Voters in what not long ago was considered a reliably Democratic state, Virginia, elected a Republican governor Tuesday night, and what seems to have made the difference was an issue that typically keeps people in the blue column: education.
Polls show Glenn Youngkin rode to victory powered in part by suburban public-school-parent grievances about the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools.
As this new culture-war wedge proves electorally potent, Democrats have two choices: continuing to complain about how the other party is distorting what is actually happening in classrooms, or making an honest effort to listen to the grievances. We recommend the latter.
It’s not that what gets called “critical race theory” — a bad-fit label often applied in bad faith to instruction aimed at communicating the very serious legacy of racial prejudice in America — is flat wrong. To the contrary: It is a fact that the United States remains infected by many forms of structural racism, and it is important for young people, especially at the appropriate age, to learn how the nation falls short of its founding promises. Laws seeking to outright ban CRT and its cousins are vile and infringe on core freedoms.
The problem is that there are real instances in which such an ideology manifestly goes too far, such as when advocates claim that academic achievement or persuasive writing are constructs of white supremacy, or when second-graders are conditioned to view themselves foremost through the prism of their skin color. This may not happen in most schools — media outrage machines often distort the truth to pretend as though the bogeyman is far bigger than it is — but it happens enough. Plenty of parents, not just far-right ideologues, recoil.
Science classes must always teach about evolution, and history classes about slavery and Jim Crow. But when schools delve into especially fraught subjects, especially with very young students, in a manner that veers on overt political indoctrination, they breach trust. If they don’t show a healthier respect for mothers and fathers who feel their vital role is being usurped, parents will continue in ever larger numbers to choose charters, private schools or homeschooling. That will further fragment America.
