The Issue
A few days ago I wrote a diary about how the Koch Brothers are trying to buy Virginia. Well it seems they haven’t wasted anytime pouring money into local campaigns to try and drown out our progressive voice.
Parents in Prince William County, VA, have already reported receiving mail pieces from Americans for Prosperity on behalf of regressive Republican candidates in the area. Including Bob Marshall and my Republican opponent for the 51st district, Rich Anderson.
These mail pieces are proof that the Republicans are scared of losing Prince William after our massive victory in the Clerk of the Court’s race last month. They are also a blatant act of deception against parents of our county.
HB1605 — which was vetoed by our governor — would have allowed folks to start siphoning funds out of our public school system in the form of “Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts.” The money for these accounts could then be used for private schools.
What’s worse is that these mail pieces are calling for us to thank our Republican delegates for thinking of students with special needs. It’s as if they want us to buy into he idea that private schools are going to not only be accepting of students with special needs, but also do a better job than public schools in educating them.
The proof is in the pudding — we know that in most places, private schools deny these sorts of waivers and vouchers for families with special needs students. They deny special needs students period. The law in question does not have any provisions that would protect a student from being discriminated against on the basis of disability or special education requirements, so it certainly doesn’t provide what the mail pieces says it does.
This is classic political smoke-and-mirrors, folks. Their real intention here is to start whittling away at our public schools while beginning to transition us to a voucher system that would make Betsy DeVos squeal with joy.
They’ve already been active in Virginia. They have a candidate running in the House of Delegates who has been running for quite some time now, so they are trying to infiltrate on all levels.
How do we fight back?
There’s a three-step process to fighting back against this attempted coup by billionaires who don’t care about public schools. It goes like this:
1. Educate — ensure that folks understand the true repercussions of these bills, and the fact that their representatives support them.
2. Organize — start to build coalitions of stakeholders (in this case, parents and allies in education) to take the issue directly to the public. Canvassing, phonebanking, and other outreach methods are proven to work. Showing up to county board and school board meetings to speak is also quite helpful.
3. Vote them out — Electoral power is the ultimate power when it comes to these issues. Our elected officials need to understand that there are consequences to their actions. Voting against students and deceiving the public are definitely actions that deserve repercussions at the ballot box. Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote (including 17 year olds who will be 18 by election day) and get out the vote. Virginia has Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and all 100 House of Delegates up for election this November. There are primaries on June 13th.
In Virginia, the final day to register (or update your current registration) is May 22nd. We have just 6 days to make sure we have as many folks on the voter rolls as possible, and to make our voices heard on both June 13th and November 7th.
The Koch Brothers are trying to buy Virginia, folks, and our children are the one who will ultimately pay for it if we don’t do something about it. We need people power to counteract right-wing greed now more than ever, and that starts with you.
Virginia HD 51 - Ken Boddye
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