The 2023 Virginia General Assembly is coming to an end, yet Richmond continues to foment the culture wars by trying to remove history from our History curricula, funding from public schools, and social emotional support in our classrooms. All Virginians want true and complete history, fully funded schools, and healthy students ready to learn, yet there is little movement from Richmond on critical issues in our schools. Heck, the administration lost $201 million in public school dollars, yet it is still trying to privatize public school funds.
Thankfully, many elected officials, leaders, and parents care about these issues, and are working together across our state and in every community to solve these critical issues while working to attract and retain qualified, caring, and skilled educators. However, these issues require funding for successful solutions, something that Richmond seems to want to take away from our public schools.
At the same time, we will invite guest bloggers over the next couple of weeks to provide perspectives and resources on these crucial issues:
There is a crisis of opioid addiction and increased fentanyl overdose deaths in our schools and communities. This is a national problem that requires multi-layered regional and local solutions that include parental awareness and involvement.
Parents and teachers have reported increased bullying in our schools. A mental health crisis among students has hit an all time high per the CDC, which urges schools to invest in supporting struggling youth. Likely, these concerns are related. Our communities have tools and resources to address bullying and support mental health, but we need to move past divisive rhetoric, return to nuanced discussions, and look to the future of our students.
The Virginia Department of Education has removed consequential history from our students’ curricula, despite “nearly universal condemnation from parents, educators, and the community.” We cannot let this stand. Please attend one of the six public hearings planned by the Virginia Board of Education. If you live in Northern Virginia, please plan to attend on Tuesday, March 14th, you can RSVP here on our event page and we will provide more information on how we can organize.
We parents, educators, and citizens should be student-focused for student solutions.
4 Public Education wants to hear from you about what you see in your schools and community. Please share with us issues, solutions, and successes at info@4publiceducation.org.
