Richmond, VA – In a recent editorial in The Free Lance-Star calls out Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera for her disdain for our hardworking teachers, and instead of working to fan the flames of culture wars, she should listen to our teachers. 

The editorial stated: 

• Guidera and her team have made clear their disdain for the hardworking teachers and educators in Virginia who every day strive to educate the 1.2 million students in our K–12 schools.
• “AEI ... provide[s a] unique forum to develop not only … ideas, but also relationships. And this is particularly important for conservatives in an overwhelmingly liberal education sector.”
• This is simply fanning the culture war flames that suggests conservatives are on the right path, and “liberals,” however that is defined, are the enemy of academic excellence. Balderdash.
• This sort of language has got to stop. Everything that Guidera wants to do taps into things that Virgina’s schools are already working on, and have been working on since long before Glenn Youngkin became governor.
• Second, Guidera and her team are, in their own words “doubling down” on ending divisiveness.
• “This is not about banning things,” she said. “… This is about … not having indoctrination happening in our classrooms. You know, this is about stopping teachers walking … into a classroom or teachers walking into a bias training, where they see the words white guilt and white privilege on a bulletin board.”
• Guidera and Youngkin are chasing a boogeyman. If she and Youngkin have the evidence, put it on the table. Instead, they ignore FOIA requests to expose what their Orwellian “tip line” is finding.
• Stifling these discussions is all about “banning things”—things that make her and Youngkin uncomfortable.
• Like her ideas, however, educators reaching for excellence is hardly new. Instead of telling teachers where they’re wrong, try listening to them.

Read the rest of the editorial HERE. 

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