Letter from Delegate Kathy Tran to Virginia Board of Education on Youngkin Administration’s November 11 Proposed History and Social Studies Standards of Learning
November 18, 2022
Virginia Board of Education
℅ The Honorable Daniel A. Gecker
Virginia Board of Education
101 North 14th Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Dear President Gecker:
“History definitely should be taught the way it happened—good, bad or ugly.”
~ Ruby Bridges
I agree with the decision the Board of Education made to reject the November 11 History and Social Studies standards of learning proposal. However, I remain deeply concerned that this proposal will be used as the baseline for developing a new curriculum.
This draft SOL proposal was co-opted by politics and does not reflect the rich and valuable history that our students should learn. On August 17, 2022, the first draft of the SOL curriculum was presented to the Board. That draft was developed over a two-year period based on feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including historians, educators, museum leaders, parents, and businesses as well as public comments submitted from over 5,000 Virginians. The process for developing our SOL curriculum has been refined over time to allow for transparency and community engagement.
We have taken a serious step backwards. Superintendent Balow delayed the public hearing review of the August 17 proposal and invited the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Hillsdale College – organizations with well-known ideological biases – to review and rewrite the curriculum in a non-transparent manner. What has resulted is a revisionist proposal that deliberately whitewashes history.
There are many examples of this erasure: Their proposal eliminates the teaching of racism and how it persists and affects our lives today. It resurrects old tropes about the material benefits of human chattel slavery and does not acknowledge slavery as the root cause of the Civil War. It does not include meaningful discussions about the history, culture, and contributions of Indigenous Peoples, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), and the Latinx community. It removes discussions about the Women’s Rights Movement. It no longer acknowledges passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It avoids discussion about America’s inadequate response to the Holocaust. And it delays our children learning about seminal Black heroes and does not include significant reference to historical figures from other communities of color.
I met with Superintendent Balow and VDOE staff in September to discuss my concerns with the delay in the public hearing process for the August 17 proposal. At that time, I shared the strong desire I have heard from Virginia’s AAPI community members, including youth in our public K-12 schools, to see greater representation of AAPI experiences and contributions in our history curriculum. When AAPI Virginians are experiencing a rise in hate and violence, continued erasure of AAPIs from Virginia’s history lessons will only exacerbate our marginalization.
Additionally, the November 11 proposal displays a clear ideological bent that is dismissive of the valuable role that government plays in our society and plants skepticism of our democratic institutions through its emphasis on poll watchers and biases in the press.
It is clear from the public comments expressed at yesterday’s Board meeting that Virginians overwhelmingly agree that our children need to learn a complete and accurate history so that they better understand the opportunities and challenges we face today as a Commonwealth and nation. We do our children a disservice when we distort the historical record, leaving out critical events and contributions of the diverse peoples and communities that have shaped our country.
As such, I strongly urge you to not use the November 11 proposal as the baseline from which to draft new curriculum and, instead, move the August 17 standards forward for first review.
Sincerely,
Kathy KL Tran
Delegate