Gubernatorial candidate Pete Snyder announced Tuesday his Open Our Schools tour, where he will visit local Open Our Schools activists across the Commonwealth. Snyder said opening schools in November would be too late and called for immediate action.
“As Pete meets with local Open Our Schools groups across the Commonwealth, he will visit some of the empty school buildings that have been shuttered for nearly a year, with no opening in sight, thanks to the failed leadership of Governor Northam, Terry McAuliffe and the extremists standing in the way of reopening,” a Snyder press release states.
He also announced support for the Open Fairfax Public Schools (FCPS) Coalition, which is seeking to recall members of the FCPS Board of Education. “In addition to the tour and to represent Pete’s commitment to opening Virginia’s schools, Pete, his wife, Burson, and fellow Virginians have committed six figures of funding to support the Open FCPS Coalition,” the release adds.
Gubernatorial candidate Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) said there is a lack of leadership from the governor, the General Assembly, and many school boards.
“Under the Governor’s tyrannical mandate parents have been on house arrest trying to both educate their kids at home and work full time,” she said. “Parents have been asked to do the impossible. While I have advocated for school choice for over twenty years, I support fully reopening our schools.”
She said she had introduced and supported legislation to give vouchers to help parents in districts with closed in-person school. “These budgeted state dollars would be given to parents to offset the cost of sending their kids to private school, home school or tutoring,” Chase said. “Our schools are closed; why should they continue to receive dollars when their cost is greatly reduced while kids learn at home?”
Kirk Cox for Governor Press Secretary Kristen Bennett told The Virginia Star, “As a former public school teacher of thirty years, Delegate Cox has been a leading voice in the fight to get our students back to in-school learning since July of last year.”
Bennett added, “Kirk is aware of just how crucial in-person education is to a student’s success. Opening our schools is not some hot button campaign issue for Kirk, it’s personal. Quite frankly, if a student falls too far behind or is not able to receive the proper resources, it can determine the trajectory of these students’ lives. We can’t wait for the next Governor, we have to open our schools now.”
“By refusing to stand up to the radical left teacher unions who fund their political campaigns, Virginia Democrats are playing politics with our kids’ lives. We need to get all our schools open, asap, and I haven’t met a teacher on the trail who doesn’t agree with that,” candidate Sergio de la Peña said in a statement.
Glenn Youngkin, another GOP gubernatorial candidate, said in a statement to The Star, “Democrat politicians in Virginia are failing parents because they’re too afraid to confront the special interest groups blocking the schoolhouse doors. It’s crazy and it’s shameful, and when I’m governor we will do the right thing for our kids and open schools safely.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
