Free to Learn Action, an advocacy group intent on removing politics from the classroom in America’s public schools, launched a $1 million ad campaign against Virginia’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe Thursday.
“The ad highlights the devastating consequences of allowing partisan political agendas to seep into schools while also undermining parents’ roles in their child’s education,” the organization said in an email.
McAuliffe, who is seeking his second non-consecutive term as Virginia’s governor, has been embroiled in scandal since a late-September debate in which he argued that parents should have little control over what their kids are taught in school.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” he said indignantly at the time.
That comment has plagued McAuliffe ever since, as the battle over Critical Race Theory (CRT), transgender bathrooms, and other leftist school practices rages in Virginia.
When asked about the comment in a Tuesday interview with WJLA-TV, McAuliffe scolded reporter Nick Minock, and abruptly ended the interview.
McAuliffe’s opponent, Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin, has had a field day with McAuliffe’s comments.
“Terry McAuliffe doesn’t care about the issues facing families, and it’s clear he’s not interested in listening to what Virginians – especially parents – have to say,” Youngkin spokesperson Macauley Porter told The Virginia Star Wednesday. “Glenn has been talking about the issues Virginians are discussing at their kitchen tables and soccer games like cost of living, lower taxes, and fighting to keep parents involved with their children’s lives. That’s why so many Republicans, Independents, and Democrats are coming together in support of our campaign and this movement to give the people a voice in Virginia’s future.”
Just last week, it was also revealed that Scott Smith, the man arrested at a June 22 Loudoun County School Board (LCSB) meeting, is the father of a ninth-grade girl who was allegedly raped by a transgender student in the girls’ bathroom of her high school.
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) is accused of covering up the alleged rape.
At the June 22 meeting, about three weeks after the alleged rape occurred, LCPS Superintendent Scott Zeigler said “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist,” and that as far as he knew, “we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.”
After the alleged rape, the male suspect was reportedly transferred to another school within the district, where he allegedly molested another student.
Free to Learn Action references both the alleged rapes, along with the teaching of CRT, in its new ad campaign called “Pay the Price.” The ad will air on television.
“Terry McAuliffe spent years minimizing the role of parents,” the ad says. “Now our children are paying the price. Failing test scores, sexual assaults, and a divisive activist curriculum.”
Watch the full ad:
McAuliffe’s campaign did not immediately return The Star’s comment request.
The latest polling shows Youngkin and McAuliffe in a virtual tie, with the former surging late in the race.
The election will be held on Nov. 2.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Pay the Price Ad” by Free to Learn Action.
