Families Win in Virginia

 

Virginia families made the difference in the state-wide election on November 2, 2021 which removed political control from elite politicians, and placed it instead with parents controlling the upbringing of their children. 

 

After Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe, said, "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach," a broad poll found that a majority of Virginia parents say that parents "should be telling schools what to teach."

 

Championing parents' rights to decide how their children are educated was the key to change in control for Virginia.  "This election has demonstrated that education is a salient political issue, and one that is likely to persist for the foreseeable future," Nicole Neily, a Virginia mother and president of Parents Defending Education, stated. "If politicians ignore it — or denigrate voters and parents — they do so at their peril."

 

FamilyRestoration has been encouraging this discussion for a long time, largely through my scholarship including The Assault on Parental Rights in America, 7 Am. J. Biomedical Science & Res. 233 (2020), a piece which resulted from a presentation I gave at the Family Research Council in April of 2019, and again at the Regent Law Festival of Learning in 2019 joined by two family court judges.  "It has been great to see how the importance of our children's education and the parents matter movement has brought so many people together," Brandon Michon, a father of three who has spoken out at Loudoun County School Board meetings for months. "Parental rights in education were on the ballot this election," said another parent, Laura Zorc, director of education reform at Building Education for Students Together (BEST). "Parents (Republican, Independent, and Democrat) across the country have been saying, ‘We don’t want your politics in our schools.’ Tonight, parents delivered on their promises to vote these elites out of office."

 

Parents have a fundamental constitutionally protected right to direct the upbringing of their children.  That includes not only their education, but their health, safety, and welfare in every area of their lives. When parents stand up for their children, generations to come will live in that benefit.  “…Parents are the pride of their children.” Proverbs 17:6b.