Virginia Proposes New Social Studies Standards; Experts Charge Political Motivation

The Virginia Department of Education proposed revisions to the commonwealth’s history and social science learning standards late Friday in a move that would significantly alter the guidelines it had previously recommended and prompted a blistering response from critics who described it as political meddling.

The Virginia Board of Education had been scheduled to vote on the recommended guidelines in August but it held off to give its five new members — appointees of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) — more time to review the standards, and to allow for additional public comment. The original guidelines were developed over months in consultation with museums, historians, professors, political scientists, geographers, economists, teachers, parents and students.

In the introduction to its new draft, the education department writes that the aim of the standards overhaul is “to restore excellence, curiosity and excitement around teaching and learning history.”

“The standards will recognize the world impact of America’s quest for a ‘more perfect Union’ and the optimism, ideals and imagery captured by Ronald Reagan’s ‘shining city upon a hill’ speech,” the document continues. “Students will know our nation’s exceptional strengths, including individual innovation, moral character, ingenuity and adventure, while learning from terrible periods and actions in direct conflict with these ideals.”

In a fact sheet sent to state legislators obtained by The Washington Post, the education department said the changes were made because the “August 2022 draft standards were unnecessarily difficult for educators to understand and implement; they were also inaccessible for parents and families.” It said the new proposed standards would revise “repetitive and vague skills-based standards, which teachers could interpret in infinitely various ways, thus not resulting in ‘a shared knowledge as Virginians and as U.S. citizens.’ ”

But critics said the new standards are politically motivated and interfere with the ability of teachers to do their jobs and deliver impartial academic instruction and curriculum.

“The standards are full of overt political bias, outdated language to describe enslaved people and American Indians, highly subjective framing of American moralism and conservative ideals, coded racist overtures throughout, requirements for teachers to present histories of discrimination and racism as ‘balanced’ ‘without personal or political bias,’ and restrictions on allowance of ‘teacher-created curriculum,’ which is allowed in all other subject areas,” James J. Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, a union representing more than 40,000 education workers in the commonwealth, wrote in a statement.