(LifeSiteNews) — A Democrat state legislative candidate in Virginia is under fire for a resurfaced video denigrating parents for wanting to have a say in the content of their children’s lessons in public schools.
In 2021, amid the gubernatorial race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and the eventual victor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, Jessica Anderson posted a video to TikTok declaring, “I’m sorry, but I’ve seen some of the parents that live in Virginia. You should not be dictating what your daughter and son’s curriculums look like. If you want to do that, there’s a thing called homeschool. Indoctrinate them there, but not in my kids’ public schools. So please go vote for Terry, please and thank you, vote. Vote like your life depended on it. Thank you.”
🚨Jessica Anderson, a Democrat running for Delegate in District 71, recorded a TikTok trashing Virginia parents who are involved in their children’s education as “crazy.”
We need to elect Republicans who believe #ParentsMatter – just like Governor @GlennYoungkin famously said. pic.twitter.com/pXhV2Fso8e
— ROOZ (@ROOZVA) May 4, 2023
Parental involvement in education was one of the key issues to which Youngkin’s victory was attributed, coming as part of a larger national backlash against schools promoting left-wing ideological concepts such as critical race theory (CRT), the thesis that American institutions are rigged against minorities to perpetuate white supremacy, in the classroom.
Anderson is now running for the 71st District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates as a pro-abortion, pro-Black Lives Matter, pro-“LGBTQIA+,” pro-mask, and pro-COVID-19 vaccine candidate who opposes legislation limiting the promotion of LGBT ideas and CRT in the classroom.
Her 2021 video resurfaced last week, with opponents citing it as an example of the same type of hostility to parental rights and concerns that came to define McAuliffe.
Anderson responded to the controversy by telling Fox News that she “absolutely believe[s] we should be able to question our students’ education” and “have an active role in the education process,” while at the same time adding that she opposes letting “singular parents dictate the entire structure of the curricula, that all students are being taught.”
But Anderson struck a more defiant tone in a video response, telling parents, “I want you to take an active role in your child’s education, but again, you shouldn’t be writing the curriculum, and that’s what the video was about.” She went on to claim that the video was really about the fact that Youngkin’s own children were not in public school at the time and therefore would not be affected if he “tanks our public education system.”
Here’s the deal, I will not be allowing others to misrepresent my words. I also will NOT let GOP legislators destroy our families access to quality public education and building relationships with their educators and staff. pic.twitter.com/YQM8T7scLS
— Jessica Anderson For VA HouseofDelegates (@JessAnderson4VA) May 5, 2023
Her explanation has not impressed parents’ advocates.
Anderson “clearly demonstrates she is not willing or able to represent every parent in her district,” Unleash America PAC honorary chairman Hung Cao told Fox. “As a taxpayer, parent, and product of Virginia Public Schools, this is incredibly offensive. Someone who minimizes the role of parents, and suggests our desire to be involved is indoctrination, doesn’t deserve to be in a position of leadership.”
“Yet again, left liberal progressives are making it clear that they don’t want parents to have a say in their child’s education,” Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter told the Daily Caller. “Virginians across the Commonwealth continue to reject candidates that seek to shut parents out, indoctrinate our kids, and lower expectations of our students.”
On his first day in office, Youngkin issued a series of executive actions, including a ban on promoting CRT in public schools and a request for an investigation of the Loudoun County School District over allegations it covered up the rape of a female student by a gender-confused male. Last August, his administration unveiled model policies to ensure parents’ ability to access, review, and have alternatives to sex-related educational materials.
Despite Anderson’s suggestion that such policies would “tank” education in Old Dominion, U.S. News & World Report’s recently-updated rankings of state education quality place Virginia as the eleventh best in the nation (Florida, which since 2019 has been moving even more aggressively in the same direction, is number one).