Parents began showing up in crowds to normally sparsely attended school board meetings, some already outraged by LCPS' coronavirus school closures.
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In June, five parents sued the school system over the equity plan, alleging it violates students' constitutional right to free speech. This created the backdrop for one pillar of the conservative outrage that's dominating the headlines out of Virginia's election: a fear over purported "critical race theory" - a college-level discipline that Loudoun's school system has repeatedly stated is not a part of the curriculum - and other equity issues that have metastasized into culture wars far beyond what's being taught in classrooms. Multiple students, the local NAACP, and even the commonwealth's attorney general have called for LCPS to correct systemic racial discrimination.Įarlier this year, Loudoun released a 22-page equity plan, calling for implicit bias training, enhanced protocols for handling racist behavior, and improved reporting systems for students. In 2019, a third-party audit concluded that Loudoun County Public Schools was a "hostile learning environment" for students of color and that staff often failed to address racist incidents. Meanwhile, the county's public school system - which was one of the last in the country to desegregate - has attempted to kickstart its own cultural transformation. Loudoun has also grown in population and diversity once a largely rural and white enclave, it's now home to a prosperous tech corridor, a growing immigrant community, and increasing numbers of non-white residents. While control of the county's board of supervisors has shifted between the parties for decades, Joe Biden sailed through Loudoun easily, winning 61% of the vote (a 6 percentage point increase from Hillary Clinton's lead in 2016).
One of the wealthiest counties in the country, Loudoun County has transformed in recent years - both demographically and politically. Republicans are hoping that energy can galvanize voters in an off-year election, and earn back electoral ground.Īnd thus, Loudoun County - with its diversifying and evolving public school system - became a focal point in a decisive election for Virginia. He's seeking to break Virginia's blue streak by tapping into voters' - and specifically parents' - visceral anger and frustrations after a tumultuous year-plus of pandemic-era learning. It now rests with Youngkin, a wealthy businessman and political novice who has sought to distance himself from Trump while simultaneously playing off the same fears that he fomented. Democrats have delivered, outlawing the death penalty, fast-tracking marijuana legalization, and dramatically expanding voting rights.īut while Joe Biden won the commonwealth with a nine-point margin in 2020, narrow congressional victories and a failed attempt to flip a House seat that same year also sparked hope in many Republicans. Long considered a purple bellwether, it seemed to signal a new, solidly blue era for Virginia. In a "Starving Schools" ad, McAuliffe's campaign decries Youngkin's education policies for gutting public school budgets.ĭemocrats won control over Virginia's General Assembly in 2019 for the first time in more than two decades, giving the party power over both the governorship and legislature. McAuliffe has worked to paint his opponent as "Donald Trump in khakis" and a "wannabe" of the former president, but he's also been forced to respond to the education attacks.
While Youngkin relies on the refrain "parents matter," Democrat candidate and former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe has been on the defensive as Election Day nears. From coronavirus closures, to curriculums on equity and racism, to protections for transgender students, education issues have been weaponized in a statewide ( and national) cultural war. In the razor tight race for governor in Virginia, Youngkin has seized on debates that have been roiling school board meetings and parking lot protests in Loudoun County for months. The applause started before he even finished his sentence. "So on day one, we are going to ban teaching critical race theory in our schools." "But it all starts with recognizing that our curriculum has gone haywire," he declared at the September rally. Speaking before a crowd of hundreds in Leesburg, the seat of Loudoun County, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Glenn Youngkin laid out his vision for reshaping the commonwealth's education system, promising to establish "excellence" in Virginia schools. The name said it all: "Rally to Save Our Schools." In an extremely tight gubernatorial race, Republicans are hoping that parents' anger and fear over issues that ignited the Northern Virginia school system can motivate their base.
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