Glenn Youngkin spars with Texas journalist over education in front of rowdy liberal audience

AUSTIN, Texas - Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin faced a hostile liberal crowd as he sparred with a local journalist over his education agenda at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival. 

Youngkin, who famously won his 2021 gubernatorial race on the issue of education, was the closing keynote speaker at the annual political conference and was grilled in an interview Saturday night with Texas Tribune co-founder Evan Smith. 

"So let me put myself in the frame of mind of an educator… Don't you trust educators to do their jobs?" Smith asked. "If educators believe that books should be on a syllabus or part of a course, haven't we, for years, trusted our educators to make decisions that were good enough to educate us? Why would they not be good enough to educate our kids?"

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"Because there were books that were put on the curriculum for classes that families - and remember, Virginia is an incredibly diverse state," Youngkin responded. "We have a large Muslim population, a large Jewish population, a large Hindu population, a large Hispanic population, a large Black population. I mean, we are an incredibly diverse state, and there are materials that were on the curriculum that really were inconsistent with a family's personal values. And therefore, this bill was put in front of Gov. McAuliffe at the time - passed unanimously out of our Senate. I mean, unanimous… it was transparency and an opt-out for a replacement, and he vetoed it." 

"And that was at the heart of this question, which is who should be making this decision? And I firmly believe that parents should first have full transparency in what's being taught in school. And second of all, if there is something that is completely counter with their family values, they should be able to request a replacement piece to the curriculum," Youngkin continued.

Smith then told Youngkin that he now has a "reputation" of being "the governor who bans books," citing an Axios report alleging that "nearly 400 book titles were targeted for bans in Virginia libraries last year."

"First of all, the idea of common sense being attributed to a family so they can make a decision about whether their child is reading a book that's consistent with their family values is something when we explain this, everybody says yes. It doesn't fit with the progressive narrative. And so what they call that is ‘book banning’ because it doesn't fit with the narrative," Youngkin told Smith. 

"Is that what Axios is referring to? There are 400 books that parents can opt out of or have those books been removed?" Smith pressed the governor. 

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Youngkin pushed back, citing a pre-existing law that libraries and school boards can assess what book titles are appropriate for children. 

"It was not new and on top of that… the fact that parents, Republicans, independents and Democrats believe that they should be at the head of the table in their child's life, and they should have a say in their child's life and things shouldn't happen to their children without parents knowing and being involved, is common sense. It is a strong majority that believes this," Youngkin said. "And so that what the progressive left wanted to do was change the narrative. And so ‘this is all about book banning.’ It's not about book banning. This is about empowering parents to have-"

Some in the crowd let out audible groans to Youngkin, prompting Smith to tell them "please" with a pausing gesture.

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"This is about having parents to have full transparency what's going on in their kids' lives," Youngkin finished his thought.

"And the authors of books that have been removed from library shelves who say Virginia is censoring us. You say what to them?" Smith followed. 

"I say first of all, Virginia is not censoring," Youngkin responded. "What school boards, local school boards are doing is exercising their legal and responsible right to assess whether books are appropriate in the schools and whether they are age appropriate."

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"You worry that there's been some over-correction here?" Smith asked. "I mean, I remember Toni Morrison's ‘Beloved’ coming up in the context of this discussion. I don't know that you or anybody on your campaign specifically called that book out, but we know that that book became part of this conversation. I mean, I remember reading ‘Beloved’ in school, in English class. Is that the kind of book that we want to pull off of a library shelf?"

"What grade did you read it in?" Youngkin countered.

"I mean, high school," Smith answered.

"Is it appropriate for a first-grader or second-grader?" Youngkin then followed. "I'm just asking."

That exchange sparked some boos from the liberal crowd. 

Moments later, Smith quoted Youngkin's neighboring colleague, Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who said during last month's Democratic convention in Chicago "Loving your country doesn't mean lying about its history," prompting him to ask Youngkin whether he agreed.

"I have consistently and clearly said we must teach all of our history, the good and the bad, all of it. All of it," Youngkin said. "What I've also said is we shouldn't blame people today for what's happened historically. We just want everybody to understand it. It's why when we've eventually got to the finish line on our history curriculum, we have, I believe, rated the best history curriculum in America today because we tell all of our history. We in fact made sure that we were going to include a broad, broad education associated with slavery, with reconstruction, with civil rights, also with the Holocaust. And we need to make sure that our students understand these pivotal moments in our history so that we don't ever repeat them."

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Youngkin later added, "I have to say, what the progressive left does really well is push people into this ‘either or’ moment. It's either this or that. And I don't live there. I believe we can live in a ‘both and’ world. We can teach all of our history, the good and the bad, and we can make sure that we're not penalizing or trying to blame people today for what happened a long time ago. We can do both of these things, and if we do this well, then in fact, we have a generation of students who are educated and are in an ability to make the right decisions going forward, because we're gonna have to hand our state and our country to this next generation of students."

The liberal attendees did offer Youngkin applause when he touted his administration's effort to give teachers raises, but later they reacted against him after he noted that Democratic state lawmakers blocked legislative efforts towards passing a school voucher program.