What’s Happening In Loudoun County?

On today’s podcast, Sarah and David talk with Ian Prior, executive director of Fight for ...

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On today’s podcast, Sarah and David talk with Ian Prior, executive director of Fight for Schools, to discuss what exactly is happening in Loudoun County, Virginia. Critical race theory in schools? A sexual assault controversy? And how will this all affect the race for governor in Virginia?

Show Notes:

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  1. Nicky Boy

    Good interview. Was anyone else caught off guard by these school board members should have staff members? Seems like some growth of government to me. Maybe this would help with the cut down on the school board just being a rubber stamp for the administration but I think this would lead to making the board more partisan. I understand for state houses, congress, etc. but a county school board seems a little much.

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    CynthiaW

    Mr. Prior was very informative.

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    Dina

    In my view, Ian Prior lost his credibility by his reaction to his daughter saying that they learned that Columbus was a bad man. Why would he want to push back on that? If selling thousands of natives into slavery, executing others without trial and jury, and hacking off the limbs of those who don't mine enough gold don't make you an evil person, what does?

    https://www.history.com/news/columbus-day-controversy
    https://www.museumfacts.co.uk/christopher-columbus/

    Furthermore, his writing for The Federalist and appearing on Tucker Carlson tell me he is a partisan hack. I have yet to meet anyone that partisan who is able to be intellectually honest.

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      PaulH

      I think part of the issue also is that Columbus was presented only as a bad man. Columbus had a huge impact on world history, and even if the hagiographic depictions of him are incomplete, there are good reasons that he was celebrated for many years. History really should be about understanding the people and events that have created the world we live in. Some of these more politicized takes seem to take the stance that the purpose is showing how white men have been bad.

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      Patrick

      It seemed to me that his concern was more based on the age-appropriateness and visceral nature of the material. He didn’t think his 5-yr old should be looking at an image of stacks of dead Native Americans. I suspect he’d have no problem with a fully transparent discussion of Columbus for older kids, but I do wish he’d made that clearer to the listeners.

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      1. CrowdA

        I hear that, and I don’t necessarily disagree. I do think the issue gets even more complicated when people like Prior are reading sanitized versions of this history to their kids - how do you combat that?

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          Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

          I guess the obvious question is: should we 'combat' it? Ie if parents want to teach their kids something that you think is incorrect or wrong--what role do the schools have to contradict that and what counts as wrong and what gets prioritized as important enough to contradict. (I'd also say in this case that there's a difference between telling your kids that Columbus was all great vs not wanting to talk about genocide with your 7 year old yet.)

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    Ben Connelly

    So it sounds like some bad stuff went down in Loudon county, especially with the sexual assault (and other alleged sexual assaults) and also this Facebook group. But even though I’m vehemently against CRT (the actual theory, not the bogeyman) and antiracism, I’m not exactly on Ian’s side. He didn’t exactly win my approval by writing a piece for the Federalist.

    That said, I think his solution to the CRT v antiCRT debate was good: transparency. Put everything online and let parents make their own decisions and/or teach kids on their own. I certainly always planned to do that for my children. It’s how my father operated. Much of my education came outside of the classroom (ie it came from my father and mother and from books - I’m not talking about homework).

    Listening to Ian talk about the curriculum, it’s a good thing I’m not in school today. Even in second grade I would have had some choice words for some of my teachers about antiracism and intersectionality.

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  5. Rational

    Personally, I would have liked to hear more from David on this podcast. I know he has informed, and slightly different, perspectives on these issues than did your guest. Your guest’s approach was to treat all of his views as seld-evident. A case in point: he assumed that everyone would agree that it is wrong to teach second graders that Columbus did some pretty awful stuff. I actually think it is fine to teach second graders that the Conquista had some pretty negative stuff going on. Of course, that is different than telling a second grader that she is somehow at fault because she has the same race as Columbus. I appreciated that the interview included a lot of facts that the media have astoundingly failed to report. I just think that there could have been a more balanced discussion of the issues.

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    1. Acre00

      I agree that teaching that Columbus was a pretty terrible person is fine. I do think that video was over the line, assuming the characterization here was accurate. There needs to be a complete picture of the man painted, as with all historical figures, and it doesn't sound like that happened here.

      Then there's the part about the church, which sounded just complete coocoo bananas.

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        Ben Connelly

        Yes. From Ian’s characterization, the part about the church sounded offensive. I don’t deny that some missionaries did bad things. The Inquisition, Crusades, etc. as well. But that doesn’t give you license to write off Christianity writ large. I haven’t seen the video and to be honest I don’t care much. But it sounded very simplistic and one-sided. Even in second grade I would have taken issue with that. As a father, I’m sure I’ll have my own opinions on things like that when they come up in my child’s schooling.

        It’s not just the antiracist crowd that’s into simplistic and one-sided teaching materials. When I was coming up, some of my teachers (in rural VA) taught that the South didn’t secede over slavery but over “states rights.” As a proud “damn Yankee” my father had a thing or two to say about that, as I will if my kids are taught that.

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          Slp

          I appreciate you using the term "anti-racist" crowd as opposed to c r t. I think that's a much more accurate representation and also more easily understood.

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            Ben Connelly

            Yeah CRT has become a meme (in the sense of being a caricature of itself). I do disagree with the basic tenets of the actual theory, which I was exposed to in college, but most of the discussion is centered around something that is not CRT. I’ll still use CRT for short sometimes, but I think antiracism is better, as you say, as it actually captures something closer to what we are discussing.

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      Ben Connelly

      Also yeah that video didn’t sound all that bad. I don’t have a problem with teaching second graders that Columbus isn’t a hero and he did bad things. He did and he wasn’t. Then again, when I was a kid that’s the kind of video that would have made me say some smartalecky thing to the teacher.

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      Ben Connelly

      I think Sarah and David prefer to let guests trip on their own tongues rather than skewer them. It seemed like they let him say enough that we as listeners can form our own opinions.

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    Christopher Hall

    Regarding the sexual assault charges in LC, the “sexual identity”of the alleged assailant appears to be a political red herring. If I am inclined to sexually assault someone, I’m not sure rules regarding my access to a bathroom would pose much of a barrier.
    Regarding CRT, parents should and do have the ability to vote in and out members of their local school boards. However, the VA Gubernatorial election has generated moral panic on the left and the right. Youngkin has faced false accusations of racism, which should trouble any reasonable person. He has also cast the assignment of reading Toni Morrison in an AP English class (excellent teaching, in my opinion) as an example of CRT run amuck. That should also trouble any reasonable person.

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  7. DrEvil42

    It is a little telling the Mr. Prior checks himself from saying “you just gave us another mistake to exploit” at the end.

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    David Chen

    Also Worth Reading:

    https://reason.com/2021/10/29/2-big-things-the-media-get-wrong-about-school-board-protests/

    "As I can testify from grisly firsthand experience, there are kooks at just about any public meeting (it takes one to know one), and those who are being motivated by the apocalyptic likes of Tucker Carlson are likely to have a heightened sense of crazy. But it's a category error to characterize most participants at school board gatherings as being driven there by national media. These politics, and relationships, are local.

    So when former President Barack Obama sneers that, "We don't have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage, the right-wing media's peddles to juice their ratings," as he did by McAuliffe's side on Saturday, it's an insult to every last one of us who has dragged ass out to the local school meeting because we care about policies affecting our kids."

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    David Chen

    Fascinating podcast. So glad Im not a parent and have to participate in this madness.

    And Ian, stop writing stuff for the Federalist if you want more credibility. That site has gone full bat guano. I dont know, maybe write for some other conservative publication? If only we knew of one.

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  10. Frederick F

    This was really informative. What Ian described—the incompetent lying, the cover ups—matches up very closely with the sort of corruption I’ve witnessed in local politics. Unfortunately people go to the polls on local positions and think they’re voting for Trump or Biden—you’re not. You might be voting for an incompetent bully running his little pond because there’s no scrutiny, or voting against a competent official that happens to be registered with one party rather than the other. Or they might be chugging some hard partisan kool-aid. We’ve got municipal elections next week here in my state—I’d encourage everyone to spend a little time looking up any candidates they might have on their ballots.

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      Emily

      Excellent advice! Treating local politics like national politics is a recipe for disaster - as I have learned. Find out the character and temperament and qualifications of the candidate. Do they have the know-how for the job? Do they have integrity? Are they reflexively defensive when questioned, or will they listen to alternative opinions?

      This is stuff you can easily find out about local candidates, and even ask questions of them yourself. Find out who they are and then ignore party affiliation on Election Day.

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