School board reckoning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Virginia GOP proved that it can whip up racist white enthusiasm, and win at the ballot box, without Donald Trump.

Yeah, that's exactly why Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares won, isn't it. /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Virginia GOP proved that it can whip up racist white enthusiasm, and win at the ballot box, without Donald Trump.

Yes, it's always the other person that's the problem. You are perfect.

Unbelievable!

As the other PP pointed out, what's the Dem strategy to target moderates like me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the governor's race ending up the way it did, will the FCPS school board now tone down their nonsense out of fear of being kicked out at the next election?

Very cringe because you think you just voted out the school board when in fact you voted for governor.

They did vote out the state board of education. I’m guessing equity won’t be a priority for the incoming board.

This. This is why I voted Youngkin. Whatever it takes to get Atif Qarni to stop imposing new teacher training mandates about equity that don’t do a damn thing to help my kid learn the 3 R’s, science, and non-victim-based social studies.

Exactly. And if the School Board members are paying any attention they’ll start focusing on their basic responsibilities again and stop with all their stupid nonsense like a new “social justice” Academy at failing Lewis HS.

I would have assumed conservative Christians would be supportive of such things considering the importance of social justice in the teachings of Jesus.

I'm a conservative Christian. I believe we need to address historic wrongs. My personal policy preference for this is making sure all kids can read, write, and do math. I realize that may be wrong or just one piece of the puzzle, but based on what I see it's the best I've got.

The social justice academy at Lewis didn't seem like it would move the needle for any real, actual students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McAuliffe won Fairfax County by a whopping 65 - 35, so there's no reason for them to not double down.

The state DoE, however, may tread a bit more cautiously.

yes, but McAuliffe lost ground - I think Northam had 70% in FC. Whether it is fair or not, parents of all political persuasions (with 20/20 hindsight of course) were dissatisfied with FCPS in some regard - whether it was the complete and embarrassing failure of implementing on-line learning back in March 2019, the failure to open schools earlier in AUG 2020 to allow kids to engage with teachers before going virtual when Delta variant arrived, the very strict rules about social distancing/quarantine/masking even for HS kids who were vaccinated, the failure to acknowledge that kids were participating in sports/pods and bars/restaurants open but still not in school, the comparison to private schools - and of course the cultural issues surrounding curriculum.

It will be interesting to see if campaigns focus on COVID failures or the culture wars issues.

One would hope it would the the Covid failures. This whole article by Zachary Carter should be shared at post-mortems in both parties.

The unraveling began at the schools. COVID-19 has been terrible for everyone, and it has been especially hard on parents. Unpredictable school closures didn’t just screw up parents’ work schedules; they drove millions of parents, including 3 million women, out of the workforce altogether. Remote learning doesn’t work well for most kids and has been accompanied by rising levels of depression and anxiety among students. From April to October last year, the nationwide share of doctor visits that were related to mental health spiked 24 percent for kids ages 5 to 11, and 31 percent for kids ages 12 to 17. Existing disparities in learning got worse, with the biggest hits coming to kids with disabilities, kids from low-income families, and kids from Black and Latino families—all demographics that Democrats expect to do well with at the ballot box.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/virginia-election-youngkin-education/620596/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The short answer is no. But I certainly hope Youngkin spends most of his political capital fighting CRT in schools. That would be a super productive use of it. Better than, say, saving me a penny in grocery tax on an apple.

I guess if he’s spending months banning something that doesn’t exist, he can’t screw up the rest of the state.[/quote]

This is why the Dems lost. It is documented on VADOE website as early as 2015--when McAuliffe was president. We've seen FCPS having "Woke Kindergarten" as a resource on school webistes. And, yet, you still think it does not exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The short answer is no. But I certainly hope Youngkin spends most of his political capital fighting CRT in schools. That would be a super productive use of it. Better than, say, saving me a penny in grocery tax on an apple.

I guess if he’s spending months banning something that doesn’t exist, he can’t screw up the rest of the state.[/quote]

This is why the Dems lost. It is documented on VADOE website as early as 2015--when McAuliffe was president. We've seen FCPS having "Woke Kindergarten" as a resource on school webistes. And, yet, you still think it does not exist.

PP--I meant when McAuliffe was governor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The short answer is no. But I certainly hope Youngkin spends most of his political capital fighting CRT in schools. That would be a super productive use of it. Better than, say, saving me a penny in grocery tax on an apple.

I guess if he’s spending months banning something that doesn’t exist, he can’t screw up the rest of the state.[/quote]

This is why the Dems lost. It is documented on VADOE website as early as 2015--when McAuliffe was president. We've seen FCPS having "Woke Kindergarten" as a resource on school webistes. And, yet, you still think it does not exist.

The Dems are good at blaming others for losing while never focusing on why they lost? They still can't get over blaming the rural white deplorables for voting Trump while still not understanding why a lot of those people switched allegiance to Trump. Oh boy!

[Anonymous]

Where was the focus of the School Board when the schools were closed on COVID? What were the issues discussed?

Social justice. Renaming schools. Religious holidays on the calendar. Removing merit from TJ.

And, how did they kick off their opening last year? With Kendi and his books.

Tone deaf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want the schools to focus on teaching kids. I don't need the schools to be worried about all things equity. I need them to teach grammar, spelling, science, history, math, and other core subjects. I don't want time devoted to my kids social well being or questions about his thoughts on racism or social justice issues. Focus on academics and stop worrying about how comfortable he is discussing race.

NP - I would take this point a step further and venture to say that if we focus on academic fundamentals and honing critical thinking skills, students will feel more comfortable venturing into “uncomfortable” subjects like racism and social justice. But they need a strong academic foundation to get there first.

[Anonymous]

The kids shouldn't have been out of school last year.

My SILs & BILs all live in states that did not shut down this last school year at all. Hybrid also wasn't offered so there was none of that nonsense of a teacher trying to teach to an in person class and online at the same time. Any kids who asked to be exempt from in person did a homebound online schooling platform that had separate teachers through the platform just for them. I know in VA at least, this is also a platform that is available here because my neighbor's son was on it one year after transplant surgery that had complications.

The same should have been done here and then we wouldn't have stressed out parents from trying to work and teach multiple kids. And we wouldn't have stressed out teachers this year from having to try to teach 2 years of lessons in one to get kids caught up. I have an older kid who is in his first year of college who is struggling in a math course there because foundation concepts that should have been learned in his HS math course weren't and he's not the only one according to him. His college offers math tutoring 3 evenings per week and the center is packed each night with freshmen. The tutor he was working with is a mathematics PhD who told him that they've never had that many students utilizing the service in the 5 years he'd been tutoring with the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McAuliffe won Fairfax County by a whopping 65 - 35, so there's no reason for them to not double down.

The state DoE, however, may tread a bit more cautiously.

Republicans and independents may not be able to punish the board in county elections, but they can take their frustrations out on state wide elections and cost those candidates big time.

A third of people in Fairfax voting for Youngkin is a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With the governor's race ending up the way it did, will the FCPS school board now tone down their nonsense out of fear of being kicked out at the next election?

What nonsense exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With the governor's race ending up the way it did, will the FCPS school board now tone down their nonsense out of fear of being kicked out at the next election?

No. Not even close. Because they know in Fairfax, the vast majority of the people vote democratic. So they (school board) know they can go to any extreme and actually it is better to be on extreme left to win over their most ardent democratic supporters.

I hate Trump as much as anyone and even threw a party (outdoor) when he lost. I voted republican in this election. Not many do in Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where was the focus of the School Board when the schools were closed on COVID? What were the issues discussed?

Social justice. Renaming schools. Religious holidays on the calendar. Removing merit from TJ.

And, how did they kick off their opening last year? With Kendi and his books.

Tone deaf.

There were ad nauseum meetings, posts, discussions, etc. about DL and COVID. Don't lie. I'm sick of the lying.

Yes, those other things happened b/c they still existed as issues. They may not be important to you. But they are to many. And some of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.

And now kids are back in school. Except for masks in the school buildings -and not even all parts of the school building- everything is 100% back to normal for my kid's school. And all the rest as far as I can tell: Sports and clubs happening, field trips, pep rallies, etc. So, stop your whining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Virginia GOP proved that it can whip up racist white enthusiasm, and win at the ballot box, without Donald Trump.

Yes, it's always the other person that's the problem. You are perfect.

Unbelievable!

As the other PP pointed out, what's the Dem strategy to target moderates like me?

It can be both, you know? Yes, there were many failings on one side; but it is also true that Youngkin whipped up white racist enthusiasm.

As far as moderates like you: there has been plenty of things that McAuliffe (very much a moderate) and the current governor did that should appeal to you. Strong economy, elimination of rape kit back log (HUGE). Expanding medicaid. Leader in education, much as people would have you believe otherwise.

Youngkin is opposed to gay marriage, is not pro choice, and will reduce everything to pure dollars and cents. He will have ZERO affect on local school board issues or FCPS. This scenario is not something that typically appeals to moderates. If you are one, you should be concerned about what you just voted for.