AGAINST THE EDUCATION STATUS QUO

“I DON’T THINK parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

With those words, once and aspiring Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe set off a bout of culture warfare that culminated with his Republican rival, political neophyte Glenn Youngkin, taking the executive mansion.

When the race began, parents were already spitting mad—the worst kind of mad to be in a respiratory virus pandemic. Virginia had the seventh most closed K-12 system during the 2020–21 school year, joining California, Oregon, and other blue states in offering minimal in-person instruction during COVID-19.

Virginia’s public schools stayed closed even after it became clear that the risks to school-aged children from the virus were relatively limited; even after the vaccine was made