Good News for American Education, but Also a Red Flag

Virginia’s new über-leftist state government is about to make homeschooling much more attractive. But be careful...

Jeff Minick | March 8, 2026

The article below encourages homeschooling and private academies, urges parents to keep an eye on the classroom if their children are in public school, and criticizes state educational developments under a new governor and legislature in Virginia.

Good news and a Red Flag for American Education    

In less than two months since taking office, Governor Abigail Spanberger and a solid Democrat Legislature have pulled out all the stops to make Virginia as blue a state as a June sky.

This swift and radical shift in direction includes House Bill 614, titled “History and social science standards and instruction; historically marginalized communities.”  The bill aims to mandate the return of DIE policies to public school education, requiring teachers of history and all schools “to include the contributions, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities; immigrants and refugees; women; individuals with disabilities; individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+); individuals from various socioeconomic statuses,” etc., etc., etc.

Wise parents who are fed up with all this mess from an increasingly mediocre government-operated school system will want to abandon ship.  To them and to all other parents across the country looking to abandon the sinking ship of public education, I have only one thing to say: “Come on in — the water’s fine!”

In 1986, my wife and I first ventured into homeschooling with our oldest child, age 4.  Since then, vast changes have taken place in home education.  Any number of curriculum providers now offer material and teaching helps to parents who decide on this option.  Computers and the internet have further revolutionized home education.  Home school options also include such excellent choices as hybrid schools, where students go part-time to classes and spend the rest of the week completing assignments at home; pod schools, where families join together and either share the responsibilities of instruction or hire a teacher; or single-subject classes, such as the ones I used to offer to homeschoolers.

Moreover, private schools are thriving and remain a viable option.  In Front Royal, Virginia, for example, approximately eight such schools are in operation, most of them with religious affiliations.

And here’s more good news.  The culture seeded by home schools and private academies over the past few decades is fueling this breakaway from state schools.  More than 300 colleges, for instance, now accept the Classical Learning Test for admission in lieu of the SAT or ACT, both of which reflect public school standards.  Students taking the CLT have prepared by studying sound history and the classics of literature without the useless accoutrements of DIE or progressive reading lists.  In his article “AP Teacher: I Can’t Wait to Teach This Pro-America Alternative to Woke AP Courses,” Auguste Meyrat celebrates the expansion of the CLT philosophy and tests into high school courses taken for college credit. 

Another underreported positive shift in academics is occurring in some of our public universities.  Mark Bauerlein’s “A Very Good Thing in Academe” reports on centers opening within these universities that promote and teach balanced accounts of history, the study of civics, and the foundations of the American republic.  These centers are conservative only in their return to more traditional academic approaches to their subjects.  At Arizona State’s Tempe campus, for instance, the School of Economic and Civic Thought offers the course “Debating Capitalism” which “has students read Aristotle, the Apostles, Thomas Aquinas, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx.”

Yet there are sharks as well in this sea change in education.  Here in Virginia, we can rest assured that the Spanberger administration and Democrat Legislature will look for ways to regulate and undermine homeschooling and private schools, to bring these students and families under the control and supervision of the state and its requirements.  In this case, and all around the nation, those who voted with their feet by leaving public schools must be sure to vote in elections.  They must also raise their voices in protest when the state proposes harsh regulations and, whenever possible, ignore these dictates when and if they are enacted.

In the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race, Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe.  A major reason for that victory came during a debate, when McAuliffe declared, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

McAuliffe did everyone a favor by inadvertently ripping off the mask concealing the radical agenda behind so many of our public schools.  Wherever we live, parents and grandparents need to be acutely aware of what is being taught in schools and what is going on in the classroom and, if necessary, protest and bring it to the attention of the public.  That’s not just the right thing to do.  It’s the American thing to do.  

Your children don’t belong to the state. In some ways, your children don’t belong to you.  As some people like to say, they’re on loan from God.  

But here’s one true thing: You and your children belong to each other.  

Jeff Minick is a former entrepreneur and teacher who now writes for Intellectual Takeout, the Epoch Times, and other publications.  He lives in Front Royal, Virginia. 

Image: jarmoluk via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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