Richmond, VA —Yesterday with his proclamation of “School Choice Week,” Governor Youngkin officially declared his war against public schools.

Since being inaugurated, Governor Youngkin has continually attacked Virginia’s public schools. During his first week in office, Gov. Youngkin threatened to use official state resources to defund Virginia schools that didn’t comply with his illegal executive order. And by week three, Gov. Youngkin set up a watchdog hotline to monitor what public school teachers are doing in the classroom. 

“School Choice Week” is nothing but a fancier way of saying that Youngkin will be defunding public schools and redirecting that money to private schools – threatening to defund a lifeline in places like Buchanan county, where schools are almost entirely funded through the very state funding that Governor Youngkin is threatening to take away. 

“Governor Youngkin claimed that education was his highest priority, but so far he has only wreaked havoc on our school systems and threatened to defund school divisions across the Commonwealth,” said DPVA spokesperson Gianni Snidle. “It is evident that students, parents, school boards, and communities have taken a stand against Governor Youngkin’s threats and actions towards public schools. There is no question, with the recent proclamation of ‘School Choice Week,’ that the Governor is fully intending to defund public schools and bully school divisions that don’t comply with his extremist agenda.”

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