EDUCATION | GOVERNMENT + POLITICS

Youngkin taps critical race theory opponents to lead public education in Virginia

The state’s new superintendent of public instruction supported anti-CRT legislation in Wyoming

BY: KATE MASTERS - JANUARY 13, 2022 7:11 PM

Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin has named two women with track records of opposing “critical race theory” — a once obscure collegiate field that’s become a conservative catch-all term for racial equity and diversity initiatives in public schools — to top posts at the Virginia Department of Education. ... Jillian Balow, formerly Wyoming’s elected superintendent of public instruction, will take on the same job in Virginia, Youngkin announced in a news release Thursday. ... Before stepping down to join Youngkin’s administration, Balow supported a proposed Wyoming bill that would require K-12 schools to publish lists of instructional materials, among other provisions. According to the Wyoming TribuneEagle, Balow endorsed the bill alongside its patrons, one of whom described the legislation as an effort to prevent “the indoctrination found in the critical race theory curriculum that has been pushed by the far-left and has found its way into some classrooms.”

The draft bill would modify the state’s civics education, mandating that the history of slavery and race-based discrimination also include the end of slavery and “efforts to end discrimination in accordance with the founding principles of the United States.” Schools would also be required to teach that “it is wrong to be unfair to anyone or treat anyone differently due to their race or ethnicity,” according to the language of the bill.

Balow has also publicly opposed a proposed program from the administration of President Joe Biden that would offer grants to teachers who include “racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse perspectives” in history and civics education. The administration included The 1619 Project from the New York Times’ — a longform collection of stories and essays that focus on the long-running impacts slavery has had on American society — as an example of diverse material that could be taught in schools.

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Balow will be joined by Elizabeth Schultz, a former Fairfax School Board member who Youngkin appointed as Virginia’s assistant superintendent of public instruction. According to the release, Schultz served as a senior fellow for Parents Defending Education, a national organization formed to “reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas.” Multiple members of its leadership team were founding members of the Coalition for TJ, a group fighting admissions changes at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

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KATE MASTERS
kmasters@virginiamercury.com
https://twitter.com/kamamasters
An award-winning reporter, Kate grew up in Northern Virginia before moving to the Midwest, earning her degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She spent a year covering gun violence and public health for The Trace in Boston before joining The Frederick News-Post in Frederick County, Md. While at the News-Post, she won first place in feature writing and breaking news from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, and Best in Show for her coverage of the local opioid epidemic. Before joining the Mercury in 2020, she covered state and county politics for the Bethesda Beat in Montgomery County, Md.