Carl Noller | Fairfax County Times

The Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) operates and maintains county public schools, consistent with state statutes and Virginia Board of Education regulations. In Fairfax, the FCSB consists of 12 members. Technically, they are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but, in practice, each party endorses a slate of candidates. Currently, all 12 members are Democrats. They were last elected in 2019 and will be voted on again in November. They have made some controversial decisions that you should know about:

They were enthusiastic about closing county schools and keeping them closed, even as Catholic and private schools were open and showing no ill effects. After the schools reopened, they supported mask mandates. As evidence mounted that younger people were less susceptible to COVID and that only the most sophisticated masks did much to stop transmission, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order in January 2022 that allowed parents to decide whether their children should wear masks. FCSB was one of just seven jurisdictions in the state that sued to prevent his order from taking effect.

Though courses in Critical Race Theory are not taught in county schools, the policy implications that follow from that theory have been embraced by FCSB. In many classrooms, children are pitted against each other based on race. Whites are shamed, Blacks and Hispanics are deemed victims, and Asians are discriminated against. FCSB vigorously promotes “diversity,” which replaces merit with government-induced equality of results. Thus, FCSB changed the admissions criteria at Thomas Jefferson High School to reduce Asian attendance at the school, making the student body more diverse. Also, Asian students are denied entry into Advanced Academic Programs to make room for other racial groups. Even worse, the methods employed to select from among those other racial groups have not been effective in choosing the members most likely to succeed.

Student test scores have plummeted from pre-pandemic levels, but more needs to be done to help students make up the lost ground, despite significant federal grants that could be used for this purpose.

FCSB has jeopardized our daughters with radical transgender policies that allow biological males to compete against biological females and share their intimate spaces in bathrooms and locker rooms. This has been done without genuine diagnoses of gender dysphoria.

Why are Democrats endorsing candidates who vote openly to discriminate against Asians? Republican-backed candidates want to focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic, not ideology. We want merit to guide the placement of students, and we think parents deserve to have their voices heard in their children’s education. We believe that bias against Asians has no place in forming school policies. If you agree, please vote for the GOP-endorsed School Board candidates.

This article was first published by the Fairfax County Times on August 11, 2023. The author, Carl Noller holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia. He resides in Herndon.