According to a new report, school closures are what led to a Republican victory in Virginia, with Glenn Youngkin defeating Terry McAuliffe in November’s gubernatorial race.
National Review Online reports:
[A] Democratic polling firm has conducted focus groups with voters in the Virginia suburbs who switched from Joe Biden to Youngkin, and found pretty much the same thing.
“These swing voters didn’t agree with what they thought the liberal position on race in schools was,” ALG Research writes in a summary report. “However, it wasn’t as salient as the fact that they felt Democrats closed their schools and didn’t feel bad about it. They also knew about his debate quote on parents; it clearly burned in and resonated with them.”
The report notes:
School closures + COVID policy were a bigger factor than CRT. These voters were more animated talking about their dissatisfaction with their local school districts’ handling of COVID. They felt buffeted by changing and inconsistent policies and concerned about the impact on student learning loss, and there was a sense among some that Virginia was not following the science by keeping schools closed later than other states. One participant, a Biden voter, stated flat out that her vote for Youngkin “was against the party that closed the schools for so long last year.”
NRO adds:
School closures turned out to be completely unnecessary from the perspective of reducing COVID-19 spread, and as Robert VerBruggen noted yesterday, another new study has show that remote learning was a complete disaster.
…
If the takeaway of the Virginia race is to make Democrats at least slightly more skittish about COVID-19 restrictions in the future, that alone will have made it worthwhile.
The fact is AMERICA is waking up to the fact that democrats are EVIL, LOW LIFE SCUM, WHOS LIVES DO NOT MATTER. REMOVE THE MAJORITY FROM OUR GOVERNMENT. ELIMINATE THE TRAITORS FROM PLANET.
As with many issues, the heart of this problem lies within the notion of government education itself. Clearly, our government education system, K-12 through our best universities, has collapsed intellectually and socially. Currently, the U.S. is surviving its terrible system but we plant in our youth an almost indestructible socialist taproot. I’m always shocked at how frightened of privatization most of America is. Teachers say breaking away is impossible but education is and always has been a private matter.
The central problem is acceptance of government control of our children. Parents also don’t feel they have a financial stake in education. School taxes are blended with property taxes and often are forgotten because they’re mandatory whether or not they have school-aged children. Students will improve when parents feel education is a financial acquisition. And parents will be more engaged when their private money is at stake.
The primary problem with the K-12 segment is it’s a monopoly in a nation where monopoly is considered a criminal enterprise for everyone else. Another major flaw is taxpayers, with no children in public schools, have no voice in where and how their money is spent. These people make up a vast majority but the government chooses for them. Taxpayer money also passes directly to colleges without regard to whether students succeed or default on their loans.
Public teaching has been fundamentally transformed into an enormous entitlement, and dispensing entitlements is the heart of the democrat strategy. Political corruption is a byproduct and easy loans have created colossal private debt, far beyond forgiveness or refunds. A solution is state governments may immediately allow per pupil allocations to any accredited institution according to parental choice. Many states already have such private systems.
Free enterprise education eliminates the ability to trample one civil right by supporting an opposing civil right. It also precludes indoctrination to unwelcome political agendas. School choice is defined neither by teacher nor the union. We need a robust free market able to deliver general subjects as well as specialties including athletics and arts. It’s a bad idea for any government to educate its children but existing government school facilities should be available for lease by private institutions.