As Terry McAuliffe and the Democrats reflect on McAuliffe's recent failure to become governor of Virginia again, they might want to revisit what he said during his last debate with Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin, for it speaks volumes about the sea change in Virginia politics.

As they were debating education, when Youngkin spoke about parents upset about sexually explicit material on library shelves, he turned to McAuliffe and said, "In fact, you vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they [the books] were there."  McAuliffe replied that the bill he vetoed would actually go beyond informing parents but would give them the right to remove books.  "I'm not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions."  He then added, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

Inadvertently, with that arrogant and condescending response, former governor McAuliffe made Americans revisit the question: who is in charge of public education?  Are "we the people" in charge of public education, or are the unelected educrats in charge of public education?  McAuliffe sided with the educrats and lost.

Had McAuliffe corrected himself the next day by affirming that the taxpayers who fund public education are also the stewards of public education, he would be on his way to Richmond once more.  Instead, he arrogantly doubled down on supporting the educrats while his buddy Biden sicced his FBI dogs on angry parents at school board meetings.  These moves did not go down well with the voters in Virginia.

Winston Churchill once spoke of communist Russia as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."  The same can be said of American Public Education (APE).  I was a public school teacher for 23 years, and I still cannot understand what APE is trying to do.  I think, like the communists in the former Soviet Union they admire so much, APE doesn't want Americans to know what it is doing.

In 2015, as I was getting ready to retire, I witnessed another "McAuliffe Moment."  I began to teach Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner, to my 12th-graders.  Since the story involves Muslim culture, I spent some time teaching my students about the Five Pillars of Islam.

Not long after I began this unit, my principal called me to her office.  She informed me that the mother of one of my students objected to my pro-Islamic proselytizing.  I explained to my principal that I was merely sharing the basics of Islam with my students and that I was not endorsing Muslim beliefs.

My principal accepted my account but asked me to assign another novel to the student who had complained.  I told her I would, and then she said something that I did not expect.  "It's too bad," she added, "that we don't live in a communist system.  In that case, we could assign the book, and that would be that."

Leftist educrats had a setback last night.  However, they still believe they are the experts and they know better than citizens do what is best for America's students.  They cannot dazzle us with their brilliance, but they can and will continue to baffle us with BS if we allow them to.  They do not love America as it is; they love their idea of what America should be: a socialist utopia.

That transformation will not be stopped unless we stop it.  They see Youngkin's win as a "bump in the road."  I see Youngkin's win as an opportunity to dismantle a pernicious monopoly that we fund year after year with our tax dollars.

Image: Soviet propaganda poster (AKA the Democrat dream when it comes to education). 

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