The truth about Glenn Youngkin's closing ad

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Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
·
Oct 31, 2021
1. I just talked to the woman whose presentation is featured in Youngkin's closing ad

She says the ad misrepresents one slide to invent "a conversation that never happened"

"I was not advocating for teachers to teach Critical Race Theory to students"

The truth about Glenn Youngkin's closing ad
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a central issue in the Virginia gubernatorial election, which will take place on Tuesday. Republican Glenn Youngkin claims that CRT is being used to indoctrinate...
popular.info

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
2. Youngkin's ad claims to contain "newly unearthed documents" which it presents as proof that McAuliffe's administration "actively pushed" K-12 students to be taught CRT

It turns out that is a lie

The truth about Glenn Youngkin's closing ad
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a central issue in the Virginia gubernatorial election, which will take place on Tuesday. Republican Glenn Youngkin claims that CRT is being used to indoctrinate...
popular.info
6:22 AM · Oct 31, 2021

https://popular.info/p/the-truth-about-glenn-youngkins-closing

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a central issue in the Virginia gubernatorial election, which will take place on Tuesday. Republican Glenn Youngkin claims that CRT is being used to indoctrinate K-12 students and has promised to "ban" it as governor. Youngkin also accused his opponent, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, of promoting the teaching of CRT to K-12 students during his previous term as governor. McAuliffe has countered that CRT "is not taught in Virginia and has never been taught in Virginia." He says that Youngkin is simply using CRT as a "racist dog whistle."

Youngkin's closing TV ad claims to contain "newly unearthed documents" which it presents as proof that McAuliffe's administration "actively pushed" K-12 students to be taught CRT. The ad claims that this is an excerpt from "MCAULIFFE'S ACTUAL 2015 TRAINING FOR TEACHERS."

The document was first made public by Chris Rufo, an operative affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, a dark money group responsible for making CRT a top political issue. Rufo claims the document proves that "McAuliffe is lying" by claiming CRT has "never been taught."

But the document has nothing to do with teaching CRT theory to K-12 students in Virginia schools. Rather, it is a presentation delivered as part of a two-day institute, which took place in September 2015, about disciplinary practices in Virginia schools. According to a memo released by the Virginia Department of Education, the "purpose of the institute is to provide alternatives to out-of-school suspensions that will increase positive outcomes for students and create a more engaging climate and culture through a tiered framework." The audience was "school staff who are responsible for school discipline." In other words, the event was not providing direction about the content of curriculum in Virginia schools or what K-12 students should be taught.

*snip*

[FBaggins]

1. As with many political ads, it spins dishonestly - but it's still devastating.

The slide is titled "Teaching and Learning Principles"

There's no effective way in two days to explain that it doesn't really reflect what is taught or learned.

The ad is about turning out the base that already believes that CRT in schools is a problem. The attempt to focus only on whether it is a formal part of the curriculum or not was always a big risk.