Old Dominion News

“Oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education.” These are the words of Diane Schneider who represented the National Education Association (NEA) at a UN conference on women. She further enlightened her audience that such comprehensive sex education is “the only way to combat heterosexism and gender conformity…and we must make these issues a part of every middle and high-school student’s agenda.” 

Why do these NEA-approved mandates connect to Terry McAuliffe, the former and again-hopeful governor of Virginia? Because America’s largest teachers’ union contributed $525,000 to the McAuliffe campaign. 

McAuliffe is working to help the union make good on its investment. His now-infamous statement supporting school bureaucrats over parents seems an attempt at pay-back. In a gubernatorial debate on September 28, McAuliffe said, “Listen, we have a board of ed working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools….I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” (Or perhaps even be making suggestions?)

All school decisions, in McAuliffe’s view, must be controlled completely by the educational bureaucrats—avid union supporters, most of whom were indoctrinated by America’s radical leftist universities. Local school boards vote in lockstep with those leaders—parental wishes be hanged!

Let’s go back to early 2017 when then-Governor McAuliffe loudly threatened to veto a proposed so-called “bathroom bill.” He warned state lawmakers then: "Stay away from the socially divisive issues.” 

Consider also these recent domino events: In 2020, McAuliffe’s Richmond political allies, now in full power, pass a bill allowing gender-fluid students to use the bathroom of the sex with which they identify (biology aside). This year, a supposedly gender-dysphoric student rapes a ninth-grader in the high school girls’ bathroom. 

Later, at a contentious school board meeting, the distraught father of the raped girl is arrested for attempting to tell his daughter’s story. This prompts the National School Board Association to send a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, McAuliffe’s political ally, asking the DOJ to investigate protesting parents it deemed “domestic terrorists.” Garland complies in less than a week, issuing a memo threatening FBI investigation of such parents.

But there is a grand irony in this. Just when McAuliffe defends administrators as trustworthy autocrats in charge of educational policy, Virginia’s Loudoun County school board becomes knee-deep in a scandalous coverup. It’s come to light that Loudoun school officials knew immediately about the alleged restroom rape. Emails from Superintendent Scott Ziegler show the board was alerted but stayed silent at the time of the incident. 

Surely this calls into question McAuliffe’s unswerving devotion to leadership that’s now been proven lacking in wisdom and ethics. One board member resigned over the scandal. 

The Loudoun mess is an example of what happens when radical education policy clashes with the values of a great many Virginia parents. A recent statewide survey showed that nearly 90% of Virginia parents believe they should have a say in their child’s educational experience. This view is turning those same parents against McAuliffe’s campaign. A recent survey shows only 39% of Virginia parents of K-12 support McAuliffe.

But while Loudoun parents oppose radical social educational changes pushed down their throats, McAuliffe’s large campaign donor, the NEA, champions them. The NEA goals for education in America clearly came to light as Ms. Schneider, spouting her employer’s plans and policies, said any abstinence-based curriculum which also allows students to opt-out is not acceptable. The italicized statements describe two components of Virginia’s current sex education curriculum.

But McAuliffe himself supports radical required curriculum, such as a recent law preventing parents from being informed if their children feel “gender-confused.” 

If McAuliffe moves back into the governor’s mansion, we know what to expect. Because non-enrollment in required courses prohibits graduation, children of families opposed to extreme sexual curriculum would need to absorb it. Either that or transfer to a private school, which few middle-class families can afford. 

The Democratic candidate’s words touting parental lockout bear repeating: “You don’t want parents coming in in every different school jurisdiction saying, ‘This is what should be taught here…’” 

The progressives’ attempt to jettison traditional values has ignited into open conflict over today’s public schools. We know where Mr. McAuliffe stands—and for that, he’s been rewarded with massive campaign money by the NEA. 

Candidate McAuliffe would do well to take former Governor McAuliffe’s advice: “Stay away from socially divisive issues.”

Marilyn Quigley is a professor emerita at Evangel University. She is an author, commentator, and columnist for the Metric Media News Network.