VBOE meeting report out from September 26th
People drove from around the Commonwealth to have their voices heard in front of the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) on September 26, 2024, some from as far as Northern Virginia, a nearly two-hour drive. Arriving promptly at 9am, attendees were met with over two hours of closed meetings. Although Mr. Bill Hansen was sincerely apologetic, this delay felt purposeful to reduce public access and the voice of Virginians, particularly after they abruptly changed the meeting date less than a week earlier.
Public Input on Accountability
4 Public Education board members, Ginge Sivigny and Vanessa Hall, gave impassioned speeches against the accountability framework overhaul, but it was Mike Karabinos who truly brought down the house in his pointed address of the VBOE and Virginia Department Education (VDOE) failures and follies.
Ginge was succinct but pointed in her remarks, “I strongly oppose this blatantly political attempt to declare our Public Schools as failures. That is not the charge you have received from the taxpayers of this Commonwealth. You should be doing everything possible to support our dedicated but underpaid teachers, our administrators, and staff in their mission to educate the students who are the future of our country. Instead you are imposing time consuming unfunded mandates which will be detrimental to the education of our students need and to which they are entitled. Your effort to in fact weaken our public education system so that it can be privatized is shameful.”
Vanessa’s hands shook with anger as she addressed VDOE’s classification of her dyslexic student who like nearly 20% of students with disabilities cannot access the college-level coursework expected by VDOE, “Never in my life did I think that VDOE would make my child a fall-guy for her school, but you have. My child is college-bound, hardworking and smart, with great grades. Yet she cannot succeed in your 3E framework due to systemic inadequate IEP support in accelerated college-level courses. Per your measures, my smart, successful daughter is not considered “ready for life.” Honestly. What a disgusting way to measure children.”
Mike spoke with confidence and humor tinged with stinging criticism of the actions of the VBOE and VDOE, “This board seemingly wants to crash the system in this state. The governor ran on the false statement that Virginia schools are failing and it seems like the board that he has appointed is determined to serve him and making his false statement true in this case by cooking the books…. Do you serve the governor and his agenda–do you serve privatization and church schools who want that money in their pockets and don't want the accountability that should come with it, or do you serve the children of this state, the families of the state, the people who actually are looking to you to do right.”
Those who spoke in support of VDOE accountability standards read without emotion, shouted their “research,” or were seemingly connected to Youngkin’s administration as appointees or employees. It was disconcerting that some supporters of VBOE’s disruptive accountability framework seemed to know ahead of time that the closed session was going to be a long one. They must have had a nice coffee break, and were able to return perfectly on time for public input 2.5 hours later. Curious.
And then VBOE member Bill Hansen read input from someone who couldn’t attend that was in support of their vote. How does one person get such personal attention when the rest of us had to show up in the rain after driving for hours, before our input fell on deaf ears? How about others that would like to have had their input read aloud instead of attending the meeting? This was such a blatant effort by the VBOE and VDOE to put another finger on the scales of public input, after it was revealed that the Virginia Education Secretary, Aimee Guidera (and others?), solicited positive input from a select group of supporters.
Speaking of which, the number of copy-pasted or vague, positive remarks from long-time allies of Youngkin in the TownHall regulatory public input was astonishing (e.g., 21 form letters advocating for “mastery over growth”), including input from Youngkin appointees and anti-public education groups like Fordham Institute. It seems that Aimee Guidera’s effort to tip the scales in their favor were successful. As one opponent of the VDOE framework said in their Townhall comments:
“The fact that most of the “public” support for these efforts comes from organizations well-known for their efforts to divert taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into the pockets of private companies seems to be a good indicator of the primary purpose of this attack on public schools. Please use your positions to support our students and school staff in productive ways, not to needlessly disparage them.”
Nevertheless, a number of educators, caregivers, and other advocates voiced specific concerns about the new accountability standards. One should pay attention to the very last comment, given by Anjy Cramer (a guest 4PE blogger who recently wrote about the opportunity gap in public schools), who provides a Tale of Two Schools to highlight the hypocrisy of the VDOE framework which will punish schools with fewer resources for students with higher needs.
Notably, no school districts gave input this time, as they have learned that VDOE has no interest in working in cooperation with school districts in Virginia.
Devastating Special Education Violations at VDOE’s Front Door
One good thing about the 2.5 hour wait was that it offered the opportunity to meet three brave women in a battle with their school districts and VDOE for the basic right of education for their children. Listen to their public input here: Tammy C. from Powhatan, Kathy Halvorsen from Powhattan, and Cheryl Wilson from Henrico.
By all accounts, there are civil rights violations in these districts, yet the VDOE has done nothing to support the students or their parents. In fact, per testimony, Dr. Lisa Coons is aware of these violations and has failed to act to protect these students and families. During the meeting, she seemed to busy herself on her phone or looked away from much of the input from these women. Eileen Chollet’s public input indicated even more failures from VDOE.
Based on their public input, they have been lied to, harassed, and have amassed legal bills due to the failure of the Henrico and Powhattan school districts. At the same time, their school districts have willingly incurred tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills to avoid educating their students. What is worse is that the students at the center of these controversies have been greatly harmed by the failure of the schools to offer education, much less special education services. Even worse, in some cases the schools have restrained and secluded or filed police charges against these students.
4 Public Education hopes to highlight the stories of these women and their children more thoroughly in the future. The failure of their school systems to educate their children, much less the abject harm committed against these students cannot be forgotten. To ignore their voices is tantamount to ignoring Cassandra. Their voices represent thousands of caregivers across the Commonwealth who have been ignored by their schools.
Advocacy Going Forward: Keep an Eye on Richmond
Everyone is busy with family, work, and life, but it is imperative that Virginia keeps an eye on what is going on in Richmond. The number of times they have dropped the ball (e.g., VDOE losing $200 million in school aid) or tried to pull a fast one (e.g., rewriting Virginia history) means that if Virginians blink too long, VDOE and the complicit members of VBOE could effectively sell our public schools out to the highest bidder. In the meantime, they are not providing the support school districts, educators, and students require while the Youngkin administration develops new plans to undermine Virginia’s public schools.
Please consider taking action to ask the U.S. Department of Education to reject the VDOE public school accountability measures by clicking the button below.
4 Public Education would like to thank all of those who have answered the call and used their words and actions to support public schools and to push back on the VDOE devastating accountability framework. And many thanks to Mr. Goad Gatsby, a local Richmond reporter, who covered the meeting.
If you would like to know more about the devastating VDOE accountability overhaul, please browse the slideshow below.
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