Glenn Youngkin Promises ‘Big Agenda’ for Virginia Schools

Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin said Thursday greeting that helium has a “big agenda” to reconstruct the excellence of Virginia schools, including an “aggressive charter schoolhouse program.”

“Virginia has had a very, precise mediocre grounds successful charter schools successful providing immoderate prime wrong our nationalist schoolhouse system. So we’re going to motorboat close retired of the container 20 charter schools that are going to supply parents prime wrong the nationalist schoolhouse system,” Youngkin told FoxBusiness.

During his campaign, Youngkin viewed acquisition arsenic the apical contented successful Virginia, saying, “parents are perfectly aggravated astir what’s happening successful the nationalist schoolhouse systems.”

“Our program is going to beryllium perfectly focused connected making definite we’re getting the governmental rhetoric retired of the classroom, and truly focused connected however to hole our kids to however to deliberation arsenic opposed to what to think—so overmuch of this is engaging with parents,” Youngkin said.

Youngkin promised to prohibition critical contention theory successful Virginia schools during his campaign. Virginia parents made nationalist headlines erstwhile they voiced their concerns astatine schoolhouse committee meetings, particularly against the quasi-Marxist captious contention theory.

A assemblage is seen astatine a Loudoun County School Board gathering successful Ashburn, Va., successful a record photograph. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

“We’re going to motorboat a task unit successful December. I volition person named a caller caput of acquisition and a caller authorities superintendent of our schools by then, and we’re going to statesman to prosecute with parents, we’re gonna prosecute with educators, administrators, and students,” Youngkin continued.

In his triumph code connected Wednesday night, Youngkin promised Virginia would “embrace” parents, not disregard them.

“It starts archetypal with the enactment that we’re going to appoint, and past it truly moves connected to engaging astatine the grassroots level with teachers, and schoolhouse administrators, and parents,” Youngkin said during the interview. “I’ve been precise wide parents are going to beryllium engaged successful their schools. And we’re going to marque definite that we person a really, truly effectual connection loop with parents truthful that we tin instrumentality input. There’s conscionable a caller mode of reasoning astir engaging with parents that we’re going to property guardant with.”

Virginia volition besides rise expectations successful Virginia schools, and children should beryllium held to precocious standards; money the largest acquisition fund successful the state’s history; rise teacher salaries; money facilities; and money peculiar acquisition programs which “heavily suffered” during the pandemic, the recently elected politician told FoxBusiness.

“So we’ve got a large agenda, we’ve got to get started,” Youngkin said, referring to the authoritative day his tenure starts. “Jan. 15 can’t travel accelerated enough.”

In a authorities wherever President Joe Biden won by a comfy 10 points successful 2020, Youngkin’s triumph has been wide deemed a large stroke to Democrats and a beardown connection of nary to Democrats’ policies.

“What this predetermination truly demonstrated is that acquisition is not a governmental issue. It is simply a cardinal interest of parents from each parts of the governmental spectrum. We brought unneurotic Democrats, Republicans, and independents—folks from each walks of beingness astir this cardinal tendency for their children to person a large education,” Youngkin continued.

“We took backmost our location of delegates, and that was a large statement,” Youngkin said.

Republicans flipped 7 seats in the predetermination and regained a constrictive 51–49 bulk successful the Virginia House of Delegates.

“I deliberation this conscionable reflects the information that the room array issues of debased taxes, and large schools and harmless communities, and by the way, a increasing system with occupation opportunities—these room array issues had been pushed to the background—and voters successful Virginia said no, no, no, these are the astir important topics for us,” Youngkin said. “And that’s wherefore arsenic we laid retired our agenda, we focused connected those things that are astir important to get done.”