Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” While time marches forward and doesn’t repeat exactly in the same way, certain events often do end up lining up very closely.

I thought of that quote when I read an article about the governor’s race in Virginia. It’s a very hotly contested campaign, and a flashpoint happened at a debate between the two candidates.

The disagreement between the candidates was over the role that parents should play in their children’s education in the public school system. This, of course, is not new.

Still, in recent months it has been highlighted many times related to policies dealing with the COVID-19, parents’ schooling at home related to quarantine, and the school’s chosen curriculum. This especially comes to light in issues related to Critical Race Theory and sexually explicit material present in public school curriculum.

As reported by the Washington Examiner, “Asked about the Virginia Department of Education policy that allows anyone to use whatever restroom they want regardless of their biological sex, Youngkin responded, ‘What we’ve seen over the course of this last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents. In fact, in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents get upset because there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen. It was shocking.’”

Youngkin explained that his opponent had vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that such sexually explicit material was in the school and said of his opponent, “You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.”

The opponent responded, “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and take books out and make their own decisions. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Some thought that was simply a misstatement in the heat of a debate. Still, later the candidate removed all doubt when he clarified, to another news outlet, “You don’t want parents coming in, in every different school district saying this is what should be taught here and this is what should be taught there.”

Yet, he forgets that the parents are the ones who pay for the public schools in the first place with their tax dollars.

The issue of who makes decisions about a child’s education has been controversial for a long time. In the 1980s, Texas parents who disagreed with what their children were being taught in Texas public schools decided to teach their children at home. The experts said they were not qualified to do so, and their children would suffer if they were allowed to do so.

The pandemic, the lockdowns, mask requirements, Critical Race Theory, sexually explicit content in lessons, and sex education (even in grades as young as kindergarten) have roiled public schools again this fall. As a result, more and more families are choosing to homeschool their children.

In fact, this fall, we saw record numbers of families contacting us about how they could homeschool, even more than we saw during the 2020 surge. 

There are still those who argue that parents shouldn’t have the right to homeschool. At THSC, we believe that parents have a God-given right to raise their children as they see fit…including directing their education. It looks like history may be “rhyming” again.

Join THSC in our mission of Keeping Texas Families Free today! Join us in working to keep the parents in charge of what their children are learning.