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A Virginia Republican is operating an education-based marketing campaign to revive the popularity of his native college districts, sometimes deemed as among the many finest within the nation.
Jim Myles, who’s looking for to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, was impressed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s platform final 12 months on parental selection in colleges, which is credited for serving to him obtain an upset win towards former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
“Faculties are a giant factor for lots of us as a result of the colleges listed here are struggling. Children are getting worse and worse, and we’re shedding college students. While you’re shedding college students and children are getting worse, it’s time for a change,” Mr. Myles stated.
Schooling has remained a high subject for Republicans operating for workplace throughout the nation, because it grew to become a flash level in Virginia’s governor’s race final 12 months.
U.S. Information & World Report ranked Fairfax County Public Faculties as having the very best excessive colleges in Virginia and within the nation in 2022, although Northern Virginia made nationwide headlines final 12 months for changing into a hub of activism for folks indignant at masks mandates, college insurance policies on transgenderism and curricula that included Essential Race Idea.
Efficiency trackers by the Nationwide Evaluation of Academic Progress have proven that the pandemic-related college closures and digital courses had price 20 years value of positive factors in college students’ studying skills in math and studying.
The decline spanned throughout all races and socioeconomic ranges, with top-performing college students seeing a modest drop and the lowest-performing college students seeing a 12-point drop of their math expertise.
Mr. Myles is hoping to make schooling a difficulty that may attain past Republican voters.
“Faculties are the primary subject as a result of that’s the long run for our kids and that cuts throughout all demographics,” he stated. “Republican, Democrat, impartial, wealthy, poor, Black, White, it doesn’t matter. All of us need our kids to achieve success.”
Mr. Myles, who faces an uphill battle to unseat Mr. Connolly in a district the place registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 15 share factors, accused him of missing an effort in his campaigning due to the reliably blue nature of the realm.
“With my opponent, he’s silent for all the things. He’s not even operating this 12 months. He’s simply ready it out, hoping there’s sufficient Democrats to vote him in for an additional time period in workplace. He’s been there for 14 years, and it’s simply getting worse and worse,” Mr. Myles stated.
Mr. Connolly’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
However Mr. Connolly has additionally made schooling a central platform throughout his time in workplace.
He has sought to broaden early childhood schooling, suggest common pre-Ok, and reducing tuition prices to make sure college students’ a pathway to varsity.
The congressman, who’s looking for an eighth time period in Congress, has accused Republicans of utilizing colleges to wage culture-war politics and earlier this 12 months, attacked Mr. Youngkin on taking credit score for Democrats’ work to supply federal funding to colleges.
“That file $16 billion surplus you inherited and the ‘state’ funding for colleges is, largely, as a result of Democrats in Congress handed the American Rescue Plan. [Northern Virginia] college students shouldn’t be held hostage in your tradition warfare,” Mr. Connolly tweeted on the governor.
Mr. Myles, an Air Power veteran and retired federal choose, stated he moved to Fairfax County as a result of he was drawn to its robust college techniques.
The candidate started attending college board conferences throughout the pandemic, and located considerations with college students’ classroom curricula, in addition to native management which he argues has an ideologically liberal bias.
From the federal stage, Mr. Myles vowed to nominate employees devoted to Virginia’s eleventh District college group.
He additionally hopes to see investigations into the pandemic’s impression on schooling and steer votes towards any funding that targets dad and mom’ involvement in colleges.
Mr. Myles additionally criticized the Biden administration’s actions towards dad and mom at college board conferences, after the Justice Division final 12 months introduced, on the behest of Democratic-leaning college boards, a crackdown on threats towards elected native officers primarily based on anti-terrorism legal guidelines.
“I might be so towards that. We don’t want the FBI to go after dad and mom,” Mr. Myles stated.
The Republican is also criticizing native officers relating to LGBT points in colleges.
The Biden administration and Democrats have argued that federal civil rights legislation requires that colleges act towards college students primarily based on their most popular gender identification fairly than organic intercourse.
Mr. Myles stated gender ideology is a matter that must be taken up with a scholar’s household, fairly than in colleges.
“Children are very impressionable at that age. There’s boys and there’s women and we have to set up that in our colleges,” he stated. “If there’s different points, then we will work with that at a household stage after which after they’re 18, maybe these different different existence are higher addressed by adults.”
“However they don’t belong in our colleges,” Mr. Myles stated.
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