WILLIAMSBURG, Va - Students, parents and teachers sounded off at the State Department of Education's public hearing in Williamsburg Monday night.
It's the first hearing on the newest draft of the state’s history and social science learning standards. A revised draft was rolled out in January after previous drafts drew criticism.
Some speakers got political. Others said they would like to see more diversity represented in the learning standards.
Before the hearing, several educators from the Virginia Education Association and labor unions gathered in a rally outside of the public hearing to call on a change for the latest draft.
"When you’re narrow and you just say that slavery was caused by the civil war but you don’t talk about the horror of slavery and racism that slavery caused, that’s not enough to help our students," Carol Bauer, the vice president of the Virginia Education Association said.
Labor unions even called for the history of unions to be taught in the curriculum.
"Labor rights and labor history go hand in hand with civil rights and civil history," one labor union member said at the rally.
The state’s history and social science standards must be reviewed every seven years. The latest revised draft of education standards includes learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earlier in elementary grade levels.
It also comes after backlash from teachers about how minorities were represented in earlier versions.
"Women, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Jewish Americans and people of color have contributed to our country and made America a great nation," one speaker said before the board.
Inside the public hearing, more than 50 speakers signed up to speak including students, parents and teachers.
"Our schools have been teaching socialism for years. Governor Youngkin is trying to change that," a Mathews County public school student said before the board.
Some speakers wanted to steer away from controversial topics in the curriculum.
"The [Standard of Learning] (SOL) fixed identity groups create a bias and perpetuates a victimhood. Teach worldview ideas, not intersectionality," one speaker said.
The newest draft of the standards requires students to analyze the Nazi regime of the mass killing of Jewish people during the Holocaust. It also includes learning about slavery and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Some of these were excluded from previous drafts of learning standards.
One high school student wants the learning standards to include more emphasis on Asian American history.
"I’m here to ask for more comprehensive history of the Asian community in America to be taught in Virginia school systems. Including the impact Asian Americans have left on history," the high school student said before the board.
The Department of Education will host five more public hearings. In April, the board will make edits or amendments in response to the public hearings before officially adopting new learning standards.
