Del. Ken Plum, speaking earlier today on the Virginia House of Delegates floor, had some strong – and highly justified – words about the Youngkin administration’s “interim report” on implementing his “inherently divisive concepts” Executive Order #1. See below for video, as well as some highlights:
“There’s a convoluted logic that says in [the Youngkin administration’s “interim report” on implementing his absurd “inherently divisive concepts” Exec. Order] that since there’s a Civil Rights Act, you cannot give special attention to a student, particularly on the basis of race, who is not succeeding, for that would be a violation of the law…A law that was passed to eliminate discrimination is being used [by the Youngkin administration] to justify discrimination. If that kind of thought prevailed back in 1954, Brown v Board of Education wouldn’t have happened; Black kids would still be going to tar paper shanties and the white kids would be going to brick buildings...Getting rid of these websites…is in my mind not unlike the equivalent of book burning; it’s the electronic version of book burning…
You know [Gov. Youngkin’s] got a tip line. Well, Mr. Speaker, let me tell you what I did; I tried to find where the tip line was. Go on his website and I can’t find it on the website. Now maybe somebody else can look around and show it to me, but what happens is if you go back weeks ago when he first announced it and made a political statement about it you can find it, but I haven’t been able to find it since. You look around and tell me how to get to the tip line.
But of course, being in the legislature we can do something different. We can act appropriately to say that what we’ve had is an excellent school system moving forward on giving opportunities for all children. And the idea that somehow the Civil Rights Act doesn’t allow us to do that and we need to turn back the clock is a bad idea. So I hope you will please take a look at the interim report from the State Superintendent of Instruction; if you were shocked as I am, then we need to speak out to the governor and say let’s turn back and stay on the steady court for educational programs.”
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