A vote for Suhas Subramanyam is a vote for less transparency in public schools

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to your article entitled “When Transgender Indoctrination is in Your School Suhas Subramanyam Voted To Make Sure You Won’t Know.” While I appreciated the thoughtful discussion of HB1507, one important and necessary aspect of that legislation was not addressed.

Specifically, HB1507 would “Prohibit … [teaching] to any student or school board employee the concept that (a) any race is inherently superior or inferior; (b) any individual is racist, privileged, oppressive, biased, or responsible for actions committed by others of the same race or skin color by virtue of the individual’s race or skin color.”

One would not think this statement would be necessary as parents generally trust the public school system to provide a quality education that fosters long-term opportunities for children to grow and live out the American dream. However, the politicization of public-school education presents a challenge to families seeking to form their children according to dearly held morals and values.

During the school lockdowns beginning in 2020, parents gained unprecedented insight into the influence of a progressive agenda on their child’s school curriculum. Topics such as “critical race theory” taught that one group of students was the “oppressor” and the other the “victim.” White children were told they had “privilege” just for being children of active duty military or even being the biological offspring of their own parents. A Loudoun County Public Schools’ teachers’ manual lays out a lesson plan for teaching “white privilege”.

Combine these revelations with the denial by local school boards that this teaching was even part of the school curriculum. By the time the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election rolled around, parents had had enough.

When former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe emphatically stated during a gubernatorial debate, “I don‘t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” he handed the victory to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. On the heels of McAuliffe’s admission, leaked documents revealed that the Virginia Department of Education had in fact been promoting controversial teachings such as “critical race theory” throughout the former governor’s tenure, despite repeated denials.

In fact, the group Parents Defending Education found scores of examples of critical race theory in K-12 schools, including Fairfax County Public Schools pushing a “Woke Kindergarten” video and Loudoun County Public Schools contracting with a group to teach “critical race theory development.”

Democratic activists and politicians in Loudoun County have tried to silence those opposed to the inclusion of critical race theory in the curriculum. Clearly, Virginia Democrats do not support a parent’s right to an education free of radical, political beliefs for their child and are determined to divide children into “oppressors” and “victims,” impugning the “oppressor” as “privileged” and actively working to shut down any opposition to their agenda.

A vote for Subramanyam is, quite simply, a vote against parental involvement in our children’s schooling, less transparency in public schools, and indoctrination rather than education. Subramanyam must be defeated in November, or he will elevate his anti-parent agenda to the national level.

Heather Wynthorne
Loudoun County