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McAuliffe Laments Number of White Teachers Ahead of Va. Governor Vote

Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe called for the commonwealth to “diversify” its teacher base, complaining that too many educators there are white.

McAuliffe, during a Sunday rally in Richmond, promised to create a program apparently aimed at attracting non-white teachers should he win Tuesday’s closely contested election.

“We’ve got to diversify our teacher base here in Virginia,” he told supporters. “Fifty percent of students at Virginia schools — K-12 — 50 percent are students of color, and yet 80 percent of the teachers are white.

“We all know what we have to do in a school to make everybody feel comfortable in school,” McAuliffe continued. “So, here’s what I’m going to do. We’ll be the first state in America — if you’ll teach for five years here in Virginia in a high-demand area, whether that be geographic or course work, we will pay room, board, tuition, at any college, any university, any HBCU [historically black colleges and universities] here in the commonwealth of Virginia.”

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McAuliffe, who served as governor of Virginia between 2014 and 2018, has repeatedly stumbled on the issue of education in the final weeks of his campaign against Republican Glenn Youngkin.

During a Sept. 28 debate, McAuliffe flatly stated, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach” when asked to respond to complaints about sexually explicit books.

McAuliffe has also insisted that critical race theory is not taught at K-12 schools in Virginia, despite evidence to the contrary.

“Let me be clear: Critical race theory is not taught in Virginia. Nor has it ever been taught,” McAuliffe told WJLA-TV Oct. 19. “I’ll be honest with you. I find it so offensive. It is a racist dog whistle and all he’s [Youngkin is] trying to do is divide parents and use children as political pawns.”

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