Why Virginians Should Be Terrified of Terry McAuliffe

Abstract

In the final gubernatorial debate between Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe on September 28, McAuliffe said something truly shocking: “I’m not gonna let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.” When pressed the next day whether he meant what he said, McAuliffe doubled down: “Listen, we have a Board of Education working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in every different school jurisdiction saying this is what should be taught here, and this is what should be taught there.”

McAuliffe’s comments should terrify all Virginia voters. His statements embody two fundamental tenets of totalitarianism: that children belong to the state, not parents, and that public education is not actually about educating children, but indoctrinating and molding them into uniform, standardized citizens that will serve the state’s ends. From time immemorial, totalitarian states have understood that the best way to attain complete control of society is to control its education system. When parents are free to direct their children’s upbringing and education, whether directly through home education or indirectly through delegation to a third party of their choice, totalitarian governments are rendered impotent to implement their ideology. Totalitarian regimes know this, and for this reason one of the first things every totalitarian state has done after seizing power is take complete control of the educational system in order to remove children from the influence of their parents and indoctrinate them in the state’s preferred ideology.

Not so in the United States. In the American Constitutional order, the rearing of children belongs to parents, and parents have the right and duty to direct their children’s moral formation and overall education. Despite these established principles, Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia Genera Assembly, and school districts throughout Virginia apparently believe the opposite. Virginia schools across the state are indoctrinating students in gender identity ideology and critical race theory and deliberately preventing parents from knowing their own children’s declared gender identity—while actively facilitating the opportunity for the child to live out their new gender identity at school.