On Monday, the Virginia Department of Education (DOE) canceled plans to roll out a new form of math curriculum that would focus heavily on race relations.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the DOE website no longer has a page for the planned Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI), which was previously set up by the administration of Governor Ralph Northam (D-Va.). All that remains on the page now is a message saying that “The Virginia Department of Education has ended the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI) project. Please see the Mathematics Instruction page, if your browser does not refresh.”
The move was applauded by parents’ rights groups in the state of Virginia, including the watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE), which released a statement explaining how “ideologues of critical race theory, including Ibram X. Kendi, target advanced education, including math and advanced diploma programs, as emblematic of ‘systemic racism,’ and thus they are being targeted by activists around the country for elimination.”
“For the last year, local school boards and the media have insisted that critical race theory is not in our schools, dumbing our kids down,” said PDE’s Asra Nomani. “But it is in our schools, putting us in a race to the bottom, especially with math and sciences.”
“Thankfully, the Youngkin administration with Superintendent Jillian Balow and Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz have eliminated the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative, which was going to deny students advanced math in middle school,” Nomani continued. “This war on merit must end.”
The VMPI was first announced back in April of 2021, with the intent of eliminating all accelerated math courses in Virginia public schools prior to the 11th grade, allegedly to improve “equity” in the state’s schools by keeping all students in the same level of math for the vast majority of their time in school. The DOE website’s page for the VMPI previously stated that the initiative intended to “improve equity in mathematics learning opportunities.”
Education proved to be the signature campaign issue for Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.), who won in an upset victory against former Governor Terry McAuliffe (D-Va.) in November. Youngkin, along with Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears (R-Va.) and Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-Va.), vowed to fight to keep Critical Race Theory out of public schools, as well as to repeal mask and vaccine mandates and push back on pro-“transgender” bathroom policies.
Critical Race Theory is the far-left and widely-debunked theory that all White people are automatically racist, and that the United States of America, as a nation founded by White people, is an inherently racist country. Curriculum based on the theory seeks to make all White students feel guilty for events and phenomena in the past that they had nothing to do with, such as slavery.