CNN's Stelter suggests parents' rights and CRT are 'cheap slogans' in wake of Virginia election

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MSNBC's Joy Reid: 'Education' is 'code' for white parents who don't like idea of teaching about race

MSNBC's Joy Reid frets over surveys showing education as a key issue for Virginia voters in the gubernatorial race.

CNN's Brian Stelter joined a seemingly irritated group of liberal pundits who have lashed out at or lectured parents in the aftermath of Republican Glenn Youngkin's surprise win over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in last Tuesday's Virginia gubernatorial election. 

Virginia voters told liberal media networks who were curious about their votes last week that they flocked to the polls to vote for Youngkin as a means of pushing back against their school districts' progressive agendas. In the lead up to Election Day, parents had spoken out more regularly about graphic material in classrooms, and against the use of critical race theory (CRT), a curriculum that teaches students U.S. institutions are inherently racist. 

A woman holds up her sign against Critical Race Theory (CRT) being taught during a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021. - Loudoun county school board meetings have become tense recently with parents clashing with board members over transgender issues, the teaching of CRT and Covid-19 mandates. Recently tensions between groups of parents and the school board increased after parents say an allegedly transgender individual assaulted a girl at one of the schools. Earlier this month US Attorney General Merrick Garland directed federal authorities to hold strategy sessions in the next month with law enforcement to address the increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in the nation's public schools. This in response to a request from the National School Boards Association asking US President Joe Biden for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism. 

MSNBC'S JOY REID: ‘EDUCATION’ ISSUE IS ‘CODE’ FOR WHITE PARENTS WHO DON'T WANT RACE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS

Stelter, however, said the terms "parents' rights" and "critical race theory" have become little more than a "slogan" or a "catchall phrase." The segment was accompanied by the chyron, "Cheap Slogans Disguise Stories That Are Shaping America."

Stelter and his "Reliable Sources" panelists concluded Sunday that the contest just held in Virginia wasn't a battle over education, but race.

CNN political analyst Natasha Alford, vice president of The Grio, argued it was an "old debate," one that hearkens back to the days of when school board meetings used to revolve around the busing of schoolchildren from the city to the suburbs. 

"These are America's issues with race and identity and the sort of this moral outrage that just gets repackaged for a new era," she argued.

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"Hold on, so you're saying when the top issue is called ‘education,’ the top issue is race," Stelter said. Mirroring MSNBC's Joy Reid, Stelter used air quotes when using the word education.

"It's actually race," Alford agreed. "And it is our jobs as journalists to provide that historical context, so that our readers just don't take that headline and say parents' rights." 

Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin gestures during a (Loudoun Parents Matter Rally) campaign event in Leesburg, Virginia, U.S., November 1, 2021. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

Reid had a similar response to McAuliffe's defeat last week, calling the definition of education, "code for White parents who don't like the idea about teaching about race."

Other pundits like MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said CRT "isn't real." Several progressive figures argued the theory isn't present in public schools, despite the phrase "Critical Race Theory" appearing on the Virginia Department of Education website.

Voters told CNN and MSNBC that McAuliffe "hurt" himself during the campaign when he said during his debate against Youngkin that parents should not have a say in their kids' education. 

"I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach," McAuliffe said, a soundbite which proceeded to show up in several Youngkin campaign ads.

Parents and community members attend a Loudoun County School Board meeting, just 40 minutes from Fairfax (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

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Some Democrats have acknowledged their party took a few wrong turns on the issue of education in Virginia. Former Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, for instance, said on MSNBC that Democrats can't let the GOP become the "party of the parents."

"The one thing that we need to make sure of is that Republicans in 2022 don’t become is the party of parent, because we need to be the party of the parents," Cutter said.