supposedly aren’t fair. This is simply insane.”
“Our public schools aren’t perfect, and there are certainly a number of ways to improve them, but the ideological overhaul being pushed by Democrats defies commonsense,” Kirk added. “We need a governor who can take on the Democrats when it comes to education, and I’ve got a plan to do it.”
The proposals Cox is offering aren’t your typical platitudes either. Rather, Cox isn’t looking for any mere reform, but a complete overhaul.
As Governor, Cox pledges to:
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- Replace the entire Virginia Board of Education
- Prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory
- Stop efforts to eliminate the use of advanced diplomas
- Preserve advanced track math and science courses
- Restore race-blind, merit-based admission to Virginia’s Governor Schools
- End the development of the Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative
“Terry McAuliffe has made education the central theme of his campaign, and Republicans are going to have to nominate someone who can go toe-to-toe with him on these issues. He claims he wants to invest more in education, but the truth is he wants to spend your hard-earned tax dollars to remake our schools into far-left academic institutions,” said Kirk. “And even if you set aside the philosophy, the real consequences are lower standards that will make it harder for our children to get to into college or get a good paying job.”
The transition of Virginia’s public education system from institutions providing the ground floor for 21st century jobs into ideological groupthink camps on the Soviet gulag model is something that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago.
Yet thanks to eight uninterrupted years of Democratic dominance in Virginia, their teeth are bared and the fight for the future is on in a big way — not just for our standards as families, but against America’s adversaries who are more than happy to watch public education lower its standard as they raise their own:
“America’s foreign enemies aren’t lowering their education standards, they’re raising them,” Kirk concluded. “The ideas being pushed by Democrats are going to make us less competitive economically in the world marketplace – and it’ll make it harder to recruit companies to our Commonwealth.”
Most notable about this release is the multifaceted content. Not only is Cox calling Democrats attempted overhaul of education egregious, Cox is providing actual policy solutions that are entirely within his purview as governor to accomplish.
Getting public education right will be integral in building the coalition it will take to put the Commonwealth back in GOP hands. More to the point, Cox is laying forth a blueprint that other Virginia Republicans would be well served to imitate in 2021: Call out the Left and their unhinged policies, and provide your own solutions in return.
More interesting is the fact that Cox’s policy shop is once again setting the tone and pace for the 2021 gubernatorial contest, whether it is cancel culture, small business growth, or that once-untouchable third rail of public education reform.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are facing a near-violent insurgency within their own ranks to go further on CRT, which simply does not bode well for McAuliffe’s campaign heading into the dog days of summer.