Once again the Youngkin administration has demonstrated that the “honesty gap” begins in the Governor’s Office, which has repeatedly attempted to discredit our public education system and shift funding to private interests or state-run schools (think teacher hotline, parent’s rights, charter schools and vouchers).  These actions appear to be aimed at subverting the autonomy and will of local school boards and the people who elect them.

And once again, you, the VBOE, have ignored public and professional comment on the inadequacies of the proposed changes (think History SOL revisions) and rushed approval of this plan, which appears to be designed to fail rural and minority populations that do not and cannot meet these new standards, largely due to historic and contemporary underfunding and the negative cascading effects of that legacy.  We should be as focused on the “support gap” as the “accountability gap” and strive to improve both the circumstances and delivery of public education through adequate funding and apolitical systemic improvements geared for student success, not failure.

My question, then, is when and where does the “honesty gap” end and good faith efforts to invest in public education begin?