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Local government leaders are negotiating with union executives who have not been officially recognized by public employees they claim to represent.

Counties in Northern Virginia are taking steps to allow public sector collective bargaining. But they are doing it with the support of union executives – not a groundswell of voter or public employee support.

My neighbor recently opted out of “Zoom schooling.” In March 2021, after a year of remote schooling and a slow move to a hybrid classroom model, this mom was fed up with the low quality of education her daughter was receiving from the public school system. So, she decided to take advantage of other options. She unenrolled her child from the district school and registered her as a homeschooler, with plans for private school in the fall. A couple of weeks later, another neighbor did the same thing.

“The status quo is failing Virginia families and workers,” said Youngkin, Sears, and Miyares. “Under Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, our Commonwealth has fallen behind our competitor states and is growing slower and providing fewer opportunities. That may be acceptable to our opponents, but we think Virginians deserve better.

Teachers report to schools in less than three weeks, and students are scheduled to start in less than four weeks. However, FCPS, with an annual budget of $3.4 billion, has yet to provide families or teachers with a glimpse of the Back to School plan for school year 2021-2022. Families and teachers eager to understand what the in-person requirements will be have been left waiting as FCPS attempts to run out the clock, to convince families to re-enroll their children without showing any cards on what those children can expect to encounter in FCPS this year.

Harry Jackson, the first Black president-elect of the PTSA at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, stood before a crowd of parents here at Luther Jackson Middle School last week to oppose the divisive ideology of critical race theory that has put forward flawed policies in K-12 schools across the country, including separating students into racial “affinity spaces” and eliminating merit admissions to TJ, America’s No. 1 high school.

Across the circular driveway, outside the front doors of the school, the first vice president of the Fairfax NAACP, Michelle Leete

A Fairfax County school board member will need to plead her case in court for why she should not be removed from office after petitioners gathered the necessary number of signatures, a judge decided Friday.

Board member Elaine Tholen faces a recall effort over her votes to suspend in-person learning for the school system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The petitioners argue she was incompetent in the performance of her duties.

Fairfax County residents have successfully filed a petition to recall school board member Elaine Tholen. More than 5,000 verified signatures were submitted on Monday — only 3,600 were needed. “Our group, sister organizations and thousands and thousands who have signed our petitions agree that the kids and families of Fairfax County deserve better,” said Zia Tompkins, a member of the FCPS Accountability Coalition.

Outside last week’s meeting of the Fairfax County School Board, two rallies were held. One consisted of parents opposed to critical race theory (CRT). The other represented a very different, “woke” point of view. The “woke” rally featured a speaker named Michelle Leete, who fulminated against those who disagreed with her revolutionary worldview: “Let them die. Don’t let these uncomfortable people deter us from our bold march forward.”

J.D. Maddox, the GOP candidate for House of Delegates in Virginia’s 45th District, joined the Fairfax GOP’s Vinson Palathingal and Srilekha Palle for a wide-ranging, issues-focused conversation Saturday evening.

The 45th District includes the City of Alexandria, as well as portions of Fairfax County and Arlington County. Maddox has deep roots in the district.

Dueling protests were held outside Thursday’s meeting of the Fairfax County School Board, for and against critical race theory (CRT) in the district’s schools. On the pro-CRT side, Michelle Leete — a leader in the NAACP and PTA — excoriated critics of the Marxist-inspired theory.

“Let them die,” Leete said. “Don’t let these uncomfortable people deter us from our bold march forward.”

Harry Jackson, whose son attends Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (“TJ”), is blasting the magnet school’s new, “anti-Asian” admissions scheme. “TJ is 79 percent Asian,” Jackson notes. “Their new admissions process, with surgical precision, targets the Asian community, reducing their numbers down to 40 percent. This is called racial discrimination, and it is wrong.”

Yesterday, thousands of Cuban people broke into protests to oppose their oppressive dictatorship. For over 60 years, the Cuban people have not had a free election — or a voice.

Amidst Democrat Nominee for Governor Terry McAuliffe’s silence on the issue, it is important to remember not so long ago when then-Governor McAuliffe took an official trip to Cuba.