Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe generated a firestorm of controversy after he said during a debate that parents should not have any control over their child’s education.
McAuliffe, who is hoping to return to the governor’s mansion, has a long history of opposing any parental involvement in the public school system.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” he said at the debate.
McAuliffe’s opposition to parents’ rights contradicts Virginia law, which states, “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”
Glenn Youngkin, a Republican newcomer, confronted McAuliffe for vetoing as governor two bipartisan bills that would have required schools to notify parents of sexually explicit content in instructional materials, including assigned reading.
YOUNGKIN: What we’ve seen over the course of the last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. In fact, in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents so upset because there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen, it was shocking. And in fact, you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they were there. You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.
MCAULIFFE: So, first of all, this shows how clueless Glenn Youngkin is, he doesn’t understand what the laws were because he’s never been involved here in helping Virginia, but it was not. The parents had the right to veto bills, veto books, Glenn, not to be knowledge [sic] about it. Also take them off the shelves and I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision.
YOUNGKIN: You vetoed it.
MCAULIFFE: Yeah, I stopped the bill that– I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.
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