Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears is attempting to sound the alarm on the increasingly sad state of affairs that is public education.
Though it should be the best in the world considering the amount of money our country spends on public education, American kids today learn just a fraction of the core lessons they learned a century ago — lessons that prepared them for life and taught them to view their own country in a favorable light — because it has long been dominated by left-wing ideologues in academia and the teacher’s unions.
And in a Sunday night interview on Fox News, Sears said education is the top issue for her state and the country heading into the November elections.
The outlet noted:
Host Trey Gowdy discussed the ongoing efforts by many Republican figures like Sears to expand school choice for parents of school children as President Biden seeks to cancel loan debts for university students. Sears argued that Black families such as hers have been forced to fight the teachers’ unions to provide school choice for their kids.
“People who look like me say it’s about time we have that same ability as everybody else because the other side, unfortunately, is using education as a political weapon. But, as a parent, there’s only one question: is my child learning? That’s it. Full stop. Is my child learning, because with a good education my child will have a future, will have a hope, will be able to create generational wealth,” Sears said.
She also said she believes that fighting for school choice has become the modern-day equivalent of the “Brown vs. Board of Education” issue among black and minority families.
“This, to me, is the new fight in the Brown vs. Board of Education. Because what was that about? That was about a parent’s ability to choose the best school for the child,” Sears continued. “And here we are, 50-something years later, and we’re still making that request. Actually, we’re not requesting it anymore. We’re going to get it. The Democrats are not going to keep using this as a wedge to drive us against each other.”
Gowdy went on to mention reports indicating that some children are actually two decades behind in education due to the COVID lockdowns and other pandemic policies regarding schools such as remote learning.
“Pre-COVID, the children weren’t doing all that great either,” Sears responded. “This is a national security crisis, and now COVID has made it worse. I have a teacher in one of our inner-city schools. She said, ‘Lieutenant Governor, our children normally come to us two grade levels behind. Now they are four grade levels behind.’ She said, ‘what am I supposed to do?’”
She went on to rip the Biden regime for pinning the blame for poor pandemic school performances on former President Donald Trump and Republicans, despite the fact that Democrats and their teacher’s union donors were responsible for lengthy school closures and years of remote learning.
“We as Republicans and libertarians and independents wanted to reopen the schools during COVID, yes, because the private schools were open. You know what, the unions said that we were being white supremacists for wanting the schools to be open again. Now we’re told by the Biden administration that no, it was the Republicans who wanted the schools closed. We’re playing the stupid games. Our children are not advancing,” Sears said.
She went on to speak out in support of Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to hire and support more capable teachers.
“The teachers just want to teach. They don’t want to be part of the social this and social that. They just want to teach and leave the political stuff out of it. That is what they’re trying to do. Yes, we do have teachers who do take it upon themselves to do other things, but, for the majority, they just want to teach,” Sears told Gowdy.
