Dear editor,
When my family was offered the opportunity to move to Fairfax, I hesitated at first. I was used to the slow lifestyle of southwest Virginia, and my husband and I had jobs that we loved.
For me, the educational opportunities our daughter had in the Fairfax County Public School System were an important part of my move. Although she was only two years old at the time, as a graduate of a Fairfax County high school, I knew firsthand the solid academic opportunities she had when attending one of the largest school districts in the country.
We officially took the move in October 2016, a month before the Clinton-Trump presidential election. Although I had never followed politics before, the proximity to the country’s capital inspired me to use my voice and cast my vote. I studied social work in college and spent my academic and professional careers working with underserved people, first with children and then in geriatrics. I voted for the Democrats in the 2016 presidential election because I wanted to support a party that advocates reforms that proclaim social justice and equality. I voted in the same way in the following local and national council elections.
In March 2020, as COVID-19 turned our world upside down, I supported the Fairfax County School Board’s decision to close our schools to ensure the safety of our fellow citizens and not to overload our health system. When the decision was made to close schools for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, I again supported that decision by our fully democratic school board members whom I voted for in November 2019.
In July 2020, many parents, including myself, were blown away when we learned that Fairfax County would only offer virtual learning for the upcoming school year. There were many reasons I feared that prolonged school closings would negatively affect a generation of children: lack of socialization, academics, isolation, loss of physical activity, and the psychological effects on the children. The most obvious of these effects are academics.
As parents who had always believed that education was a powerful tool to success, it was crippling to watch my own six-year-old learn to read and spell electronically. While learning became more difficult for a young learner, the social and mental effects of virtual learning were widespread not only for my child, but also for many of her peers whose parents reported the same thing. At the end of the final year of school, my daughter spent most of her academic career in first grade behind a computer screen.
Despite the challenges and the negative academic and emotional impact of virtual learning on my child, my family was luckier than others. We had the resources to work from home and were able to fill in the gaps created by closed schools. However, my mind constantly wandered to my early days in social work as a college intern working with children affected by domestic violence. For these children the school was one of their few safe havens. For these children, school was a place of recovery from neglect, abuse and trauma. A place to have a meal and feel a sense of affection.
I watched governments prioritize the reopening of bars, restaurants, and shops over public schools. In the summer of 2020, our local Democratic School Council spent a lot of energy and school resources on renaming schools, but not enough energy to reopen them. I struggled to accept that the Democrats preached equality but denied children access to one of the greatest equalizers. education. Virtual learning is a burden we place on children; however, without any scientific evidence that COVID-19 is a major risk factor for their health and safety. The Fairfax County School Board of Directors gave preference to politics and teacher unions over the needs of children, and even denied choice to those who wanted or urgently needed personal learning.
This November I decided to cross the aisle and vote in a direction I had never seriously considered before. When I learned of the campaign issues that Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin were pursuing, I immediately made the decision that schools and education would be my top priority, not which political party the candidate belonged to.
During my research on the candidates, I learned that Youngkin seeks to improve academic competitiveness and school choice while allowing families to make their own decisions about education. Terry McAuliffe’s campaign doesn’t clearly show a plan to help students other than an annual investment of $ 75 million to expand student Internet access.
Is ex-Governor McAuliffe’s investment in internet access an indicator that students are more likely to stay at home than in a classroom? Virginia students have spent enough online over the past 18 months, and it is time to return our attention to the classroom and learn the basic academic tools needed to be successful in the future. Schools were created to teach children to read, write, do arithmetic and use scientific methods. Glenn Youngkin is the only candidate in this election who upholds these values of education.
Briana Howard
Parent in Fairfax, Virginia