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Category: Opinion

Youngkin Isn’t Doing Enough To Purge Woke Insanity From Virginia Public Schools

Posted on by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

This op-ed was written by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Originally appeared in The Federalist.

Last week, the United States Department of Education found five public school districts in Northern Virginia in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The department’s press release says these divisions — Alexandria City Public Schools, Arlington Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, and Prince William Public Schools — are “subject of several lawsuits, informal complaints, and reports, which allege that students in the Divisions avoid using school restrooms whenever possible because of the schools’ policies.”

As the Department of Education summarized, these districts’ policies allowing “students to access intimate, sex-segregated facilities based on the students’ subjective ‘gender identity’” violate federal law. Leaders in districts like Fairfax have also mandated preferred pronouns that run contrary to students’ biological sex. Fairfax District leaders further require annual training for their teachers regarding these policies and focus on facilitating social gender transitions at school, as they often keep this information secret from parents, a FCPS teacher who requested anonymity told me.

The district required an annual teacher training for the 2025-2026 school year titled, “Gender Expansive and Transgender Students,” as I reported in IW Features. The obtained guidance states, “Prior to notification of any parent or guardian regarding the transition process, school staff should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent or guardian will be involved in the process and must consider the health, well-being, and safety of the transitioning student.”

The Dangers of ‘Transgender Inclusive’ Policies

Such so-called “transgender inclusive” policies not only violate many families’ religious beliefs but also have had devastating consequences. In 2021, Appomattox County High School did not notify a then-14-year-old girl’s parents when she began identifying as a boy at school. As The Federalist previously reported, the school’s decision to exclude the teen’s mother from such critical information meant it “participated in a chain of events that led” to the girl becoming the victim of sex predators and being trafficked to another state.

Appomattox County is not one of the five Northern Virginia districts that the Department of Education mentions in its investigation. In other words, there likely are many other K-12 public school districts in Virginia that are violating federal law.

In its administrative complaint to the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights, which conducted the investigation, it’s clear why America First Legal would highlight Northern Virginia’s public school districts. Many of them have been the recent subject of national news.

Loudoun County became the epicenter for both transgender insanity and parental rights. In 2021, a student named Hunter Heckel sexually assaulted two girls at two different high schools — one of whom he assaulted in a girls’ bathroom, reportedly while wearing a skirt. The victim’s father was then arrested at a school board meeting when he raised the assault after district leaders tried to conceal it.

In 2024, in nearby Arlington County, an adult male sex offender, Richard Cox, allegedly exposed his naked body in girls’ locker rooms at Washington Liberty High School and Wakefield High School. One woman reported that she called the Arlington School Board to notify them of the situation at Washington Liberty High, but that the board did not respond to her. One mother said she and her young daughter witnessed him in the school’s girls’ locker room last year and similarly contacted the Arlington Public Schools Aquatic Center director, but did not receive a response. Cox now faces 20 charges “related to exposing himself in women’s locker rooms.”

In Fairfax County, at the beginning of multiple academic years, teachers have given students surveys requesting their preferred names and pronouns without notifying parents. District leaders further guide teachers to “model” using their own preferred pronouns, as I previously reported.

Following his responses to the Student Experience Survey, which was supposed to be “confidential,” one student said he was pulled out of class and publicly approached by a school counselor for objecting to district policy and violations of President Trump’s executive orders.

The list of examples suggesting Virginia public school district leaders’ willful violation of students’ and parents’ rights and federal and state laws goes on and on. So, when will the Youngkin administration do something about it?

The ‘Parents Matter’ Administration Must Act

In November 2021, in a tight race, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governorship on a “Parents for Youngkin” campaign approach. While he passed apparently non-binding executive orders and his Department of Education has released model policies for students that base bathroom use on sex, not gender identity, his commitment to parents’ rights has lacked a clear implementation phase.

Despite many attempts at contact, for example, the Youngkin administration has not soiled its hands with most of Virginia’s parents’ problems. For example, my sons still have 39 days of illegal mask suspensions that school district leaders refuse to expunge. Fairfax County’s public school district also has many potential violations of state Freedom of Information Act law, which the Youngkin administration has not addressed.

While Fairfax County Public Schools seem bent on defying Youngkin’s executive orders on divisive concepts and mask freedom and his model polices, he substantially increased their state funding even as his office admitted the student population declined.

Other states have been more effective in implementing their policies regarding public education. For example, in June 2025, a California state auditor’s report found Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools in Sacramento guilty of wasteful spending and hiring teachers lacking “appropriate credentials.” The report also said the school acquired $180 million in wrongly received funds. Each of the members of the school’s board of directors subsequently resigned or was removed.

Additionally, in 2023, Temecula Valley Unified School District board members rejected California’s curriculum materials for including Harvey Milk, a known pederast. In fact, the school board president referred to Milk as a “pedophile,” and instructed “the district to reject any materials shipped from the state.” In response, Governor Gavin Newsom, D, fined the district $1.5 million for what he said was a “willful violation of the law.” While it’s deplorable that Newsom’s heart project seemed to be pushing curriculum referencing a known pederast and LGBT activist into California’s K-12 public schools, at least he isn’t afraid to implement his agenda.

If Newsom can take such actions, why can’t Youngkin? Fairfax County’s public schools received about $168 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2025 and about $1 billion from the state government the same year.

The Youngkin administration should explore creative tools to address Virginia’s leftist public school district leaders’ apparent willful violation of state and federal law — perhaps including individual financial or criminal liability.

Youngkin explicitly acknowledged the dangers of the Virginia school districts’ violations of the law in a post on X July 25: “These school divisions have been violating federal law, neglecting student safety, privacy and dignity, and ignoring parents—all enabled by the Biden administration.” He also boasted about asking the state attorney general to investigate one of the counties in a press release last week.

Fortunately, Joe Biden is no longer in power. It’s time to recognize the dangers of similar policies in school districts across Virginia, not just in Northern Virginia. Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears — the Republican candidate for Virginia’s upcoming gubernatorial race in November — should act now in the name of justice and parental rights. It’s unseemly to sit around applauding, waiting for the Trump administration to clean house in Virginia.

If Youngkin and Sears genuinely believe that parents matter and that these leftist school districts’ policies are dangerous and violate the law, it’s time for them to step up and go beyond holding impassioned interviews on Fox News.

Virginia Voters See Through Spanberger’s Moderate Act

Posted on by Suzanne Satterfield

This op-ed was written by Suzanne Satterfield, Loudoun County chapter leader for Independent Women’s Network. Originally appeared in DC Journal.

Abigail Spanberger is calling herself a moderate to try to win Virginia voters. “Too many politicians talk when they should listen, and divide instead of unite,” she said in her first TV ad for the governorship.

Her record suggests she is precisely the sort of divisive politician she is pretending to call out. While the typical House Democrat has a 10 percent lifetime score on the Heritage Action for America scorecard, Spanberger’s is just 5 percent.

In the ad, she also says she wants to “work to lower costs, let people keep more of their money, and make Virginia schools the best in the nation.” Again, her record suggests that she is making such promises because they are politically expedient to talk about. When it has actually come to lowering costs, letting people keep their money, and ensuring high-quality schools, Spanberger has failed.

She voted for President Biden’s disastrous spending measures, which raised costs for Virginia residents and reduced their purchasing power dramatically. That wasn’t enough: Spanberger insisted on gaslighting Americans by going on TV in 2022 and telling them that inflation was going down, despite the fact that prices remained far higher than they had been and were continuing to rise at the time.

Spanberger, who received $27,000 from teachers unions (more than any other House member), also promoted union-pushed school closures during the COVID-19 era, which hurt children in Virginia, especially those from the poorest backgrounds whose parents could not afford to put them in private school. Schools in Virginia stayed remote, and once they reopened, schoolchildren were forced to wear masks well after most other states had returned to normal. 

She cared more about posturing to Democratic elites than she did about Virginia children being able to access the public education they deserved. It’s not surprising either that Spanberger, while advocating to keep kids out of public schools, was also opposing school choice at the time, and continues to oppose school choice in her gubernatorial campaign.

Additionally, she’s been soft on the border, voting against the Laken Riley Act that has gotten an MS-13 leader out of Virginia. That hasn’t stopped her from going hard on other issues: she’s been full-force on gender ideology. She voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, giving her a failed score on Independent Women’s Voice’s Riley Gaines “Stand with Women Scorecard.”

Deference to gender ideology by politicians has had real consequences for Virginians. In my county, Loudoun County, in 2021, a boy wearing a skirt entered the girls’ bathroom and sexually assaulted a girl. The school board and administration kept this a secret in order to pass a sex-neutral bathroom and locker room policy that summer. It gets worse: He was able to return to school and assaulted another girl because the school refused to take action.

As for parents who might object to their child’s likely fleeting desire to identify as the opposite sex, Virginia Democrats don’t think parents should have the right to stop their children from getting cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries in the name of “gender transition.” In fact, Spanberger campaigned with the Democratic delegate who spearheaded legislation to expand Virginia’s definition of child abuse and neglect to include parents who don’t affirm their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

This is not the future Virginians want, especially when Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been able to empower parents, secure economic freedom, and restore sanity to our commonwealth. Spanberger contributed in every way to the status quo that Americans voted against in 2024 — the status quo she is trying to distance herself from verbally, while continuing to vote in line with it, now that she sees that it’s politically inconvenient.

Spanberger’s public record shows that she is still beholden to everything she claims to oppose, and, far from being a moderate, is a radical progressive who will continue to fail us if she is elected governor.

As a former UNC athlete, I can’t stay silent about HB 805

Posted on by Megan Burke

This article originally appeared in The Carolina Journal

A few years ago on a North Carolina high school volleyball court, Payton McNabb took a spike to the face. It wasn’t just any spike — it came from a trans-identified male competing on the opposing girls’ team. The hit left Payton with a concussion and longterm physical and cognitive issues. But perhaps the most lasting injury was the message she received from the adults in charge: that her safety was secondary to someone else’s identity.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has joined a growing list of Democrat governors in rejecting basic basic biological reality and common-sense protections for women and girls. By vetoing HB 805 — a landmark bill that defines male and female in state law — Stein has chosen ideology over biology, and political posturing over public safety. The governor’s decision, cloaked in the usual fake rhetoric of empathy, ignores women’s safety, science, and the will of North Carolinians.

If not for the governor’s veto, North Carolina would have become the 18th state to define “man” and “woman” in state law.

Contrary to the governor’s misleading claims, HB 805 contained nothing radical to “stok[e] the culture wars.” Instead, the bill laid out legal backing for a basic proposition once considered apolitical: that men and women are biologically different. Polling shows this view is not extreme — it reflects not just the views of conservatives and Republicans, but those of independents and a not-small portion of Democrats. In fact, a New York Times/Ipsos poll earlier this year found that an overwhelming four out of five Americans support using this simple biological definition of sex to determine eligibility in sports.

In addition to enshrining the biological definition of sex, HB 805 would help protect the safety of students by prohibiting K-12 boys and girls from sharing the same sleeping quarters. Among other things, the bill also prevents taxpayer dollars from funding sex-trait modification procedures, puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones for inmates.

These restrictions and protections are necessary because gender ideology activists have forced them to be so.

Payton McNabb’s injury wasn’t hypothetical; and it was entirely preventable. As a former decorated UNC Chapel Hill athlete, a two-time NCAA Champion, and now a mother to two young daughters who hope to attend school in North Carolina like their father and I did, I am appalled. Just a few years after I competed, girls are being forced to give up the very opportunities women fought so hard to secure. Why? Because too many leaders lack the courage to stand up for truth.

While he prefers to hide behind vague jabs about the “culture wars,” the sad truth is that our governor has joined too many Democrats in putting ideological extremism above basic truth, biology, and the safety of women and girls — not to mention the views of his own voters. By rejecting HB 805, the governor is prioritizing political posturing to a radical portion of his base and national activist groups over the practical needs of the people he was elected to serve.

Two years ago, the North Carolina legislature overrode a similar veto from then-Gov. Roy Cooper to protect fair competition in sports — protecting female athletes from being subjected to male competitors and teammates. They have another opportunity to do the right thing again.

Stein has chosen to let down the women and voters of North Carolina, but the legislature can still stand up — for safety, for fairness, and for the biological reality that makes protecting women’s rights possible in the first place.

Fairfax County shows why Trump should freeze education grants

Posted on by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

This op-ed was written by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a contributor for The Federalist and the Washington Examiner; a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia; an author; and the Fairfax chapter leader of Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in Fox News Digital, National Review, WMAL.com, The Daily Signal, and Townhall. Originally appeared in The Washington Times.

Last month, the Education Department notified states of its intention to pause and review $6 billion in education grants allocated for K-12 public schools. The reason: to ensure that “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities.”

The Trump administration is absolutely right to scrutinize these funds. Public school administrators across the nation need to make sure public resources are allocated with students’ academic achievement in mind.

Plummeting standardized test scores clearly demonstrate that public education is failing America’s children. Declining standards and the obsessive focus on leftist politics in lieu of academic instruction in public schools are even more damaging to the most vulnerable children.

The four-grade academic gap between America’s wealthiest and poorest students indicates that time at school is better spent doing math than being indoctrinated in gender ideology.

Although a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration for the $6 billion, they don’t seem to be addressing how district administrators are actually using the funds.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, for example, $13 million of federal funds are frozen. The district’s superintendent, Michelle Reid, said the grants subsidize teacher training and services for English language learners.

In the 2024-2025 academic year, Fairfax County Public Schools forced its teachers to undergo mandatory training on gender identity. The training interprets Title IX in the way the Biden administration advocated, emphasizing in bold that “Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of … gender identity or transgender status.”

Consequently, the training dictates that bathroom and locker room use be based on gender, that preferred pronouns are mandatory and that transitioning students have a right to privacy from their parents. The “guidance document” informs teachers and staff that “prior to notification of any parent or guardian regarding the transition process, school staff should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent or guardian will be involved in the process and must consider the health, wellbeing, and safety of the transitioning student.”

Think about that for a moment. In Fairfax County, taxpayer funds are supporting training that promotes policies and procedures that violate many families’ religious beliefs and require public school administrators and teachers to keep critical secrets from parents about their own children.

Aside from ridiculous teacher trainings, the $13 million in federal grants goes to services for English language learners in the county. Sadly, leftists use this vulnerable population of students to collect more public funding from the state and federal governments, but they have little to show in terms of positive academic outcomes.

Fairfax County’s English language learners perform poorly on standardized tests and notably worse than their counterparts in other public school districts across Virginia. In 2024, 69% of Fairfax County’s English language learners failed their standardized reading test, 94% failed writing, 58% failed math, 71% failed science and 83% failed history.

English language learners compose about 26.8% of Fairfax County Public Schools’ population. The number grew substantially after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors enacted its sanctuary policy in January 2021. From 2021 to 2026, the population increased by 13.3% (4,417 students) across the district, with an estimated total of 37,742 English language learners enrolled ahead of fiscal year 2026.

With a proposed fiscal 2026 expenditure of an extra $5,572 per English language learning student, the district’s price tag for English as a second language instruction is now $210 million, a more than 123% increase from fiscal 2019, when it was $93.9 million.

Although we hope all children thrive in their public schools, many Fairfax County residents are wondering whether they will be taxed out of their homes to pay for the county’s sanctuary policy. Given that such policies also run contrary to the Trump administration’s priorities, it’s not particularly surprising that the federal government wouldn’t want to offer grants to help us pay for it.

As the Education Department rightly reviews $6 billion in grants, leftist district administrators and politicians, such as those in Fairfax County, mask their greed and motives with the deceptive statement, “What about the kids?”

Still, for them, it’s not about the academic success of children. It’s about power and their own corrupt political agenda.

March Was Women’s History Month, But Does Governor Hobbs Know What A Woman Is?

Posted on by Christy Narsi

March was Women’s History Month, but a quick perusal through Governor Katie Hobbs’ social media shows no mention of it.

Crickets.

I can only assume she was avoiding the backlash because she knows how the majority of Arizona voters feel about matters such as Women’s History Month.

It’s for women.

So much for being the party of women’s rights. Gov. Hobbs, a female governor, made it clear this week that she refuses to stand with women and, in doing so, she refuses to stand with Arizona voters.

Gov. Hobbs had a second chance to preserve women’s rights this year, but she vetoed HB2062, Arizona’s Stand With Women Act, an act that would have codified the original meaning of basic sex-based words like ‘woman’ and ‘female’ in order to ensure that women’s rights aren’t compromised by judicial activism and bureaucrats. It would have given power back to our elected representatives to decide how, and in which contexts, it is appropriate to separate citizens by sex.

Words matter. We can’t protect women if we can’t define ‘woman.’ I have a vested interest in making sure we do. I am a mother. I have two daughters. My first granddaughter is on the way. I am president of a public K-8 charter school where young girls come to learn.

Mother, daughter, granddaughter, grandmother, aunt, sister, girls … all words that will become meaningless if we don’t fight to stop our erasure. Activists say these words lack objective meaning. They say these words are defined by subjective feelings, rather than objective reality. The efforts of these activists to legally eradicate the difference between the sexes fundamentally erase women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. Men and women are legally equal, but biologically different and as such should have a legal right to single-sex spaces. 86% of Americans (and even 83% of Democrats) agree. Gov. Hobbs is out of touch with the public and even those of her own party.

What about publicly collected data regarding males and females? Shouldn’t vital statistics—including statistics about matters such as violence against women—reflect biological truth? Imagine a world where all data used to promote public health, prevent crime, enforce civil rights laws, and ensure economic and social policy was subjective!

Most of the public focus on this issue has been on fairness in women’s sports, but this goes far beyond sports. Only two states—and not Arizona—ensure women’s prisons are only for women. In many states, men identifying as women, many of whom are violent sexual predators, have been transferred into women’s prisons. Unfortunately, many female inmates have already suffered physical and psychological damage as a result. This is why  91% of Americans, even 88% of Democrats, support single-sex prisons.

Women, including sexual assault survivors, are being told not to complain about having men undress next to them in their private spaces such as locker rooms. Men are invading female sororities, domestic violence shelters, and educational training programs that were created specifically to encourage women’s engagement.

What kind of a world are we setting up for the next generation if we close our eyes to this? My challenge to all Arizonans is this: make some serious noise and do not let up! Educate everyone you meet on what Gov. Hobbs has done to disadvantage women and take away our right to equal opportunity. Talk about this at church, at the gym, and yes, even in the workplace. I am convinced that once Arizonans understand the dangerous impact of this veto, they will have found their line in the sand and have the courage to do something about it.

Colorado leaders cheer women’s soccer while leaving girls vulnerable

Posted on by Megan Burke

Megan Burke is a two-time NCAA champion runner from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as well as an American record holder in the distance medley relay. She also leads the Denver, CO, chapter of Independent Women’s Network. This piece originally appeared in The Rocky Mountain Voice.

Have you heard that Denver is welcoming a women’s professional soccer team and is hoping to build a new women’s soccer stadium? Wow, Colorado must be very supportive of women’s sports, right? 

Unfortunately, our leaders will try to sell you on this notion while they have done nothing in this state to protect women’s sports. 

In recent years, the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports has become a highly debated issue across the United States, and Denver is no exception. While the city champions itself as progressive and inclusive, it does nothing to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports. 

In the name of inclusion, we are excluding women and girls from their very own category. Colorado has passed ZERO laws to protect women’s and girls’ sports/spaces. 

In fact, not only have they not passed any, they are constantly voting against them…leaving our girls vulnerable. Vulnerable to losing a spot on the team or podium. Vulnerable to competing against men who have performance advantages due to biological factors like larger hearts, lungs, greater muscle mass, and higher testosterone levels—factors that lead to differences in speed, strength, and endurance. 

Women and girls are also more vulnerable to injury, as men are typically reported to have about 40–75% more muscle strength than women, according to the National Library of Medicine. Vulnerable to having to change in a locker room with a male, and vulnerable to not even wanting to play sports at all because of the above reasons.

According to a Gallup poll, 69% of Americans agree that men have no place in women’s sports. But just two weeks ago both of our Colorado Senators had a chance to protect Colorado girls by voting yes on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Both Senators voted it down. 

Senator Bennett, who has three daughters of his own, decided our daughters aren’t important enough to protect in sports. We should remind Mr. Bennett of all the wonderful things athletics bring to young women. For example, women who participate in sports tend to have a more positive body image and higher self-esteem compared to those who do not. 

And to Senator Hickenlooper, who sent me an email telling me we should be more worried about trans athletes being physically harmed, I would ask him this: what about our girls being harmed and injured from boys/men in their very own category? 

Take Payton McNabb from North Carolina, who was spiked in the face and knocked out cold, suffering permanent brain injuries caused by a male athlete playing on a girls’ high school volleyball team. That damage is done by allowing just one male into our sports.

Then there is the issue of the locker room, where our weak laws are allowing girls’ private spaces to disappear altogether. 

East High School in Denver, which educates over 2,500 students, offers a troubling example. During Christmas break, East High School changed the girls’ bathroom on the second floor to an all-gender bathroom, but the boys’ bathroom remained the same. That means a 14-year-old girl is potentially forced to share a bathroom with an 18-year-old boy in one of the biggest public schools in our state. 

Taking away young women’s private spaces is unacceptable, but with our current leaders and laws, nothing will be done to reverse this. 

Even our youth sports in Colorado are being attacked with our pro-gender affirming laws and anti-protection of women’s sports/spaces. The Colorado Rapids Soccer club, one of the largest soccer clubs in the state, notes on its website that athletes can register on the team in which they “identify.” 

Our oldest daughter played against two boys when she was only seven years old in GIRLS 7U soccer. This was not a co-ed league, either. 

So while Colorado and our politicians will take credit for this monumental occasion of getting a female soccer team and a stadium, do not forget – they have done nothing to protect the very sport category they pretend to support!