Youngkin issues school choice proclamation, declares school choice week

(The Center Square) – Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued a school choice proclamation to promote policies that give parents more options for their children’s education and declared this week to be Virginia School Choice Week in 2022.

“As your governor, I will continually stand up for students and parents and will sign the largest education budget in Virginia’s history,” Youngkin said in a statement.

“Our goal is that every student will graduate high school ready to go to college or start a great career,” the governor continued. “Choice and innovation within public education is vital to achieving that goal. That’s why together we will not only raise standards and raise teacher pay, but we will invest $150 million to kick start 20 new charter schools in the Commonwealth. We must empower parents and students with choice and innovation in K-12 public education.”

In his proclamation, Youngkin said that students have different learning styles and a monolithic approach to education does not serve every family’s needs. He said Virginia only has seven charter schools when the District of Columbia has 123 and neighboring North Carolina has 200.

The governor said he called for the observance of school choice week between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29 to highlight his commitment to promoting school choice policies. He said he supports using $150 million in state funds to meet his goal of starting at least 20 new charter schools in the commonwealth and plans to build partnerships between the state and universities to create lab schools.

“Virginia will empower parents to make choices about the educational needs of their children,” Youngkin said in his proclamation.

Youngkin also added that the state will create innovation within K-12 public schools to best adapt to the needs of students and raise education standards to elevate students to high performing levels and reinstitute merit-based acceptance into the governor’s and magnet schools.

Republicans have been supportive of school choice policies, but some Democrats have voiced caution about policies that would divert funds away from public schools to give to a parent for private or homeschool education costs. Republicans have a narrow majority in the House of Delegates and Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate.

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