Virginia's new standards for teaching history in schools criticized

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Virginia Department of Education put out new standards for teaching history and social science Friday. Parents and teachers are divided on the topic but agree on one thing -- they want politics out of the classroom.

The department revised the standards for teaching history and social science that were originally proposed under former Governor Ralph Northam.

A spokesperson for the department said by releasing these new standards they're actually going back to the historic process that was in place -- that it's not political.

Standards of learning come out first. That's what we got on Friday followed by a much longer, more in-depth document detailing how those standards are taught in the framework released later.

But critics of the standards and Governor Glenn Youngkin say the document is missing key histories about race in America and LGBTQ+ stories.

"I'm upset that people don't want to talk about lynching when my family back in the 19-teens was almost lynched because they were trying to educate African Americans - and this was down in South Carolina," said Cassandra Newby-Alexander, historian and professor at Norfolk State University. "I'm upset that we're talking about history through the lens of people who don't really want to talk about ongoing racism in our society."

These newly proposed standards of learning do mention teaching lynching at least once beginning in sixth grade and again in 11th grade, but professor Newby-Alexander says students should be taught about America's history of racism at a younger age.

The Youngkin administration has prioritized education since his campaign. Youngkin's first executive order banned the teaching of "inherently divisive concepts" like critical race theory -- a move cheered by some parents.

The Department of Education says these standards of learning are basically a high-level summary. Later, the department will release a much longer document called the curriculum frameworks that gives more detail. Governor Glenn Youngkin's spokesperson mentioned the curriculum frameworks in a tweet Friday responding to criticism about LGBTQ inclusion. She said "LGBTQ+ history & Cesar Chavez will be in the curriculum frameworks, as they were" in the 2015 version.

"I went through it and what I saw is as early as fourth grade they're learning about Plessy v. Ferguson and the Dred Scott decision and Tulsa and all of the things that certainly are important to understanding not just the great stuff about American history but the problematic things as well," said Ian Prior of the political action committee, Fight For Schools.

But parents on both sides want politics out of the discussion. One side wants to get politics out of the classroom and let teachers - who are licensed professionals do the job they were trained to do. The other says get politics out of the classroom and let parents be the ultimate decision maker about certain things that get taught.

I think the vast majority of parents are actually very happy with their schools in Virginia. They're happy the way their children are being taught. And they want us to continue to go on the same course of which we've been running our schools in Virginia with our open, transparent long processes where we come up with these things – come up with these learning standards – so we don't end up over-politicizing our schools," said Virginia Sen. Scott Surovell.

The Department of Education says they expect to have that much longer document called the curriculum frameworks by August 2023 to be implemented for next school year 2023-2024. They also said there will be public hearings for the standards that were released on Friday giving the opportunity for public feedback.