Chris Lange, FISM News
Virginia’s newly-elected Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) wasted no time in making good on his promise to give Virginia parents a voice in their children’s education.
Following his inauguration ceremony at the state capitol in Richmond on Saturday, the 55-year-old conservative Christian businessman signed nine executive orders and two directives, including an immediate ban on critical race theory instruction and mask mandates in schools.
Youngkin also authorized new Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) to launch an investigation into Loudon County Public Schools where a teenage student committed sexual assaults at two schools. The Loudon County School Board has been accused of covering up the rapes committed by the transgender boy who, in one instance, assaulted his female victim in an ungendered restroom after the school implemented progressive transgender policies.
On Inauguration Day, the most diverse leadership in Commonwealth history stood together in prayer. Today, we sent a message to all Virginians that our Commonwealth is big enough for all of our hopes and dreams. pic.twitter.com/COwaICMsqj
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) January 15, 2022
The new governor sent a clear message to progressive school board members with his appointment of outspoken education reform and anti-CRT crusader Elizabeth Schultz as the state’s new education secretary. Schultz previously served on the Fairfax County school board and later worked in the Trump administration’s Education Department. She is also a member of Parents Defending Freedom, an education advocacy group championing parents’ rights that emerged in response to school board members silencing parents at school board meetings.
Youngkin also rescinded former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates for state employees and fired members of the Virginia parole board who in 2020 freed a man serving a life sentence for shooting an off-duty police officer in the head in 1984.
Standing on the steps of the Capitol as he addressed a crowd of thousands, Youngkin vowed to “bind the wounds of division” and “restore trust” among Virginians by seeking a “common cause for the common good,” adding that the “spirit of Virginia is not about government deciding for us what is best for us.”
“Our politics have become too toxic. Sound bites have replaced solutions – taking precedence over good faith problem-solving,” he said.
The newly-minted governor also promised more flexibility when it comes to vaccination and mask-wearing policies for businesses and said his approach to handling the pandemic will rely equally on “the miracle of modern medicine” and “respect for individual freedom.”
Youngkin additionally made reference to the economic hardships caused by “inflation and supply chain failures.” He withdrew Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which he called “a tax on electricity ratepayers,” and has promised to do away with the state’s grocery tax and offer tax cuts to working families.
The inauguration also marked a day of firsts. Republican Winsome Sears took the oath as lieutenant governor, making her the second woman and the first woman of color to hold elective statewide office in Virginia, and Miyares became the first Latino to hold statewide office in the state.
Notably absent from the day’s festivities was Youngkin’s Democratic rival, Terry McAuliffe, who said he and his wife were “quarantining” due to recent contact with a person infected with COVID-19. “We wish Glenn Younkin and the new administration well today as they start their term,” he said in a tweet.