Youngkin Pledges to Take Back Virginia Schools for Parents

YOUNGKIN: Friends, we are going to start that transformation on day one. There is no time to waste. Our kids can’t wait. We work in real-people time, not government time. So on day one we’re going to work. We’re going to restore excellence in our schools. We will invest the largest education budget in the history of the commonwealth. We’re gonna invest in teachers, new facilities, special education. We’re gonna introduce choice within our public school system. How about that? Choice within the public school system. We’re gonna start with 20 charter schools, and we are gonna make a down payment and close the gap on giving parents an opportunity to select where their kids go to school.

BUCK: Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show. Glenn Youngkin there with his victory speech, a huge night for him. The implications of this… I mean, the Biden administration is watching this.

CLAY: They’re in hiding.

BUCK: Joe knows there’s nothing to be said right now other than, “Wow. We are in a bit of a mess here.” The midterms already looking like it could be an absolute annihilation for the Democrats if trends continue. There’s obviously always a lot of time between now and then. But, Clay, there was so much here. First of all, the way that Youngkin breaks down the education situation. He says, “We’ll make it better.

“We’ll also get parents more involved and give them more choice,” almost like a guy who has successfully run a very large company that’s done incredible well, the Carlyle Group, private equity firm out of D.C. — and understands how to make things better for the actual parents who voted for him and their children. But you know what makes this all the sweeter is that in the final weeks of the campaign McAuliffe went right into the gutter, the nastiest racism smears imaginable, and Youngkin still dunked on him.

CLAY: Well said. And not only that, McAuliffe brought in all the heavy hitters in the Democratic Party to try to drag him across the finish line. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris. He brought out every big name he could in Virginia to argue in favor of him actually winning. In fact, this is probably a good time to play Kamala Harris, who always manages to say the absolute dumbest thing. Do we have Kamala right now? If we don’t have it, we’ll play it later for you. But Kamala basically said, “Hey, whatever happens in 2021 is gonna happen in 2022 and in 2024,” and I hope she’s right in her diagnosis there. For once, I hope Kamala Harris is right.

BUCK: Prophetic, perhaps. I certainly hope so too.