ICYMI: Gov. Youngkin on WMAL’s “O’Connor and Company”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin joined WMAL’s O’Connor and Company on Thursday to discuss his latest efforts to empower parents with choices with respect to their children’s education, upbringing, and care. “What we saw yesterday was a bipartisan bill that reaffirmed parents’ rights to make these decisions,” Youngkin said. “If parents want their child to wear a mask, then their child can wear a mask; if they want their child not to wear a mask … they shouldn’t have to wear a mask.”
INTERVIEW: Steve Knotts on the Rapid Decline of FCPS
Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts joined WMAL’s O’Connor & Company this week, to discuss plummeting standardized test results in the county’s government-run schools. “It’s absolutely terrible,” Knotts said on Monday’s program.
New data from the Virginia Department of Education revealed significant learning losses in reading, math and science among students enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools.
LISTEN: Julie Perry on WMAL
Julie Perry, Virginia’s 86th District GOP nominee for House of Delegates, joined WMAL’s Larry O’Connor for a live interview Tuesday morning. Perry, a Fairfax County Public Schools educator, discussed the district’s regrettable embrace of critical race theory.
According to Perry, rank-and-file educators are not driving the new, Marxist-inspired push in district schools. “Teachers are afraid to speak out,” the candidate said. “They are terrified of retaliation.”
INTERVIEW: Fairfax GOP Chairman Talks School Board Recall
Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts was on WMAL’s O’Connor & Company to discuss the controversies engulfing the Fairfax County School Board — and the efforts of local parent-activists to recall three board members (Abrar Omeish, Elaine Tholen and Laura Jane Cohen).
Much of the interview focused on the radical, divisive rhetoric of at-large board member Abrar Omeish.
Jewish Organizations Rebuke County School Board Member
Two major Jewish organizations rebuked Abrar Omeish this week, following the embattled school board member’s incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric. On May 13, Omeish wrote that Israel perpetrates “apartheid” and “colonization”; “desecrates the Holy Land” and “kills Palestinians.” To date, Omeish has not retracted her inflammatory words; they can still be viewed on the board member’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
INTERVIEW: Fairfax GOP Chairman Renews Call for Omeish to Resign
Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts joined WMAL’s Larry O’Connor Show, to discuss the ongoing controversies surrounding at-large school board member Abrar Omeish. “We’re talking about our kids here, and the people setting the curriculum to teach them,” Knotts said Tuesday on WMAL.
On May 13, Omeish shared anti-Israel comments on social media that have been widely condemned as deeply anti-Semitic or needlessly divisive.
VIDEO: School Board Member’s 2019 Arrest
On Monday’s Larry O’Connor Show, the WMAL host played extensive audio clips from school board member Abrar Omeish’s 2019 arrest. Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) shared his thoughts on Omeish’s arrest record, as well as her recent inflammatory comments on Israel that many would consider needlessly divisive, if not deeply anti-Semitic.
County Dems Vote to Raise Taxes (Again)
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9 to 1 in favor of higher taxes on Tuesday. The new county budget will raise taxes by 3.4%, amounting to a 45% rise over 10 years. Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) was the only “no” vote. Herrity’s alternative budget, rejected by the Democrat majority, held taxes nearly flat — while offering relief to seniors and 3% raises to county teachers.
LISTEN: Larry O’Connor Interviews Harry Jackson
Concerned parent Harry Jackson joined WMAL’s Larry O’Connor Show last week, to discuss the Fairfax County School Board’s ongoing war on Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology (affectionately known as “TJ”). Jackson recently authored a Washington Post op-ed blasting “paternalistic White liberals” who “don’t think Black and Hispanic students have what it takes to compete on merit”
ICYMI: Larry O’Connor Interviews Zia Tompkins
In late October, parent and education reform advocate Zia Tompkins joined WMAL’s Larry O’Connor Show, to discuss new efforts to recall members of the Fairfax County School Board. Tompkins, who ran for school board in 2019 with the Fairfax GOP endorsement, said that current board members have turned county students into “guinea pigs”