After she challenged Virginia Board of Education member Anne Bright Holton Kaine (Senator Tim Kaine’s wife and the former Virginia Education Secretary whose Department introduced CRT to Virginia schools), Suparna Dutta became a target of the radical left. They financed an extensive smear campaign to cause her removal from office on a false charge of racism. It worked. Virginia State Senator Ghazala Hashmi introduced an amendment that removed Dutta’s nomination. The amendment passed on a strict party-line vote. But Dutta may well have the last word. When the dust settles following the 2023 Virginia Senate elections, parents across the state may teach the Democrat Party a civics lesson: Parents’ rights over the education and upbringing of their children may not be sacrificed on the alter of radical leftist ideology.
Dutta brilliantly outwitted Kaine before the Board, an embarrassment that did not go unpunished. Kaine said she was “uncomfortable” with two foundational principles in Youngkin’s public school learning standards: (1) that the “Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are remarkable documents” and (2) that socialism and communism are “incompatible with democracy and individual freedoms.” Kaine equated the greatest documents in defense of individual liberty ever to arise in Western civilization with white supremacy and slavery (apparently oblivious to the fact that the Declaration’s “all men are created equal” plainly refers in context to humankind, not white men, and apparently in ignorance of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and the 14thAmendment commanding equal protection of the laws regardless of race or gender). Kaine proclaimed: “You cannot reference the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as remarkable documents without also acknowledging that they contain fundamental flaws of enshrining slavery and limiting the protections that they provided for only white propertied men [sic].”
The former Secretary needs a civics education. At the very same time he penned the immortal phrases “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” Jefferson also wrote a 168-word paragraph in his declaration draft condemning slavery and defending the rights of life, liberty and property of the enslaved. He thereby revealed that the above-quoted phrases were meant to apply to mankind in general (i.e., all people regardless of gender or race). That 168-word paragraph was deleted against Jefferson’s wishes by delegates from Georgia and South Carolina but evinces Jefferson’s view at the moment of drafting that the phrases applied to all, not just white men. Did Kaine forget that, or did she learn the actual history underlying the drafting of the Declaration of Independence?
Kaine went on to argue against the weight of world history that socialism is not an evil comparable to communism. Dutta schooled Kaine. The only Board member to have lived under socialism, Dutta said, “I think socialism is just about as bad as communism.” And for that, along with her dissent from the overall radical indoctrination agenda favored by Kaine, she became persona non grata deserving of ex-communication from the Board.
Kaine and their compatriots aimed to punish Dutta. In the world of the radical leftist, dissent is racism; indeed, anything that challenges the radical agenda is racism(even when the person targeted, here Dutta, harbors no discriminatory intent, has taken no discriminatory action, and has consistently fought against racism). In lockstep with communists, the radicals are entirely intolerant of the wide-open, robust debate that arises from faithful adherence to the First Amendment. That is unsurprising because they condemn the Constitution as racist.
Ironically, the radical leftists who falsely labeled Dutta a racist are themselves guilty of that charge. They demand racist CRT be taught in the schools, but they label any who condemn CRT as racist. The illogic is profound, and the evil is palpable.
Dutta is known for her excellent character, support of equal protection, and love of America. Dutta is a parent leader of Parents for TJ. She crusaded against racist admissions policies employed by Thomas Jefferson High School, which discriminated against Asians. By their votes, the Democrat majority has revealed its opposition to measures that promote academic excellence regardless of race, protect the innocence and virtue of children, support America’s founding documents, and ensure equal treatment of children. If it’s Ibram X. Kendi and Anne Kaine versus Martin Luther King, Jr. and Suparna Dutta, the Democrat majority will favor Kendi and Kaine every time. Like Kaine and that majority, Kendi condemns the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and calls racism against white children a remedy for racism against children of color. Like Dutta and the Republican minority, King condemned racism and called for the blessings of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to reach all people, regardless of race and gender.
Anne Kaine is infamous for presiding over the CRT education of Virginia teachers when she served as Education Secretary under former Governor Terry McAuliffe. Far from documents that enshrine racism and slavery, the Declaration and Constitution called into question by Kaine are, as Dr. King recognized, founts of liberty and, through the Civil War and voting rights amendments, were meant to include all citizens. That is a triumph of liberty, not of racism.
By removing Dutta, the Democrat majority has disrespected Virginia parents’ rights, insisting on the very agenda parents rejected when they voted for Governor Youngkin. We can therefore expect that when voters in 2023 consider who should represent them in the General Assembly, they will remember the dastardly deed done to Dutta and will vote against the Democrats who voted against Dutta. As Abraham Lincoln put it, turnabout is fair play.
Virginia parents overwhelmingly demand that the schools end Marxist indoctrination, end gender ideology, end the sexualization of innocent youth, and respect the constitutional rights of parents. Parents’ rights do not end at the schoolhouse gate. Administrators and teachers are constitutionally obligated to avoid stigmatizing and segregating children based on race, to avoid dishonoring parents' wishes regarding the gender of their children, and to avoid enabling children to receive “gender-affirming care,” which is child abuse. Schools are to educate. They are not to propagandize and enable transitioning. Teachers are to encourage debate and tolerate dissent, not expound orthodoxies and demand unthinking acceptance.
The radicalization of children in public schools is destroying education and leading our children to disown religion, hate themselves, hate each other, hate free enterprise, hate government, and hate their country. Those who hate their country will neither serve nor defend it.
When the votes are tallied in 2023, Virginia parents will have their opportunity to right the wrong committed against Dutta and, indeed, committed against them. And then it is likely that Governor Youngkin will once again nominate Dutta, and this time she will be confirmed to serve on the Board of Education for the benefit of all Virginians.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member