Part II of Governor Youngkin’s Magical Thinking series
Once upon a time, in a land we all love, there was a Governor (or Thane if you are in Shakespearean Scotland)....
From day one of his term, Governor Glenn Youngkin knew that his future depended on his record in Virginia. And his record in Virginia depended on his plan to convince the people of Virginia that their schools were terrible. He set out with a series of stories and policies that would divide and defeat Virginians.
His first fantastic tale that Virginia schools were terrible would be launched with Executive Order One and depend on a Tattle Line where students and parents across the Commonwealth could report how awful their teachers were. The Tattle Line was a failure, and only released, after lawsuits, but Youngkin and his Secretary Guiderra continued to publicize their base, fallacious tale that public school teachers and schools in Virginia were lying to and failing their communities.
There have been variations on the “Our schools are Terrible Tales,” from Hillsdale History changes that insisted to Black, Brown, and Girl children that their ancestors did not contribute to Virginia’s story, to the attorney general’s never-ending investigations and advocacy against student access to education opportunities.
With each story the projections grew more fantastical. All reiterated the imagined failure of Virginia’s public schools: that they were inferior, teaching false and destructive information, and preferring marginal students over those “worthy of merit.” The stories would be carried by both his staff and in the MAGA journalism and litigation movements.
Many of the tales were outlandish, and ruthlessly cruel, targeting the most vulnerable students and telling lies that teachers were unduly influencing students about things like their gender, their rights, their ethnicities, their class, and their right to a high quality education.
Some of the stories just lied about what was offered already. The Lab Schools plans proposed dual enrollment and career programs which already existed in public schools, but the new plans would require more administrative management, and provide a more limited number of seats.
Each tale attacking the education system and regaling the positive motives of privatizers was phrased as what was “good for” students, and what was “better for Virginia,” and what “must be done,” but each tale was merely a thinly veiled attempt to make Virginians believe that schools, students, teachers, and school boards deserved punishment.
Each was matched with a policy that directly confirmed the Governor and his allies' commitment to privilege and profit for some, and punishment or loss of services for the rest.
Though he achieved a few items on his list, Youngkin’s governorship so far has remained a series of minor skirmishes and larger battles foiled thanks mainly to a courageous group of legislators who have pushed back.
The School Performance and Support Framework (Framework) is Mr. Youngkin’s most recent attempt to savage Virginia’s schools. His couriers promised that this time they would prove almost three quarters of the schools in Virginia were failing. Then CNBC reported Virginia’s schools as the best in the nation, which exposed his tale as horror-fantasy.
He and his aides are still determined to implement the Framework, though it has received substantial resistance from school boards, superintendents, and grassroots feedback around the state.
The Framework promises to create more disruption and chaos in children’s education than any policy so far because it will affect every year of a student’s education, and will affect every subject and every school in Virginia. No child will be safe from the spectre of tests designed for arbitrary, deliberate failure and no school will be safe from the ogre of failure labeling.
His last set of Education Horror Stories in 2025 will determine Glenn Youngkin’s future. He knows it, and as a result will do and say whatever it takes to convince Virginia and the nation his macabre tales are true.
See Governor Youngkin’s Magic Math for Part I, or click below.
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